Every You, Every Me - David Levithan
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LeahSwenor
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Every You, Every Me - David Levithan
Read: 3/14/13 – 3/28/13
2/5 Stars
Every You, Every Me is the first book I’ve read by David Levithan. From what I’ve heard, he is an incredibly talented author and most of his work is very enjoyable.
Personally, reading Every You, Every Me was a chore. I did not look forward to picking it up and reading it, the story did not call to me, and it took me several pages just to get into reading each time i picked it up. So, essentially, it was the opposite of a page turner.
The plot, in itself, was a fairly good concept. It had great potential but was executed poorly.
The story is about a teenage boy named Evan. Evan has “lost” his friend Ariel and it is unclear as to how. (Did she die? Did she run away?) all the reader knows is that Ariel has “left us”. Her parents still live in what was her house and Evan believes they hate him for “what he did to her” (the book is very vague, and up until the last three or so pages you have no idea what happened to Ariel or what Evan “did”.)
On Ariels birthday, Evan begins finding photographs meant just for him. First, in the woods as he walked home (a picture of where he was standing, a picture of him…) then in his locker, pinned up on street poles and on railroad tracks. Pictures of him, pictures of Ariel, pictures of obscure fields. Sometimes left with a message like “I saw what you did to her”.
Ariels “boyfriend”, Jack, is also pulled into everything as he recieves several pictures himself, but soon its clear that whoever is leaving the pictures is stalking Evan.
Throughout the book there is one thing that can be found on every page. Angst. Enough to last you a lifetime. Take a depressed teenage boy who over-thinks everything (right down to a full page in which he is thinking about the bricks he’s looking at) and throw in a mysterious missing person, a stalker, and a shipload of guilt, and you have the main character.
To make matters worse, the entire book is written from Evan’s point of view and addressed towards Ariel, as if she’s listening.
Half of the book is crossed out. Seemingly for no reason. Every other sentence has a line through it with no rhyme or reason. Not to mention the bits of the book where random words are just thrown around the page. words that dont develop the plot in any way.
(Example:
“Jack?
No.
Yes.
Your scream.
No.
Yes.
What happened?
Stop.
What happened?
Next.
Stop.
Stop!”)
The only part of this experimental book is that the author incorporates actual photographs into his writing. So what the main character is seeing, you also see. Although, at times, it seems as if the author just had some random pictures laying around and decided to try to write a story around them…)
There is no character development, no plot climax, and the characters are rather flat and predictable (and did i mention angst-ridden?). Up until the last several pages i felt no empathy or connection what so ever with Evan or jack.
All in all I would not recommend this book, though it was not the worst book I have ever read. 2/5 stars.
2/5 Stars
Every You, Every Me is the first book I’ve read by David Levithan. From what I’ve heard, he is an incredibly talented author and most of his work is very enjoyable.
Personally, reading Every You, Every Me was a chore. I did not look forward to picking it up and reading it, the story did not call to me, and it took me several pages just to get into reading each time i picked it up. So, essentially, it was the opposite of a page turner.
The plot, in itself, was a fairly good concept. It had great potential but was executed poorly.
The story is about a teenage boy named Evan. Evan has “lost” his friend Ariel and it is unclear as to how. (Did she die? Did she run away?) all the reader knows is that Ariel has “left us”. Her parents still live in what was her house and Evan believes they hate him for “what he did to her” (the book is very vague, and up until the last three or so pages you have no idea what happened to Ariel or what Evan “did”.)
On Ariels birthday, Evan begins finding photographs meant just for him. First, in the woods as he walked home (a picture of where he was standing, a picture of him…) then in his locker, pinned up on street poles and on railroad tracks. Pictures of him, pictures of Ariel, pictures of obscure fields. Sometimes left with a message like “I saw what you did to her”.
Ariels “boyfriend”, Jack, is also pulled into everything as he recieves several pictures himself, but soon its clear that whoever is leaving the pictures is stalking Evan.
Throughout the book there is one thing that can be found on every page. Angst. Enough to last you a lifetime. Take a depressed teenage boy who over-thinks everything (right down to a full page in which he is thinking about the bricks he’s looking at) and throw in a mysterious missing person, a stalker, and a shipload of guilt, and you have the main character.
To make matters worse, the entire book is written from Evan’s point of view and addressed towards Ariel, as if she’s listening.
Half of the book is crossed out. Seemingly for no reason. Every other sentence has a line through it with no rhyme or reason. Not to mention the bits of the book where random words are just thrown around the page. words that dont develop the plot in any way.
(Example:
“Jack?
No.
Yes.
Your scream.
No.
Yes.
What happened?
Stop.
What happened?
Next.
Stop.
Stop!”)
The only part of this experimental book is that the author incorporates actual photographs into his writing. So what the main character is seeing, you also see. Although, at times, it seems as if the author just had some random pictures laying around and decided to try to write a story around them…)
There is no character development, no plot climax, and the characters are rather flat and predictable (and did i mention angst-ridden?). Up until the last several pages i felt no empathy or connection what so ever with Evan or jack.
All in all I would not recommend this book, though it was not the worst book I have ever read. 2/5 stars.
