Monday, January 19, 2009

Cycler - Lauren Maclaughlin


Summary:

Jill has truly terrible PMS: Every month, for four days, she turns into a boy. When she wakes up female from her monthly male interlude, Jill meditates to remove all memories of the previous four days - a feat she accomplishes so successfully she creates Jack, an entirely independent personality for her male self. With the militant help of her fervently anti-Jack mother, Jill tries to lead a normal life. But prom is coming, Jill has a crush and Jack is getting restless. In this dark comedy of sex, gender and sexuality, Jill must come to terms with Jack before her mother's hostility destroys them both. A yoga-addicted father, a bisexual hottie and a best friend who invents wildly bizarre fashions fill out a cast of quirky, entertaining, well-drawn secondary characters - with the exception of the unfortunate stereotyping of a kitchen worker as the only Hispanic character. Jill and Jack's story, touched with intrigue, humor and fascinating questions, ends with a conclusion both satisfactory and open-ended.

Review:

Wow. Where can I even begin about this book? Let's just say that I didn't like it very much. It had a very... interesting topic, but it was almost too... different for me to enjoy it. It wasn't only that, but the way that certain parts were approached just made me, honestly, want to get sick at some parts, it was that bad.

The writing in general wasn't too bad in my opinion, it was more the topic and the way it was approached by the author that made me not enjoy this book as much. The writing was for the most part wonderful, and the author did a wonderful job of doing the alternating chapters thing and getting into both Jack and Jill's heads. Unfortunately, while Jill's chapters weren't so bad, Jack's were. The things that he thought about at certain parts were just... too much. I didn't really enjoy them that much.

Overall, Cycler could've been a wonderful book if it had been taken to by a different approach, and if the idea wasn't so out-there I most likely would've enjoyed it more.



hope.

7 comments:

BookChic said...

Aw, I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to the sequel. But I guess I tend to enjoy things (such as books and anime) that are a bit out there and really weird.

MySharonAnne said...

I have to agree. Jack begging for porn was kind of what made start to not like this story. As if all guys need porn or something. Too many gender stereotypes in this book for me.

Bookworm said...

Yeah, it looks a little....funky. Not really my kind of thing. Looks a little stereotypical, but kudos to the author for being um...creative!

Anonymous said...

Odd. Peculiar. Funky. Whoopdie-doo.

Hehe. Wow.

THat is ALL i have to say

Anonymous said...

Odd. Peculiar. Funky. Whoopdie-doo.

Hehe. Wow.

THat is ALL i have to say

simply nerdy book reviews said...

sorry my computer did it twice!

Em said...

yeah, I agree, this one was a little too out there for me...