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dawnoftheread's review against another edition
3.0
Fun and thought provoking. Plus first teen book I've read with a girl with a bisexual boyfriend.
mlboyd20's review against another edition
3.0
Walking the shelves at the library, the title Cycler drew me to check this out. Different, I thought, but if it's about bikes I'll puke. I picked it up and the front cover was a girl in a bra and boxers while on the back was a guy who looked like the girl and was also in the same boxers. Hmmmm.... Ok, interest piqued. I read the synopsis and though, ok, now here's something original. A girl who turns into a guy in every way, shape, and form, for four days out of the month.
On one side we have Jill. Your average high school senior. She has a friend who is a bit out there and a crush whom everyone seemingly avoids. She has a secret too...Jack.
Now we have Jack. Complete opposite of Jill. Can't keep his hands off his junk, yep, you read right, and due to his porn addiction, has managed to get the internet removed permanently from the house. Oh, and he has desires for Jill's BFF.
The story seriously dragged for about half the book. The slang words such as "mal" and "deeply" were used so much you could create a game out of it. It took everything to keep me reading and for my family who was around me, they heard the groans everytime the slang words came up so they thought I was going senile.
Finally, halfway through the book, the author finally got to the meat of the story. At the same time the slang words diminished too. Almost like they were fillers.
Jill & Jack, opposites, started to fight for the power over the other. Jill, who learned to block Jack's life out, started to get unwanted glimpses of Jack's doings. At the same time, Jack, who was locked away in the bedroom during his 4 days, wanted to spend time with the person he wanted to be with. Yep, Jill's bff. You can imagine how Jill was feeling when she started realizing what Jack was doing/feeling. Things get crazy, many lines are crossed which lead the way to a scrumptious ending.
The ending, well, scrumptious fell flat. It went from a banana split sundae with all the fixings to a a plain vanilla cone. After finally bringing me to the point where I was finally glad I had kept reading the ending went into chaos. The storyline had some twists that made you wonder why the character would even do that and what did stay in place went by with a quickness that left me going, say what? After getting the story streamlined, I wish the author would have stayed that way and not rushed it. And the absolute ending, well, you kind of figure out what's going happen, but you are a bit surprised of where it happens.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but honestly, I love YA fiction but this just isn't up to par with what's out there and available for everyone, so I wouldn't suggest anyone go out of their way to read this right now. Now, my college going daughter read the sequel, "Recycler", and she said that the second book was way better than the first. I will have to check that our for myself.
On one side we have Jill. Your average high school senior. She has a friend who is a bit out there and a crush whom everyone seemingly avoids. She has a secret too...Jack.
Now we have Jack. Complete opposite of Jill. Can't keep his hands off his junk, yep, you read right, and due to his porn addiction, has managed to get the internet removed permanently from the house. Oh, and he has desires for Jill's BFF.
The story seriously dragged for about half the book. The slang words such as "mal" and "deeply" were used so much you could create a game out of it. It took everything to keep me reading and for my family who was around me, they heard the groans everytime the slang words came up so they thought I was going senile.
Finally, halfway through the book, the author finally got to the meat of the story. At the same time the slang words diminished too. Almost like they were fillers.
Jill & Jack, opposites, started to fight for the power over the other. Jill, who learned to block Jack's life out, started to get unwanted glimpses of Jack's doings. At the same time, Jack, who was locked away in the bedroom during his 4 days, wanted to spend time with the person he wanted to be with. Yep, Jill's bff. You can imagine how Jill was feeling when she started realizing what Jack was doing/feeling. Things get crazy, many lines are crossed which lead the way to a scrumptious ending.
The ending, well, scrumptious fell flat. It went from a banana split sundae with all the fixings to a a plain vanilla cone. After finally bringing me to the point where I was finally glad I had kept reading the ending went into chaos. The storyline had some twists that made you wonder why the character would even do that and what did stay in place went by with a quickness that left me going, say what? After getting the story streamlined, I wish the author would have stayed that way and not rushed it. And the absolute ending, well, you kind of figure out what's going happen, but you are a bit surprised of where it happens.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but honestly, I love YA fiction but this just isn't up to par with what's out there and available for everyone, so I wouldn't suggest anyone go out of their way to read this right now. Now, my college going daughter read the sequel, "Recycler", and she said that the second book was way better than the first. I will have to check that our for myself.
stachmou77's review against another edition
4.0
Well, I have to admit when I was 13/14 this book was my thing. I loved the concept, I loved the idea and I fell in love with the male-main character. Because the female one and the parents were "urghhh".
This book got me wondering about my reactions if each month during my period I'd "turned" into a boy. Back then I didn't know a lot about mental illnesses and still I try to figure out if this book was ableist. Was the author trying to depict a "fantasy" situation or a mental illness.
But still, it is enjoyable. I had to put a 4 stars because of my 13/14 year old me, who loved this.
This book got me wondering about my reactions if each month during my period I'd "turned" into a boy. Back then I didn't know a lot about mental illnesses and still I try to figure out if this book was ableist. Was the author trying to depict a "fantasy" situation or a mental illness.
But still, it is enjoyable. I had to put a 4 stars because of my 13/14 year old me, who loved this.
mrsthrift's review against another edition
2.0
I first heard about this book on the Boingboing Holiday Gift YAF list. They described it as "Smart YA novel about sex and sexuality." I like boingboing's recommendations, usually, so I checked it out. It was a complete "miss."
For a book that is supposed to be so smart about sex and sexuality, there was very little insight into gender expressions beyond the painfully stereotypical - boys like porn, girls like prom. It was like *headdesk* over and over again. The premise is interesting - girl becomes a boy every 28 days - but the execution was lackadaisical. The characters had a lot of potential for real insight or something interesting, but they fell short again and again. The teenage sentiment was like a Hollywood version of anyone's life... Oh wait, the author is a screenwriter? I see. The characters didn't seem genuine, their "teen slang" was forced, and their motivations were fake.
I was just really disappointed with the book. I have no reason to recommend it to my tween-age kid, or any of my "chick lit" or YAF-reading friends. My bar is too high, I guess.
For a book that is supposed to be so smart about sex and sexuality, there was very little insight into gender expressions beyond the painfully stereotypical - boys like porn, girls like prom. It was like *headdesk* over and over again. The premise is interesting - girl becomes a boy every 28 days - but the execution was lackadaisical. The characters had a lot of potential for real insight or something interesting, but they fell short again and again. The teenage sentiment was like a Hollywood version of anyone's life... Oh wait, the author is a screenwriter? I see. The characters didn't seem genuine, their "teen slang" was forced, and their motivations were fake.
I was just really disappointed with the book. I have no reason to recommend it to my tween-age kid, or any of my "chick lit" or YAF-reading friends. My bar is too high, I guess.
mhall's review against another edition
2.0
She turns into a boy every month when she gets her period. It would have been better had the girl been less of a stereotype obsessed with the prom.
fantasy_with_me's review against another edition
2.0
Two stars only because I liked how Jack was the closest to behaving like an actual person. I really liked his revenge and how he was portrayed as a pent up stir-crazy guy. The relationship between him and Ramie is actually interesting. Tommy's decent, too, but it doesn't feel "real" with how he handled coming out as bi.
Jill, and Ramie in the beginning, and specifically all the females - they act like brainless stuck up snobs... which I didn't expect going into this. Jill doesn't seem to have a mind of her own, she just thinks what mommy tells her to think, with the only exception being, being friends with Ramie. And they don't set good examples for girls. One of them skips class to get almost naked on a beach with her new boyfriend and the other one sleeps with a guy she just met, who only comes to her window at night once every couple months and she doesn't even know his last name.
The plot, in theory, should have been amazing. The idea sure was. But I didn't like the (majority) characters, didn't like the style of writing, and definitely did not like the silly-teenager-overused-words such as "mal" and "deeply." I wanted to throw the book into the fire every time she said that second one. It was worse than Stephanie Meyer and the word "Russet".
Jill, and Ramie in the beginning, and specifically all the females - they act like brainless stuck up snobs... which I didn't expect going into this. Jill doesn't seem to have a mind of her own, she just thinks what mommy tells her to think, with the only exception being, being friends with Ramie. And they don't set good examples for girls. One of them skips class to get almost naked on a beach with her new boyfriend and the other one sleeps with a guy she just met, who only comes to her window at night once every couple months and she doesn't even know his last name.
The plot, in theory, should have been amazing. The idea sure was. But I didn't like the (majority) characters, didn't like the style of writing, and definitely did not like the silly-teenager-overused-words such as "mal" and "deeply." I wanted to throw the book into the fire every time she said that second one. It was worse than Stephanie Meyer and the word "Russet".
mscoutj's review against another edition
3.0
The concept was just too odd to pass up, so what the heck. I'm in the midst of a "read a couple dozen ya books really fast before going back to the serious stuff again" and this one caught my eye. An interesting take on the usual teenage angst, and just twisted enough to be interesting. It was a fun way to kill a couple of hours and i'll probably pick up the sequel, just to see how the characters evolve.
meganmilks's review against another edition
3.0
the premise is rich for exploring gender from a teen girl's perspective -- the author creates a second character out of a 17-year-old's premenstrual hormones - the protagonist, jill, is transformed by mysterious processes into her male counterpart, jack, for five days out of the month, until the egg drops and she's "all girl" again.
jill bounces back and forth between two powerful forces in her life -- her conservative, antifeminist mother and her empowered, feminist best friend. ultimately her mother wins out, and jill reacts to her mom's stifling notions of ideal femininity by splitting in two -- she can't deal with the masculine aspects of herself and so turns into a dude, because dudes can be hormone-driven and dudettes cannot.
interesting idea, but never reaches the synthesis of the gender binary it produces, even as the narrative gestures towards challenging that binary; moreover, the concept itself is fairly problematic from a queer/trans perspective. still, an unusual book that left us (book club) with much to discuss. and i do yes want to read (re)cycler.
jill bounces back and forth between two powerful forces in her life -- her conservative, antifeminist mother and her empowered, feminist best friend. ultimately her mother wins out, and jill reacts to her mom's stifling notions of ideal femininity by splitting in two -- she can't deal with the masculine aspects of herself and so turns into a dude, because dudes can be hormone-driven and dudettes cannot.
interesting idea, but never reaches the synthesis of the gender binary it produces, even as the narrative gestures towards challenging that binary; moreover, the concept itself is fairly problematic from a queer/trans perspective. still, an unusual book that left us (book club) with much to discuss. and i do yes want to read (re)cycler.
sparkleboymatty's review against another edition
1.0
This is one of the books that I think sounds like a really cool premise and then just fails completely. I contemplated stopping part way through but I really wanted it to get better so I kept reading, but it didn't get better. Neither Jack or Jill were likeable. Their mom was terrible. There was a lot of bi-bashing and just stuff that I didn't really agree with. Really, none of the book made sense. If the book had been about Ramie and Jill's bf it might have been better since they were interesting, but Jill was too whiny and self absorbed and Jack was too creepy for me to really get into it.
wordnerd153's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very unique and intriguing story about a high school girl who morphs into a boy for 4 days each month. she lies to everyone about her transformation and the boy version of herself isn't allowed to leave his bedroom. soon, he becomes angry about this and escapes, causing the girl part of him to deal with some hard truths. The ending was very satisfying, and I look forward to the sequel.