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A review by bart154ce
Drew by Allison Glock, T. Cooper
3.0
This review first appeared on my blog: Bart's Bookshelf
So, I was already considering this one on Netgalley when I was approached to be part of the blog tour. Decision made!
What’s not to be tempted by? The possibilities offered by the premise and the questions it might ask, it seemed like it would make for a fantastic and fun read, and while it was a really fun read, which I really enjoyed, it didn’t succeed in exploring the questions quite as well as I was hoping for.
While the book asked some questions, they seemed to be sped over, particularly Ethan/Drew’s acceptance of his new gender/life and skills, and I’d have liked some deeper examination of them.
I was surprised for example, just how easily his favoured style of clothing would change, and that he would allow a switch of handed-ness (or in this case footed-ness) to stop him from skateboarding, or at least not without a fight, seeing as it was such a part of his previous 14 years… It just didn’t allow me to buy in to the premise as much as I wanted it to.
However, these same issues in other parts of the book, also do a great job of highlighting the expectations expected of a particular gender, the change in the way his parents treat him, especially from his dad. Ethan/Drew’s own alterations to his character. Some of these can I suppose be attributed to the Changer gene, but some are purely social expectations, and could have been ignored if Drew desired, but perhaps, thinking about it, that is partly the point? That we fall into social conventions a lot easier that we can create new ones…
I thought it did a really good job of looking at gender and attraction, Ethan’s history is fourteen years of being a boy, and as far as we know anyway liking girls… But Drew develops a crush on Chase, a girl changer who is now a boy in his current incarnation… and this started with just a smile from Chase, so some element of physical attraction. Then there is Audrey, a ‘normal’ girl Drew befriends and then starts to fall for. Is it Ethan or Drew that has the stronger attraction, for them both does it matter?
We also get to see a bit of Changer society, and there are definite and worrying hints of a cultish, controlling leadership, which I suspect this is going to play a larger part in the later books, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes and how Ethan/Drew’s next incarnations respond to them.
I suppose what I wanted most, was for Drew to shout back at his dad, “I might be Drew at the moment, but I’m still the Ethan I was for the last 14 years as well. STOP TREATING ME DIFFERENTLY!” I just don’t see it as an either/or thing, he is not Ethan or Drew, but is them both, the sum of his experiences, and perhaps, this will be explored further as he adds more experiences to who he is, and complicates this mix further.
For me the main strength of the book was Ethan/Drew who is really likeable and I look forward to seeing what happens when Drew switches to Oryon in book 2.
My copy of Changers: Drew by T Cooper & Alison Glock-Cooper was provided by the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes.
So, I was already considering this one on Netgalley when I was approached to be part of the blog tour. Decision made!
What’s not to be tempted by? The possibilities offered by the premise and the questions it might ask, it seemed like it would make for a fantastic and fun read, and while it was a really fun read, which I really enjoyed, it didn’t succeed in exploring the questions quite as well as I was hoping for.
While the book asked some questions, they seemed to be sped over, particularly Ethan/Drew’s acceptance of his new gender/life and skills, and I’d have liked some deeper examination of them.
I was surprised for example, just how easily his favoured style of clothing would change, and that he would allow a switch of handed-ness (or in this case footed-ness) to stop him from skateboarding, or at least not without a fight, seeing as it was such a part of his previous 14 years… It just didn’t allow me to buy in to the premise as much as I wanted it to.
However, these same issues in other parts of the book, also do a great job of highlighting the expectations expected of a particular gender, the change in the way his parents treat him, especially from his dad. Ethan/Drew’s own alterations to his character. Some of these can I suppose be attributed to the Changer gene, but some are purely social expectations, and could have been ignored if Drew desired, but perhaps, thinking about it, that is partly the point? That we fall into social conventions a lot easier that we can create new ones…
I thought it did a really good job of looking at gender and attraction, Ethan’s history is fourteen years of being a boy, and as far as we know anyway liking girls… But Drew develops a crush on Chase, a girl changer who is now a boy in his current incarnation… and this started with just a smile from Chase, so some element of physical attraction. Then there is Audrey, a ‘normal’ girl Drew befriends and then starts to fall for. Is it Ethan or Drew that has the stronger attraction, for them both does it matter?
We also get to see a bit of Changer society, and there are definite and worrying hints of a cultish, controlling leadership, which I suspect this is going to play a larger part in the later books, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes and how Ethan/Drew’s next incarnations respond to them.
I suppose what I wanted most, was for Drew to shout back at his dad, “I might be Drew at the moment, but I’m still the Ethan I was for the last 14 years as well. STOP TREATING ME DIFFERENTLY!” I just don’t see it as an either/or thing, he is not Ethan or Drew, but is them both, the sum of his experiences, and perhaps, this will be explored further as he adds more experiences to who he is, and complicates this mix further.
For me the main strength of the book was Ethan/Drew who is really likeable and I look forward to seeing what happens when Drew switches to Oryon in book 2.
My copy of Changers: Drew by T Cooper & Alison Glock-Cooper was provided by the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes.