I have no idea what this book is trying to be, or what story it thinks it's telling, but what I do know is that it didn't work for me at all.
Our protagonist is a sixteen-year-old girl named Jill, who basically turns into a werewolf for four days every month right before her period, only instead of becoming a beast she becomes a boy named Jack. At first the transformation was only physical, but over time Jack develops his own agency and cognitive individuality. So of course what Jill and her mom (and, to a lesser extend, her dad who lives a secret weirdo life in their basement) decide to do is lock Jill up when she becomes Jack and then hypnotize herself when she becomes Jill again so she doesn't remember being Jack at all. "Problem" solved!
In case it's not clear from the above, the gender identity politics and concepts of this story are a fucking mess. What I could never really tell is whether the book is away of this fact, and is planning on addressing them and delivering some message about all of us being a combination of male and female identities and so forth. It became even less clear to me when Jill's crush turns out to be bi, and she flips out about it, and also Jack is obsessed with Jill's best friend and actually seduces and sleeps with her without her knowing that Jack is also Jill. As if all of this wasn't questionable enough, the book is of course the first of two, so while by the end of the book Jill's boyfriend and best friend both know that Jill has a secret, it's totally up in the air about whether the author will stick the landing, or even what landing that would be. And I'm certainly not going to waste my time reading the next book just to find out.
Grade: D
Our protagonist is a sixteen-year-old girl named Jill, who basically turns into a werewolf for four days every month right before her period, only instead of becoming a beast she becomes a boy named Jack. At first the transformation was only physical, but over time Jack develops his own agency and cognitive individuality. So of course what Jill and her mom (and, to a lesser extend, her dad who lives a secret weirdo life in their basement) decide to do is lock Jill up when she becomes Jack and then hypnotize herself when she becomes Jill again so she doesn't remember being Jack at all. "Problem" solved!
In case it's not clear from the above, the gender identity politics and concepts of this story are a fucking mess. What I could never really tell is whether the book is away of this fact, and is planning on addressing them and delivering some message about all of us being a combination of male and female identities and so forth. It became even less clear to me when Jill's crush turns out to be bi, and she flips out about it, and also Jack is obsessed with Jill's best friend and actually seduces and sleeps with her without her knowing that Jack is also Jill. As if all of this wasn't questionable enough, the book is of course the first of two, so while by the end of the book Jill's boyfriend and best friend both know that Jill has a secret, it's totally up in the air about whether the author will stick the landing, or even what landing that would be. And I'm certainly not going to waste my time reading the next book just to find out.
Grade: D
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