November 30th, 2008
by
jhkim
I read Lauren Mclaughlin’s 2008 book Cycler last month. As the blurb from the back explains, the premise is:
AS FAR AS anyone at her high school knows, Jill McTeague is an average smart girl trying to get her dream date to ask her to the prom.
What no one knows, except for Jill’s mom and dad, is that for the four days Jill is out of school each month, she is not Jill at all. She is Jack, a genuine boy — complete with all the parts. Jack lives his four days per month in the solitude of Jill’s room. But his personality has been building since the cycling began. He is less and less content with his confinement and his cycles are becoming more frequent. Now Jill’s question about the prom isn’t who she’ll go with, but who she’ll be when the big night arrives.
The blurb is a deceptive for being short, though. Jill started cycling when she hit puberty. However, her male side only started developing a separate personality after she started implementing a solution to the supposed trauma of changing gender — she began hypnotizing herself to forget everything she did during her period of maleness. After a while of this, she unsurprisingly began developing a split personality.
Capsule Review (No Spoilers)
I immediately thought this was an intriguing concept, and the book rode a fine line that I like. It was engaging in a trashy way, a tale of teen angst and romantic hijinks — while having a subtle side to it. It flips through quickly and works fine as young-adult fiction suitable for teens, I think. (There is some luridly described undressing, but the brief sex isn’t described in any detail.)
I was dissatisfied with its ending, but it at least brings up some serious questions in the course of its plot-driven action.
Analysis (Spoilers)
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Filed under FSF, Sexuality & queerness, women writers |
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