Cycler

Review of: Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin (ARC)
Release date: August 26th, 2008
Pages: 256
Publisher: Random House
Received for review: from Random House (a while ago)
Overall grade: A

Jill is just your average girl. She's a senior in a small town. She has a best friend, Ramie. And of course, just like every young girl, she has a crush on a new kid in town named Tommy.

Oh yeah, there's one little thing I forgot to mention. Every month for the four days before her period Jill turns into a boy, aka Jack. This has been happening since Jill was 14. Now of course this puts quite of a damper on Jill's life. She has to keep this big secret from Ramie and the rest of the world. And now Jack has developed an obsession with Ramie. If it wasn't for Jill's 'Plan B' and her mantra "I am all girl" she would be stuck with all of Jack's thoughts (and actions) in her head all the time. But soon even those techniques might not even work anymore. What is a girl/guy supposed to do?

This was an incredibly brilliant first novel from Lauren McLaughlin (the second is out now too (Re)Cycler). It was so strange that it was amazing, if that even makes any sense at all. I absolutely loved it. It's hard to imagine what kind of life someone would have if they actually had this happen to them every month. It's crazy to even think about! But Lauren definitely captured the right feelings for both Jill and Jack I'm sure. I loved how each chapter switched between the two. So the book was basically half of Jill's point of view and vis versa. In the front of the book there is a message from Lauren saying that she was born to tell the story of Cycler and after having finished this story I definitely believe this. If I were you I'd go check this book out if you're in for a real page turner. And also, keep in mind that there is some mature subject matter in this book, and of course it mostly comes from Jack. Haha, boys.