Title: Cycler
Author: Lauren McLaughlin
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Why I Read It: It was nominated for a 2008 Cybil.

Summary: Jill McTeague is a typical senior girl. Except for the tiny issue of how four days out of every month, she turns into a boy named Jack—in both mind and body.

Review: The premise of a cycling hermaphrodite made me think the book would be cheesy and induce frequent eye-rolling. But it was a great read.

This book made it fun to explore the themes of sexuality and homophobia without being hit over the head with a “message.” At first, the non-politically-correct language about non-straight characters bothered me. But then I realized that duh, this is how a lot of teens talk about and deal with issues of sexuality. It wasn’t that long ago that I was a teen myself, after all.

My only criticism of the book is that one of Jill’s linguistic quirks—mal—got to be a little much sometimes. I wonder what the “magic” frequency is for using a linguistic quirk but not overusing it. (If you have a Kindle, does it let you search the text? I can see myself buying it primarily for reasons like this!)

One final note to those of you considering reading this: A sequel is planned, so the conclusion is of the open-ended variety. I didn’t mind it in this case, but I just wanted to let you know in case you prefer to wait until an entire series it out.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Related Posts