Cycler (review)

Jill would be a typical prom-obsessed girly girl if not for the fact that for four days out of every month she undergoes a physical transformation and turns into Jack, a full-fledged lusty male with a fondness for internet porn and a lackadaisical attitude toward hygiene. The usual strategy concocted by Jill and her mother of largely pretending that Jack doesn't exist (they keep him restrained in the house, they've fabricated an illness explaining her monthly disappearance, and Jill immediately meditates to forget everything Jack did each time she reemerges) becomes unworkable when Jack realizes he is in love with Jill's best friend and escapes the house to visit her in the night. At this point the straightforward examination of an average girl with a secret becomes a complex, philosophical exploration into gender politics and the mutability of identity. Chapters that alternate between Jill and Jack's perspectives highlight the ways in which the characters are worlds apart in spite of their shared space: Jack's snarky, wry observations on how, in his perception, Jill wastes her time in the body boil down her pages-long angst into snappy one-liners. While the novel loses its center a bit in the overload of quirky side characters including Jill/Jack's yoga-loving, basement-dwelling dad and Jill's bisexual boyfriend, there is an earnest appeal in the good intentions of nearly everyone in the story that reads as endearing rather than saccharine. Readers will cheer for the hard-won happy ending that will allow both romantic Jill and sardonic Jack to find space in the world.