"You know something's wrong when I start thinking that a Sweet Valley book would be better written than this. [...] YA books don't have to be this way.

First off, our main character, Jill, has absolutely no personality. What do we know about her? Well, she wants Tommy to ask her to the prom, and she transforms into a boy for four days each month. I have no idea if she reads books, plays games, or what TV shows she watches (there's a brief mention of Sex and the City, but it's really just window dressing for a plot point). [...]

[...]

I've been reading a lot of YA novels lately, and they're kind of all over the place, but I can say one thing about Cycler—the writing is crap. Besides the thinly drawn characters, I found the setting to be equally as thin, and the descriptions drive me mad. [...] I shouldn't have to puzzle over scenes long after it's ceased to be important because I hate feeling like I've missed something.

[...]

The plot is also thin; it's somewhat vague why Jack chooses to act out now and not before, and then things escalate from there. The mom's behavior is definite Guantanamo-level overkill, and as mentioned before, we don't know why she does any of it. It just happens and then in retaliation Jack ends up dragging us into a confrontation without real plot resolution. It's not like we need it apparently—Lauren McLaughlin's already planned a sequel to this stupid book, after all."

(Read the complete review.) ( )

So for four days of the month, Jill leaves school for blood transfusions - in reality she is locked in her room, transformed into a boy. Her family treat her as they would a werewolf, all sympathy for the girl, and none for the wolf. Jack is locked up and given no human contact. When jill meets a new boy, who turns out to be bisexual, and Jack escapes and falls for Jill's best friends, and Jack and Jill start to consciously and unconsciously influence each other, well, drama ensues.
I thought the actual story fell short of the premise, mostly because Jack is treated so badly, and given so much less page time than Jill. I couldn't quite sympathise with Jill's wish to wipe Jack form existence, especially because I enjoyed his voice so much. I am interested to see how the sequel will play out. ( )

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. ( )

OMG you guys, I know people say "I couldn't put this book down," to the point where it's uncool to say, but I literally couldn't put Cycler down, or at least I didn't want too! Admittedly there were a few parts that I felt were kind of inappropriate, and I didn't love those, but overall it wasn't enough to make me put it down, and it ended up being a GREAT book! I'd totally recommend it, though you should know before you read it that there's some fairly mature content so you might want to have a parent or older sibling flip through it before you do, unless your about 15 or your parents (and you!) don't mind.

NE-ways GREAT READ!!! I can't wait for the sequel! ( )

"You know something's wrong when I start thinking that a Sweet Valley book would be better written than this. [...] YA books don't have to be this way.

First off, our main character, Jill, has absolutely no personality. What do we know about her? Well, she wants Tommy to ask her to the prom, and she transforms into a boy for four days each month. I have no idea if she reads books, plays games, or what TV shows she watches (there's a brief mention of Sex and the City, but it's really just window dressing for a plot point). [...]

[...]

I've been reading a lot of YA novels lately, and they're kind of all over the place, but I can say one thing about Cycler—the writing is crap. Besides the thinly drawn characters, I found the setting to be equally as thin, and the descriptions drive me mad. [...] I shouldn't have to puzzle over scenes long after it's ceased to be important because I hate feeling like I've missed something.

[...]

The plot is also thin; it's somewhat vague why Jack chooses to act out now and not before, and then things escalate from there. The mom's behavior is definite Guantanamo-level overkill, and as mentioned before, we don't know why she does any of it. It just happens and then in retaliation Jack ends up dragging us into a confrontation without real plot resolution. It's not like we need it apparently—Lauren McLaughlin's already planned a sequel to this stupid book, after all."

(Read the complete review.) ( )