Justine, boy meets girl

Justine Duval #2

by Chloë Rayban, Myrthe de Bruin (Translator)

Net als in 'Justine, teenage chic'* wordt middelbare scholiere Justine (ik-figuur) op bijzondere wijze met zichzelf geconfronteerd. Op een hightechbeurs verandert ze in een jongen. Justine blijkt echter nog steeds te bestaan. Ondertussen ontdekt ze als Jacob hoe het is om vanuit een ander perspectief de vrouwelijke sekse te bekijken. Het wordt gecompliceerd als Justine verliefd wordt op haar alter ego. Op een luchtige, humoristische, vaak ironische toon maakt Jacob de lezer in de ik-vorm deelgenoot van zijn nieuwe leven, waarin hij een als jongen vermomd meisje is en tot de ontdekking komt dat Justine haar hart wil verpanden aan een macho die haar hart niet waard is. Behalve dat Jacob zichzelf scherp analyseert, doet hij hetzelfde met de mensen in z'n omgeving. Dat maakt dit boek vermakelijk om te lezen. De vele, naar de Nederlandse situatie vertaalde vondsten van de vertaalster dragen eveneens bij aan het leesplezier. Als chicklit getypeerde literatuur die zowel voor meisjes als jongens leuk is, vanwege de met veel humor gebrachte spiegel die beiden wordt voorgehouden.

Genres: Young Adult

236 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 1994

About the author

Pseudonym of Carolyn Bear

Reviews

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read for young girls and boys alike. I liked it as a teenager because of the gender bending topic.

Justine is a normal girl with a normal life and normal friends – until she visits the science fair.

There she gets transformed into a boy by accident and now she has to deal with this somehow, while she only tells her best friend and lives with him as an "exchange student".

It´s funny but also pretty serious and interesting. Although the premise sounds ridiculous and unreal, the characters and their behavior is very believable.

[Tokito_Baji · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est plus un 4,5 mais pas un 5 car parfois c'était un peu long mais sinon ce livre est exellent.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sympa

[Roberta R. (Offbeat YA) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excerpt from my review - originally published at Offbeat YA.

Series review.

Pros: Fun, high-spirited books with a deliciously flawed lead. Also, clean novels, if that's what you're looking for.
Cons: Light read. Not very original ideas, though well executed and with some surprises awaiting the reader.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a relaxed, humorous read.

Sort-of-disclaimer: I read the Italian translation of this book, so I can't really judge the writing style. Also, I don't know if any parts of this novel have been cut off in my version.
First off, this post marks my first time reviewing a whole series instead of its separate installments. I chose this format because I realized that my reviews were probably going to sound much alike, inasmuch as these books share the same main features, and I'm not fond of repeating myself. Of course, since I'm a considerate human being, I didn't feel like boring my readers either ;).
On a formal level, this is not your typical series:
- Evidence 1. The first book was probably meant to stand alone, since its first sequel is dated three whole years later. Justine has roughly grown older in sync with that, for she was 14 in the first book and is 16 in the second...Nevertheless, a couple of years later - when another installment comes out - she is still 16. And in the last one - dated 2000 - only a year has passed from the events in book 3, so she is supposed to be 17, though it's stated in the book itself that she was born in 1981 (which would have made her 10 when the first installment came out, and 19 as of now). So, you could safely say that there isn't any attempt at a serious time and event consequence.
- Evidence 2. While the first two installments are loosely related (Justine mentions a particular event from book 1 in book 2) and the other two are closely linked, there doesn't seem to be any specific trait d'union between the two couples of books. Also, Justine never addresses her past unusual experiences in any of the sequels (except for her first encounter with Los, of course). On one hand, the pattern of her adventures resembles that of a cartoon character who has uncountable experiences unrelated to one another, as if she was living a bunch of different lives, every one of them standing on its own. On the other hand, Justine is not bidimensional, and she does grow up a bit from book 1 to book 4, even though she mainly remains her old, deliciously flawed self. Also, her friends and family are a constant through all the four installments, and their features are always recognisable. [...]

Whole review here.

[Elisa Vangelisti]

Credevo fosse la storia di una chat virtuale, invece è quella di una ragazza che si trasforma in ragazzo. Storia già sentita e raccontata in modo troppo superficiale.