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People Collide
When Eli leaves the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful wife, he discovers that he now inhabits her body. Not only have he and his wife traded bodies but Elizabeth, living as Eli, has disappeared without a trace. What follows is Eli’s search across Europe to America for his missing wife—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender and embodied experience.
As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn't. Will their new marriage wither completely in each other's bodies? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive?
A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss, People Collide is a tender portrait of shared lives that shines a refreshing light on everything we thought we knew about love, sexuality, and the truth of who we are.
As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn't. Will their new marriage wither completely in each other's bodies? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive?
A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss, People Collide is a tender portrait of shared lives that shines a refreshing light on everything we thought we knew about love, sexuality, and the truth of who we are.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2023
125 people are currently reading
10240 people want to read
About the author
Isle McElroy
9 books215 followersIsle McElroy is a non-binary writer based in Brooklyn. Their debut novel, The Atmospherians, was published by Atria and was named a NY Times Editors' Choice. Their second novel, People Collide, is forthcoming from HarperVia. Other writing appears in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Cut, Vulture, GQ, Vogue, The Atlantic, Tin House, and elsewhere.
Isle was named one of The Strand's 30 Writers to Watch. They have received fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Inprint Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks Service.
Isle was named one of The Strand's 30 Writers to Watch. They have received fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Inprint Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks Service.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 479 reviews
September 9, 2023
This is super weird and I loved it. It isn't a book that sticks to any recognizable arc or structure, it doesn't really make a lot of sense what happens or how the story is put together. But I was just happy to go wherever it took me.
The body swap trope usually has a set of rules around it, but they don't exist here. Not even a little. When a man realizes he is in his wife's body and his wife (and his own body) have disappeared, he does not react in any kind of predictable way. This is, ultimately, an exploration of gender but it is in no hurry to get there and it has no big message to throw at you. It sees gender as this space to play in, to try things, to see what happens.
There is a truly fantastic sex scene here that deserves to go in your sex writing studies.
The last quarter or so is a very different book than the rest was. It changes form a few times (heh) and at the end it becomes more of a metaphor for transness, for the way you can only escape the trap you have made of your relationships by becoming another person, for how you can only see people clearly through different eyes. It's unexpectedly poignant.
The body swap trope usually has a set of rules around it, but they don't exist here. Not even a little. When a man realizes he is in his wife's body and his wife (and his own body) have disappeared, he does not react in any kind of predictable way. This is, ultimately, an exploration of gender but it is in no hurry to get there and it has no big message to throw at you. It sees gender as this space to play in, to try things, to see what happens.
There is a truly fantastic sex scene here that deserves to go in your sex writing studies.
The last quarter or so is a very different book than the rest was. It changes form a few times (heh) and at the end it becomes more of a metaphor for transness, for the way you can only escape the trap you have made of your relationships by becoming another person, for how you can only see people clearly through different eyes. It's unexpectedly poignant.
December 3, 2023
a book about straight people that only a gay person could write.
June 7, 2023
In an unusual twist of fate, Eli finds himself waking up inside his wife's body, while his own body, along with his wife Elizabeth, is nowhere to be found. Confused and bewildered by this strange reality, Eli embarks on a quest to locate his missing wife, delving deeper into his own identity and relationships. People Collide is a beautiful exploration of intimacy, desire, and the complexities of being embodied. McElroy's wit and insightful observations on the fluidity of love and human nature make this a captivating read.
May 4, 2023
There is something mystifying about McElroy’s prose. They have mastered a technique where everything seems almost clinical, in the way it is tight, observational, and doesn’t suffer any frills, and yet at the same time feels explosive, like it is only through a study of minimalism that we can contain the chaos of reality. Here and there we have these bright flashes of color, disorienting for the reader and the characters, but those eruptions are usually more felt as potentiality than realization, and there is something compelling about that. There are rich, complicated characters at the heart of this story, yet we only experience them at a remove, since they don’t know how to experience themselves. There is a plot, of sorts, but the events that happen are not as important as how they are experienced and reacted to.
I never felt drawn into this narrative, like I wanted to be there. Instead, it felt like a mirror, showing me might lay beneath the psycho-emotional masks most of us wear. The novel forces us to reckon with the fact that there is a vast gulf between the way we know ourselves and the wat others experience us—and, similarly, between our experiences/interpretations/judgments of others and the ways they understand themselves to be in the world. This limen, straddling perception and reality, or, really, multiple perceptions and multiple realities, seems to be somewhere we are frightened to dwell, confident in the validity of our perceptions. It might take dwelling in another’s body to learn something new about ourselves, something everyone else already knows. McElroy invites us to explore what that intimacy might look like, when identities can be recognized as contingent and fluid, and when we can find the compassion to make space to hold each other’s mysteries.
I want to thank the author, the publisher, Harper Collins, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I never felt drawn into this narrative, like I wanted to be there. Instead, it felt like a mirror, showing me might lay beneath the psycho-emotional masks most of us wear. The novel forces us to reckon with the fact that there is a vast gulf between the way we know ourselves and the wat others experience us—and, similarly, between our experiences/interpretations/judgments of others and the ways they understand themselves to be in the world. This limen, straddling perception and reality, or, really, multiple perceptions and multiple realities, seems to be somewhere we are frightened to dwell, confident in the validity of our perceptions. It might take dwelling in another’s body to learn something new about ourselves, something everyone else already knows. McElroy invites us to explore what that intimacy might look like, when identities can be recognized as contingent and fluid, and when we can find the compassion to make space to hold each other’s mysteries.
I want to thank the author, the publisher, Harper Collins, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
December 20, 2023
Halfway through this book, I realized I wasn’t enjoying it. I wasn’t sure which characters I should be invested in, which characters I was supposed to take sides with, and which characters were likable, if at all. And I found it none of them likable.
I also find that the writing style was trying to do too much – be too witty, too smart, just trying too hard in general.
The writing style also jumped around way too much. It was hard enough to keep track of the two main characters after they body switched, but other writing style elements were peppered in that were hard to follow and incongruent with the rest of the chapters. For example, when describing their wedding, no names were used, just roles of attendees. Also, the last part of the book switched to an entirely different character’s first person narrative – which really made no sense to me.
I understand the book was (supposed to be) a commentary on marriage, identity, empathy – but it all fell flat and ultimately I felt there was no pay off at the end of the book. That said, I did read the whole thing because it was a page turner. I wanted to know what happened to the end.
I also find that the writing style was trying to do too much – be too witty, too smart, just trying too hard in general.
The writing style also jumped around way too much. It was hard enough to keep track of the two main characters after they body switched, but other writing style elements were peppered in that were hard to follow and incongruent with the rest of the chapters. For example, when describing their wedding, no names were used, just roles of attendees. Also, the last part of the book switched to an entirely different character’s first person narrative – which really made no sense to me.
I understand the book was (supposed to be) a commentary on marriage, identity, empathy – but it all fell flat and ultimately I felt there was no pay off at the end of the book. That said, I did read the whole thing because it was a page turner. I wanted to know what happened to the end.
September 4, 2023
Love how Isle fleshed out this one amazing idea - husband and wife wake up one day to find they’ve switched bodies - into a novel that explores gender , desire , love , sex and some good ol mommy issues. So fun and so much to think about , enjoyed the POV switching at the end and that wild , hot bathroom sex scene. Interviewing author on Nov 12 for #extracreditbookclub . 7 pm ET ZOOM, Don’t miss it - open to all!
May 5, 2025
I read and listened to this a few weeks ago, and whilst it stayed in my head, it didn't set my world alight.
It reminded me of the Married version of Big or Freaky Friday, and I did enjoy it.
It reminded me of the Married version of Big or Freaky Friday, and I did enjoy it.
November 11, 2024
(2.5) Nonbinary author Isle McElroy’s second novel, is a body swap story that explores the experiences and gender expectations of a heterosexual couple when they switch places. It’s not so much magic realism as a what-if experiment. Eli wakes up one morning in his wife Elizabeth’s body in their “pie slice of an apartment” in southern Bulgaria, where they moved for her government-sponsored teaching position. At first, finding himself alone, he thinks she’s disappeared and goes to the school to ask after her. The staff and students there, seeing him as Elizabeth, think they’re witnessing some kind of mental breakdown and send ‘her’ home. One of them is gone, yes, but it’s Elizabeth – in Eli’s body.
Both sets of parents get involved in the missing person case and, when a credit card purchase indicates Elizabeth is in Paris, Eli sets off after her. He is an apt narrator because he sees himself as malleable and inessential: “I wasn’t a person but a protean blob, intellectually and emotionally gelatinous, shaped by whatever surrounded me; “I could never shake the sense that I was, for [Elizabeth], like a supplementary arm grafted onto the center of her stomach.” He comes from a rough family background, has a history of disordered eating, and doesn’t have a career, so is mildly resentful of Elizabeth’s. She’s also an aspiring novelist and her solitary work takes priority while he cooks the meals and grades her students’ papers.
The couple already pushed against gender stereotypes, then, but it is still a revelation to Elizabeth how differently she is treated as a male. “I can’t name a single thing I don’t like about it. Everything’s become so much easier for me in your body,” she says to Eli when they finally meet up in Paris. There follows an arresting seven-page sex scene as they experience a familiar act anew in their partner’s body. “All that had changed was perspective.” But interactions with the partner’s parents assume primacy in much of the rest of the book.
This novel has an intriguing premise that offered a lot of potential, but it doesn’t really go anywhere with it. The sex scene actually struck me as the most interesting part, showing how being in a different body would help one understand desire. Beyond that, it feels like a stale rumination on passing as female (Elizabeth schooling Eli about menstruation and how to respond to her parents’ news about extended family) and women not being taken seriously in the arts (a lecture by a Rachel Cusk-like writer in the final chapter). I also couldn’t account for two unusual authorial decisions: Eli is caught up in a Parisian terrorist attack, but nothing results. Was it to shake things up at the one-third point, for want of a better idea? I also questioned the late shift to Elizabeth’s mother’s narration. Introducing a new first-person narrator, especially so close to the end, feels like cheating, or admitting defeat if there’s something important that Eli can’t witness. The author is skilled at creating backstory and getting characters from here to there. But in figuring out how the central incident would play out, the narrative falls short. Ultimately, I would have preferred this at short story length, where suggestion would be enough and more could have been left to the imagination.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Both sets of parents get involved in the missing person case and, when a credit card purchase indicates Elizabeth is in Paris, Eli sets off after her. He is an apt narrator because he sees himself as malleable and inessential: “I wasn’t a person but a protean blob, intellectually and emotionally gelatinous, shaped by whatever surrounded me; “I could never shake the sense that I was, for [Elizabeth], like a supplementary arm grafted onto the center of her stomach.” He comes from a rough family background, has a history of disordered eating, and doesn’t have a career, so is mildly resentful of Elizabeth’s. She’s also an aspiring novelist and her solitary work takes priority while he cooks the meals and grades her students’ papers.
The couple already pushed against gender stereotypes, then, but it is still a revelation to Elizabeth how differently she is treated as a male. “I can’t name a single thing I don’t like about it. Everything’s become so much easier for me in your body,” she says to Eli when they finally meet up in Paris. There follows an arresting seven-page sex scene as they experience a familiar act anew in their partner’s body. “All that had changed was perspective.” But interactions with the partner’s parents assume primacy in much of the rest of the book.
This novel has an intriguing premise that offered a lot of potential, but it doesn’t really go anywhere with it. The sex scene actually struck me as the most interesting part, showing how being in a different body would help one understand desire. Beyond that, it feels like a stale rumination on passing as female (Elizabeth schooling Eli about menstruation and how to respond to her parents’ news about extended family) and women not being taken seriously in the arts (a lecture by a Rachel Cusk-like writer in the final chapter). I also couldn’t account for two unusual authorial decisions: Eli is caught up in a Parisian terrorist attack, but nothing results. Was it to shake things up at the one-third point, for want of a better idea? I also questioned the late shift to Elizabeth’s mother’s narration. Introducing a new first-person narrator, especially so close to the end, feels like cheating, or admitting defeat if there’s something important that Eli can’t witness. The author is skilled at creating backstory and getting characters from here to there. But in figuring out how the central incident would play out, the narrative falls short. Ultimately, I would have preferred this at short story length, where suggestion would be enough and more could have been left to the imagination.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
July 11, 2023
Trans and non-binary authors are writing some of the most daring fiction out there
August 29, 2023
I haven’t been giving star ratings to any of the books I’ve been reading this year, but I don’t want this beautiful book falling under the radar, so making sure I give it the much-deserved 5-stars. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s a tight, thoughtful, articulate, and thought-provoking look at gender, relationships, and sacrifice.
November 22, 2023
I’ve been in a IRL book club for over ten years (!!) and I’m the first to say it sucks when a book is lackluster and doesn’t inspire much conversation. This my friends, is not that book.
I need a porter and an assistant to help me unpack everything going on in this book which is so chock full at under 250 pages. Isle McElroy you’re a genius.
Here’s the story of a newly married couple who one morning wake up and find they’ve swapped bodies. Okay, I know, you’re thinking Lindsay Lohan did this with Jamie Lee Curtis years ago, but you have no idea what’s in store for you.
Told from the point of view (mostly) of the husband Eli, this modern marriage story becomes a provocative and heady mind f@ck that examines gender, identity, sex and sexuality, and how all of these things are taken for granted on a daily basis as we fall into societal roles. That the story works so brilliantly an an allegory for trans individuals just adds another layer to this complex but highly digestible narrative. It’s a book that begs to be read with others so it can be discussed and debated. And on a side note, it also has probably the most memorable sex scene I’ve read in, well a long ass time, and I just finished #BoySlut by Zachary Zane!
A truly exciting and original read, and one I hope alot of you will try out.
I need a porter and an assistant to help me unpack everything going on in this book which is so chock full at under 250 pages. Isle McElroy you’re a genius.
Here’s the story of a newly married couple who one morning wake up and find they’ve swapped bodies. Okay, I know, you’re thinking Lindsay Lohan did this with Jamie Lee Curtis years ago, but you have no idea what’s in store for you.
Told from the point of view (mostly) of the husband Eli, this modern marriage story becomes a provocative and heady mind f@ck that examines gender, identity, sex and sexuality, and how all of these things are taken for granted on a daily basis as we fall into societal roles. That the story works so brilliantly an an allegory for trans individuals just adds another layer to this complex but highly digestible narrative. It’s a book that begs to be read with others so it can be discussed and debated. And on a side note, it also has probably the most memorable sex scene I’ve read in, well a long ass time, and I just finished #BoySlut by Zachary Zane!
A truly exciting and original read, and one I hope alot of you will try out.
August 6, 2023
I'd like to preface this review by saying that I thought that the story idea and the premise behind the book were both original and thought provoking. That being said, I am going to give a brief and simple breakdown of why my rating was so low.
I'm going to be really honest in saying that I thought the author tried a bit too hard with this one. Too hard to be unique, to be edgy, and to have a shock factor.
My first issue with People Collide was that it felt like the story was drawn out when it didn't need to be. There were many things that were talked about(things said, things done) that had no real affect on the book(read, if those things were taken out it wouldn't change the story at all). The second, and probably most important, reason that I couldn't love this book was because of the characters. They were self-absorbed, angsty, and all together irredeemable. I tried everything in my power to give the characters second, third, and even forth chances, but my gods.... I don't think I liked anyone in this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for sending me this AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.
I'm going to be really honest in saying that I thought the author tried a bit too hard with this one. Too hard to be unique, to be edgy, and to have a shock factor.
My first issue with People Collide was that it felt like the story was drawn out when it didn't need to be. There were many things that were talked about(things said, things done) that had no real affect on the book(read, if those things were taken out it wouldn't change the story at all). The second, and probably most important, reason that I couldn't love this book was because of the characters. They were self-absorbed, angsty, and all together irredeemable. I tried everything in my power to give the characters second, third, and even forth chances, but my gods.... I don't think I liked anyone in this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for sending me this AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 11, 2023
DNF @ 63%. While many will say this is a Freaky Friday switch, I don't agree. That was a parent-child switch; this is 2 adults from different backgrounds who have been together for a few years. Both are just floating thru life, making decisions and being proactive only when forced to. Neither are very interesting, but both think they are extremely smart; and the jury is out on that one.
What a great concept, to switch into the physical body of your partner that you've been intimate with and you say you love. A great idea to explore; which this novel doesn't do. Instead we get a whiny guy that finds living in a woman's body easy thanks to YouTube videos. The said woman doesn't want to return to her body and tells the husband 'here, I created this successful life for you, live as me, I'm leaving'. So is the author's message, woman can't handle being women and wish they were men? Have I mentioned how the moms (not the dad's) of this adult couple shriek and make strange decisions? More anti-women tropes?
During one of the many background sections, that don't really add anything but length to the story, I found myself skipping pages so decided to move on to another book.
What a great concept, to switch into the physical body of your partner that you've been intimate with and you say you love. A great idea to explore; which this novel doesn't do. Instead we get a whiny guy that finds living in a woman's body easy thanks to YouTube videos. The said woman doesn't want to return to her body and tells the husband 'here, I created this successful life for you, live as me, I'm leaving'. So is the author's message, woman can't handle being women and wish they were men? Have I mentioned how the moms (not the dad's) of this adult couple shriek and make strange decisions? More anti-women tropes?
During one of the many background sections, that don't really add anything but length to the story, I found myself skipping pages so decided to move on to another book.
September 6, 2023
3.5⭐️ rounded up.
This was a really interesting twist on the body swap concept. From the other reviews, I thought there would be a lot of introspection on Eli’s part about what it is to be a woman in the world and what women add to relationships that men do not. It was mostly thoughts about Elizabeth’s body for the first half. Eli didn’t figure out he should’ve thought of those things until Elizabeth told him to. I’m also not sure I really needed Elizabeth’s mother’s POV at the end.
I did find it interesting that Eli knew he wouldn’t be able to recognize himself because our perception of how we look is not reality since we only ever see ourselves in mirrors which inverse our image and photos which distort our image.
This is very much she’s Barbie and he’s just Ken. That was most apparent during Elizabeth’s sections. When Eli found Elizabeth, I had the realization that women could easily be men, but men could not survive being women.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ARC.
This was a really interesting twist on the body swap concept. From the other reviews, I thought there would be a lot of introspection on Eli’s part about what it is to be a woman in the world and what women add to relationships that men do not. It was mostly thoughts about Elizabeth’s body for the first half. Eli didn’t figure out he should’ve thought of those things until Elizabeth told him to. I’m also not sure I really needed Elizabeth’s mother’s POV at the end.
I did find it interesting that Eli knew he wouldn’t be able to recognize himself because our perception of how we look is not reality since we only ever see ourselves in mirrors which inverse our image and photos which distort our image.
This is very much she’s Barbie and he’s just Ken. That was most apparent during Elizabeth’s sections. When Eli found Elizabeth, I had the realization that women could easily be men, but men could not survive being women.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ARC.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2023
Cool concept; wildly unfocused story. 2/5
May 3, 2023
I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited for this, and was not disappointed. As a trans woman, I felt like the kitschy premise of a couple being body swapped could be interesting in the right hands, and Isle absolutely took it and ran with it. It felt like a modern Kafka / Camus story, being lost in the mundane details of someone else's every day life and suddenly feeling like every interaction is strange and altered. I thought this was deliciously amplified by combining the shock of the body swap with 1) the need to pretend to be your wife and 2) the need to look for her/him as she/he has absconded with your body and is not checking in.
Isle didn't just focus on Eli and Elizabeth either, instead using this opportunity to really dig in on Eli's relationship to his mother, strangers and most interesting of all Elizabeth's mother. It felt like these were both a metaphor for the trans experience - Eli getting to move outside of his body the same way a trans woman gets to move beyond her body dysphoria and see the world in different ways, without the haze of self-doubt. And I would be curious what others readers see here as well, it feels like Isle was using this inspiration (assumably) from their own experience but in way that was perhaps more universal, given what we see in the book from both Elizabeth as well as her mom too.
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention the sex scene. Eli and Elizabeth have sex and the bathroom and it is hot, messy and illuminating. I think I have a new found interest for books that are messy, horny and use that to say something interesting. Isle accomplished that and more with both the sex scene and their book.
I was so excited for this, and was not disappointed. As a trans woman, I felt like the kitschy premise of a couple being body swapped could be interesting in the right hands, and Isle absolutely took it and ran with it. It felt like a modern Kafka / Camus story, being lost in the mundane details of someone else's every day life and suddenly feeling like every interaction is strange and altered. I thought this was deliciously amplified by combining the shock of the body swap with 1) the need to pretend to be your wife and 2) the need to look for her/him as she/he has absconded with your body and is not checking in.
Isle didn't just focus on Eli and Elizabeth either, instead using this opportunity to really dig in on Eli's relationship to his mother, strangers and most interesting of all Elizabeth's mother. It felt like these were both a metaphor for the trans experience - Eli getting to move outside of his body the same way a trans woman gets to move beyond her body dysphoria and see the world in different ways, without the haze of self-doubt. And I would be curious what others readers see here as well, it feels like Isle was using this inspiration (assumably) from their own experience but in way that was perhaps more universal, given what we see in the book from both Elizabeth as well as her mom too.
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention the sex scene. Eli and Elizabeth have sex and the bathroom and it is hot, messy and illuminating. I think I have a new found interest for books that are messy, horny and use that to say something interesting. Isle accomplished that and more with both the sex scene and their book.
September 7, 2023
I loved Isle McElroy’s debut novel The Atmospherians, a weird and whimsical exploration of hashtag influencer culture set in a world where men basically Suddenly Start Digging Holes - so I was REALLY excited to read this. McElroy has such a convincing and precise understanding of people’s identities and self-worth and how that impacts their relationships, and as a result writes unexpectedly grounded but still interesting contemporary fiction. I read this book with edge of my seat suspense like it was a relationship thriller on par with a genderqueer Gone Girl.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, who provided a complimentary digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, who provided a complimentary digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
August 26, 2023
4.5/5
Well this was pleasantly unexpected. A body-switching story that isn’t the least bit funny. It’s bonkers in the best way and thought-provoking and it’s message and purpose is delivered beautifully i.e. not bashing the reader over the head and I am so close to loving it. It just dragged a bit in moments for such a short book.
Well this was pleasantly unexpected. A body-switching story that isn’t the least bit funny. It’s bonkers in the best way and thought-provoking and it’s message and purpose is delivered beautifully i.e. not bashing the reader over the head and I am so close to loving it. It just dragged a bit in moments for such a short book.
August 18, 2023
I absolutely loved this. It felt like a very fresh perspective on the much done body switch storyline. I especially appreciated how well learning acceptance was finessed into multiple scenarios without ever feeling preachy. Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC
September 7, 2023
What a unique whirlwind of a ride.
A young married man who's followed his wife to Bulgaria for a fellowship wakes up to find he is no longer in his body, but hers. And she, or rather his body, is nowhere to be found.
Firstly, what's incredible is that there is absolutely no exploration or need to explain how this bodyswap happened and honestly as the reader, having just finished, it really wasn't a focal point and I didn't feel like the book suffered from the lack of it.
As expected, we explore the new ways in which the man in the woman's body is perceived and viewed by not only their friends, colleagues and the relationship with both of their parents but with theirself.
The revelatory moment occurs when you realize that this has afforded both of them a rebirth with the person they love the most and what better way to declare your love for someone than to inhabit their body. But secondly, that they are both now free to reframe their own realities, to construct a new sense of self free from the baggage of bad upbringings or privilege, free from their histories of past people that they've dated, all the accolades that they've accepted and mounted on their walls pointing them ever higher, and free from their own expectations of where they think they should be headed.
As I said above, I really didn't have an issue with no explanation of how it happened. But I could see how some people could possibly be bothered by this.
One thing that's for certain, after this and THE ATMOSPHERIANS is that McElroy will always take you for a ride that's both unexpected and forceful.
4.5
A young married man who's followed his wife to Bulgaria for a fellowship wakes up to find he is no longer in his body, but hers. And she, or rather his body, is nowhere to be found.
Firstly, what's incredible is that there is absolutely no exploration or need to explain how this bodyswap happened and honestly as the reader, having just finished, it really wasn't a focal point and I didn't feel like the book suffered from the lack of it.
As expected, we explore the new ways in which the man in the woman's body is perceived and viewed by not only their friends, colleagues and the relationship with both of their parents but with theirself.
The revelatory moment occurs when you realize that this has afforded both of them a rebirth with the person they love the most and what better way to declare your love for someone than to inhabit their body. But secondly, that they are both now free to reframe their own realities, to construct a new sense of self free from the baggage of bad upbringings or privilege, free from their histories of past people that they've dated, all the accolades that they've accepted and mounted on their walls pointing them ever higher, and free from their own expectations of where they think they should be headed.
As I said above, I really didn't have an issue with no explanation of how it happened. But I could see how some people could possibly be bothered by this.
One thing that's for certain, after this and THE ATMOSPHERIANS is that McElroy will always take you for a ride that's both unexpected and forceful.
4.5
July 18, 2023
4.5
I have some quibbles with this — I kind of wish it dug into the idea of the premise a bit more (how weird would this be??!) or have us a bit more background on the characters, Eli esp, to give some context for how they react (and maybe why it’s NOT as weird as it might be) — and there are quite a few passages of long dialogue/speeches that are totally unnatural. But overall I loved this — the writing (barring the dialogue issue) is tremendous and overall it’s an incredibly rich and dense exploration of its central idea. The fact that it’s a fantasy means that some of the background stuff etc I might have wanted easy to shrug off; the book is less about the reality of this impossible situation but about larger ideas about relationships and gender. I was also taken with how prickly most of the characters are and the complexity of the mother-child relationships.
I have some quibbles with this — I kind of wish it dug into the idea of the premise a bit more (how weird would this be??!) or have us a bit more background on the characters, Eli esp, to give some context for how they react (and maybe why it’s NOT as weird as it might be) — and there are quite a few passages of long dialogue/speeches that are totally unnatural. But overall I loved this — the writing (barring the dialogue issue) is tremendous and overall it’s an incredibly rich and dense exploration of its central idea. The fact that it’s a fantasy means that some of the background stuff etc I might have wanted easy to shrug off; the book is less about the reality of this impossible situation but about larger ideas about relationships and gender. I was also taken with how prickly most of the characters are and the complexity of the mother-child relationships.
July 24, 2023
Major thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review:
McElroy Freaky-Fridays Eugenides' 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘭𝘰𝘵 to create a complex story about the self, the selfless, and selfishness that hits a home run in every category:
Love ✅
Heartbreak ✅
Marriage ✅
Jealousy ✅
Children ✅
Greatest/Most Interesting Sex Scene to Come out of 2023 ✅
Though slow in its exposition, McElroy's tight prose and sharp characters create a beautiful examination of what it means to be every single piece of a person in a relationship. Every shard matters as does every glimmer that shard contains. What is broken is not lost, but found in the beautiful way our two protagonists understand each other.
A true triumph, and perhaps a favorite of 2023.
McElroy Freaky-Fridays Eugenides' 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘭𝘰𝘵 to create a complex story about the self, the selfless, and selfishness that hits a home run in every category:
Love ✅
Heartbreak ✅
Marriage ✅
Jealousy ✅
Children ✅
Greatest/Most Interesting Sex Scene to Come out of 2023 ✅
Though slow in its exposition, McElroy's tight prose and sharp characters create a beautiful examination of what it means to be every single piece of a person in a relationship. Every shard matters as does every glimmer that shard contains. What is broken is not lost, but found in the beautiful way our two protagonists understand each other.
A true triumph, and perhaps a favorite of 2023.
July 24, 2023
People Collide by Isle McElroy is “a gender-bending, body-switching novel” and I instantly added it to my TBR. Eli and Elizabeth, a married couple, trade bodies. Instead of concentrating on switching back, the focus is on learning to exist and live in each other’s bodies. Unfortunately Elizabeth disappears with Eli’s body and Eli in Elizabeth’s body is left to pick up the pieces. Thought-provoking with hilarious lines scattered throughout. The last chapter encapsulates motherhood. Exquisite. The narrators, Daniel Henning and Aida Reluzco, are outstanding. I listened to the audiobook in two sittings. Thanks to Isle McElroy, Harper Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy.
September 27, 2023
A misogynistic, narcissistic nightmare from enraging beginning to infuriating end. I would go into greater depth and detail as to precisely why I loathed it, but it’s worth neither my time nor energy. I truly suffered through finishing this irredeemably awful piece of crap.
Read
January 9, 2025the ~theoretical~ inescapable torture of being in a relationship with someone you don’t like, and the ~literal~ inescapable torture of being stuck in their body.
December 31, 2024
You cannot convince me this was not written by AI
March 19, 2025
Always remember you are never too smart to just fuck up your life forever
July 6, 2024
first five star of the year tg !! a couple gets freaky friday-ed and although hetero, the swap touches upon queerness and gender as either individual explores what it’s like to move through the world in a different body. interesting observations on parenting too. loved the writing - it broadened my vocab without being didactic ;)
can’t waaait to see what you do with this abbi jacobson!
can’t waaait to see what you do with this abbi jacobson!
June 20, 2025
This was so unique and intriguing
September 21, 2023
Eli wakes up one day to discover he is in his wife's body and his body is missing (presumably with her in it). We spend a period of time with him as he explores what it means to be a woman, who his wife is and who he really is. After some pressure from family, he (or she?) begins searching for their other half. When Eli eventually finds Elizabeth in his body, he is surprised when her experience is not as trying as his own. They then need to decide how to move forward. Do they stay together? Keep acting as one another?
I liked the exploration of identity and sense of self in this story and that it was balanced with every day practicalities, like how do you wipe? Do you shave your legs? It made the story easier to read and contemplate than some of the classic body swap novels. A bit of philosophy mixed with real life. The exploration of the genders was compelling and at times funny. We mostly get Eli's POV, but the times when it switched were so enlightening. I also liked how they had to see one another's family in a new light. Not sure I "got" the ending but it didn't bother me.
Thanks to Booksparks for the gifted copy as a part of #FRC2023. All opinions above are my own.
I liked the exploration of identity and sense of self in this story and that it was balanced with every day practicalities, like how do you wipe? Do you shave your legs? It made the story easier to read and contemplate than some of the classic body swap novels. A bit of philosophy mixed with real life. The exploration of the genders was compelling and at times funny. We mostly get Eli's POV, but the times when it switched were so enlightening. I also liked how they had to see one another's family in a new light. Not sure I "got" the ending but it didn't bother me.
Thanks to Booksparks for the gifted copy as a part of #FRC2023. All opinions above are my own.
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