(Re)cycler

Cycler #2

by Lauren McLaughlin

How do you grow up, if who you are keeps changing?

Jill McTeague is not your average high school graduate, she's a scientific anomaly. Every month for four days she turns into Jack, a guy—complete with all the parts. Now everyone in her hometown knows that something very weird is up with her. So what's a girl (and a guy) to do? Get the heck out of town, that's what! With her kooky best friend, Ramie, Jill sets out for New York City. There both she and Jack will have to figure out everything from the usual (relationships) to the not so usual (career options for a "cycler," anyone?).

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Fantasy, Queer, LGBT, Science Fiction, Gender

273 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

LAUREN MCLAUGHLIN is the author of five novels, Send Pics, Cycler, (Re)Cycler, Scored, and The Free. She has also written the children’s pictures books Wonderful You and Mitzi Tulane Preschool Detective, both of which feature adoptive families. She is an adoptive mother herself. Prior to her career in fiction, she spent ten years in the film business. She produced commercials and music videos for such artists as Nas, The B52’s, the Spin Doctors, and Monie Love, then went on to write several screenplays, including Prisoner of Love starring Naomi Campbell, Specimen starring Mark Paul Gosselaar, and Hypercube (the sequel to the cult favorite Cube). She also produced American Psycho, Buffalo 66, and several other feature films. She is a member of the improv comedy troupe Amorphous Horse, which performs in a variety of venues in and around London, UK.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this sequel to Cycler, readers are reintroduced to Jill and Jack. Having just finished high school with a major trauma at the prom, Jill is finally getting a better handle on the fact that she shares her body with Jack. Once a month, for four days, her body morphs into a male and his personality comes to the fore. Up until now, her parents arranged for him to be locked in her room so no one would know about the situation.

Jack slowly learned how to get out into the real world. While she can't see what happens during "Jacktime," he has full access to all of the memories that accrue when she is in charge of their shared body. This is one of the reason why he has fallen in love with her best friend Ramie.

Ramie is off to New York to start her first year at FIT, and Jill is going to come along and be her roommate. Instead of going to school, she wants to get a job and spend time sorting out the complexities of her life.

Besides sharing her body with an uber-sexed guy, Jill is also missing her boyfriend Tommy who is taking an opportunity to drive across the country. He had hoped Jill would have joined him, but he understands when she opts for the safety of living with Ramie and Jack in Brooklyn.

What is interesting about this sequel is that Jack and Jill have started to really move beyond their distrust and dislike of each other. They are really starting to think less about the other being an enemy fighting for control of their body and the ability to live their lives as they choose. They start to settle into a more common view of the world and almost start looking at each other like twin siblings. At times, this means stepping up to help the other even when it means sacrificing your own views.

Jack really sees a lot of growth when he meets a group of guys with a chart highlighting the underdog girls each has had sex with. The goal is for them all to get as many girls as possible and have a lot of cross-over. Jack is surprisingly horrified this and finds that he is much more of a feminist than anyone would have thought.

He also must deal with the challenge of overcoming jealousy as Ramie's fashion career starts to take off, pulling her off to fashion shoots in Europe.

Jill on the other hand is really starting to come out of her shell. She has always played things safe when it comes to relationships, and she is starting to consider more opportunities to experiment with guys. Unfortunately, that doesn't always mean making the right choices.

She is also surprised by the changes that are coming about for Jack, who has a partial detente forming with their parents.

This is really a coming-of-age story. Of course, it is made more unique by the situation for Jack and Jill, but in the same vein, it also highlights how people can grow and adapt. I think that Jill and Jack are both very strongly developed and are actually pretty regular teens outside of the fact that they share a single body. Each is struggling with really understanding who he or she is and wants to be. Through the challenges they face in the book (both separately and together), they become more comfortable with themselves and are ready to go forward with their lives.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somebody told me you had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year

That’s not from (Re)cycler; that’s a Killers quotation. But it’s apt for the plot of this book: Jill, who for four days of the month is Jack, moves to New York. As she tries to get used to independence and figure out who she wants to be, shenangians ensue. Soon tensions run high as Jack and Jill make mistakes, push their boundaries, and generally screw up over and over. Because that’s what young adults do. Lauren McLaughlin once again delivers a smart gender-fluid comedy couched as a young adult novel.

I’m really torn here. On the one hand, I absolutely love the premise and story in (Re)cycler and think it’s almost certainly superior to Cycler. On the other hand, there are parts of this book that make it feel … incomplete. The way Tommy gets sidelined, and the lack of resolution at the end of the story, make the narrative problematic in a structural sense. And as far as character development goes, I loved the way Jack and Jill change, and I appreciate the glimpse into how their parents are dealing with the new status quo. I wish, however, that McLaughlin had dedicated more time to the deteroriation of Jill and Ramie’s relationship.

Welcome to New York. I had that Taylor Swift song stuck in my head for this entire novel, but that is beside the point. Or is it? Anyway, it has apparently been waiting for you. And Jill.

She and Ramie are hitting the Big Apple like nobody’s business, in that they have moved into the third floor of a sketchy house in the part of Brooklyn that’s just shy of being upscale but is where all the sons and daughters of the affluent hang out when they want to pretend they’re slumming it on daddy’s dime.

*catches breath*

Jill seems kind of aimless for most of the book, because she has no job and no educational obligations. She temps in between transforming into Jack, and on Ramie’s urging she also does some half-hearted boy-chasing. She tries to make a friend in Natalie, their downstairs neighbour, but really Jack capitalizes on that. In fact, it’s fair to say that Jack has a more prominent role in (Re)cycler. That’s not to minimize what Jill goes through, but after an entire book in which Jack is essentially regarded as an interloper, it’s cool to see him getting more of the stage.

The main theme crystallized by these plots is simply that life is much bigger than the small town of Winterhead. New York is probably the most extreme way to teach that to Jack and Jill and Ramie, but it works. McLaughlin constantly juxtaposes the metropolitan atmosphere of their new city with reminders of the small-town mindset they used to inhabit: Jill’s near-OTP obsession with Tommy, her parents’ attitudes and sartorial styles, and Ramie’s burgeoning ladycrush on Marguerite. Jill struggles with “putting herself out there” on the “market” for dating, if you will, and has all sorts of hang-ups about trying to “get rid of” her virginity. Meanwhile, Jack realizes that he sucks at making friends, because he literally had never left the house until very recently.

I love the different gender dynamics that McLaughlin portrays and questions here. Jack of all people gets to be the feminist one, pointing out to Ian Larson and his gang why the whole charting and girl-trading thing is, you know, horrible. The fact that Ian doesn’t really “get” why this is problematic at first just speaks to the way in which the patriarchy harms boys and men. It’s not that there’s something inherently pervy about boys—they are socialized, just as girls are socialized, to behave in certain ways. Ian feels the need to boast about and chronicle his sexual accomplishments to fit in with the guys.

Similarly, Jill isn’t sure how she wants to portray herself. On her own in New York Jill has trouble standing out, mostly because she is ambivalent about “cheating” on Tommy. When she finds a role model in Natalie—who seems so much more sophisticated than fey Ramie—Jill has to walk the imaginary line between “slut” and “vamp” through fashion and flirtation. Natalie’s “you are the commodity” speech is reminscient of Jill’s mother’s views.

Basically, (Re)cycler offers a rare dual glimpse into how young men and women both struggle to define themselves and explore their sexuality in a society hellbent on defining, pigeonholing, and policing their behaviours. To an extent I wish McLaughlin had taken things further. It’s difficult to do these topics justice in a book so brief.

Indeed, this is a great ride while it lasts, but it comes to an abrupt stop. I can appreciate not wanting to wrap up all the loose ends, but McLaughlin literally leaves most of the plots wide open and hanging (with no sign of a third book in sight). Will Jill and Ramie make up? Will Jack and Ramie make up? After being absent for the entire book, will Tommy do anything? I don’t know. I don’t have strong feelings about any of those questions—I like how McLaughlin has endangered Ramie’s relationships with both protagonists; sometimes friendships wither when transplanted to new environments. But the ending is so jarring I turned the page and literally wondered if my edition had a misprint that was missing a concluding chapter.

(Re)cycler continues the excellent storytelling and characterization that I loved in Cycler. Once again, McLaughlin depicts teenagers who are smart, inquisitive, but so often flawed, fallible, and wrong. I don’t know if I liked it less or more than the first book, and I don’t think it really matters. Both are clever young adult novels that deftly deal with issues of gender, sex, and relationships.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

McLaughlin outdoes herself with this sequel to the provocative Cycler. In Cyclerwe were introduced to Jill, a teenage girl who fully tranforms into a teenage boy once a month, like it or not, with complicated consequences. Both Jill and her family had long attempted everything in their power to mightily suppress (or at least contain) her "Jack" incarnation but the fed-up Jack decides to angle for a life of his own, consequences be damned. In ReCycler, he finally gets a chance at living a life of his own, thanks to some concessions--and sacrifices on Jill's part. Part in the name of atonement, and partly as a way to put off making some major life decisions of her own, and suddenly--in a be careful what you wish for sort of way--it kind of becomes his life to mess up, too if he's not careful.

In the first book, with Jack and Jill existing in such isolation, the reader really was watching the misadventures of two polar extremes, which was interesting, if not always completely satisfying. In the follow-up, with both sides trying to find themselves--and learn a little more about each other--the evolution of both Jack and Jill feels more intricate and subtle, and overall...more real. While the first might have leaned a little too heavily on the gimmick, and played on the shock value a little too readily at times, this one has moments where you may unexpectedly find yourself a little moved, even among the occasionally wacky escapades the characters stumble into.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was sad. Cycler was a briliant, creative YA novel, rife with possibilities for exploring our concepts of gender, sexuality and reality itself. I was so excited for the sequel. But somehow these authors and editors have turned radical brilliance into a cheap sex-in-the-city knock off where the characters are sold short in order to tell a bland overdone hot mess of a story about dating. This is every other YA/Chick Lit book about dating in the big city. Gone are Jack's wonder and rage, Jill's difficult choices and guilt replaced by a dull fog, Ramie's yearning and creativity replaced by slavick devotion to a new plot device character that we know and care nothing about. And Tommy, he is barely in the book at all. So say good bye to the complex themes of bisexuality. A hot mess and a bitter disappointment. I'm just going to pretend that this book was never written.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just re-read this. It is better than I remembered. I read some of the critiques of the first book and I do think they missed the point. This book hammers it home a bit more. Yes, the characters can be a little of a caricature. But if you are writing a book about teenagers trying to differentiate themselves, I can see how a girl would try to be more girly or a boy more boyly. This book starts to break those artificial categories and shows how difficult it can be to be to date.

For anyone who is undergoing some confusion around sex, I think this is a good starter novel. It goes through a whole bunch of stuff.

...and that is all I will say.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the story picked up right where the last left off, and continued to show that perspective is important, this book didn't draw me in nearly as well as the first. It was worth the read to get the full stories and to see where things went with the characters, but they felt a lot more hollow and overall the book felt rushed.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jill is now more accepting of Jack but there is still a struggle between them because Jack is now appearing more often and ruining Jill's prospects with her boyfriend, and her best friend.

Not as good as the first installment but good enough, and also I need a sequel.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

glad i finally saw the continuation of this story 17 years later and i almost like it better than the first one but it has so many issues

i like jack and jill though and i like the way they kinda become one person

[Korey Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even more bonkers (complimentary) than the first one. A wild ride from start to finish

[eb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my review for Cycler, which I'm including here because I see Cycler and Re-Cycler as fundamentally one story. Read on:

Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cycler can’t be read alone. You have to read it with the follow-up, Re-cycler; in my opinion they are one book, and if you only read one, you might leave with a bad taste in your mouth. More on this in a moment; first a brief synopsis:

Since she was 14, Jill spends 4 days every month as Jack. Yep, every month she undergoes a painful transformation into someone completely different-- a boy, complete with boy parts, and boy desires. During those four days, Jill/Jack stays home under the pretense of some recurring medical treatment, and then, when the four days are up, Jill meditates on the idea that she is “all girl” and erases all her memories of “Jack time,” and then skips along for another 24 days like Jack doesn’t exist and she’s completely normal.

This works well for Jill and her paranoid, controlling mother, until Jack –who somehow has a fully developed personality—decides he’s not interested in spending his life locked in Jill’s room. He escapes one night and ends up making out with Jill’s best friend Ramie, who he’s been in love with since he and Jill were 14. See, Jack doesn’t erase Jill the way she erases him; he’s been plumbing her memories and learning who Ramie is as a friend for years.

All hell breaks loose, of course. The insane mother goes even more insane, Jack is locked up in the house for real the next time he visits, and then Jill’s neat little plan goes bust when Jack starts showing up early and unexpectedly out of cycle.

I really liked both books, and I read them back-to-back as a single story. I think the problem with the first installment is that it is deliberately written from an immature perspective for both characters (the narration oscillates from one voice to another):

Jill is terrified of the fact that Jack is a part of her—hence the ridiculous mantra of “I am all girl,” and the way she constantly wears pink and acts like an idiot to get attention from boys. She’s awkwardly playing at all the stereotypical aspects of being a girl because she’s afraid that she’s a freak. Case and point: She throws a homophobic fit when she realizes the boy she’s been crushing on is bisexual, and nearly throws up when she remembers a snippet of Jack time and realizes that she’s kissed Ramie. Her characterization of Jack is similarly reductive: in the beginning we meet him through her eyes and see nothing but a smelly, porn-obsessed jerk.

If you only read Cycler, you’d probably hate this book. Jill is insufferable and is seems like there are so many missed opportunities in story to explore sex, gender, and sexuality, not to mention social constructs around all three.

If you go on to read Re-Cycler, though, you end up with a much more nuanced picture of Jack and Jill as characters. I began to care about them in Re-Cycler, when I was mostly just fascinated by the premise in Cycler. They grow up a lot in the second book, and they begin to trust and accept that they are part of each other. Ultimately, this pair of books does a lot to demonstrate that people are complicated, and that stereotypical labels, whether straight, gay, boy or girl, are pretty useless, since no one can be accurately described with such reductive labels.

They’re not perfect, but Cycler and Re-Cycler will definitely make you think. They’re also pretty steamy, so I’d recommend them for older Teens and Adults who like sci-fi and teen lit.




View all my reviews

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

The characters from CYCLER are back in (RE)CYCLER for a sequel. If you're like me, I was confused at first when I kept seeing (RE)CYCLER listed as a future release. The synopsis kept repeating the same blurb that was the CYCLER synopsis. But I finally stumbled across the book at the book store and realized that this was indeed the continuation of the story of Jill and Jack.

The total humiliation that was the prom has passed and Jill has graduated from high school. Her future is undefined. She has the option of traveling across country with Tommy or moving to New York City with Ramie. Jill is torn, but she chooses New York City, in part because it will benefit Jack, as well. Tommy is saddened that she won't join him, but he understands. So he sets off without her.

Jack is overjoyed at the prospect of having actual freedom. He's been confined to their bedroom for his entire existence. But now he has Ramie all to himself during his four days each month. But Jill is missing Tommy. With the help of Ramie, Jill is determined to get over him and her broken heart.

The story takes places in alternating Jack and Jill chapters during the course of the fall. Jill becomes more confident in herself while Jack faces some hard truths of what he thought and what is reality. During this time, Ramie seems to be pulling away from both Jill and Jack. Jill can handle the separation, but it is tearing Jack apart.

(RE)CYCLER shows more depth in the characters than was seen in CYCLER. Jill and Jack are learning to live within the confines of one body and are learning to accept each other. The two begin to interact with the world around them. Though most of the people they encounter still are unaware of the fact they are the same person, the two create unique situations that come to creative resolutions.

I am unsure if there will be another book in the series, but Ms. McLaughlin leaves some loose threads that could easily be woven into another chapter of the story. I for one would love to see how it actually plays out with the square that is Ramie, Tommy, Jack, and Jill.

***Note: There is a lot of frank discussion of sex, so this is best reserved for the more mature reader.***

[Jodysegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gender-bending lit and the coming-of-age story coalesce in (re)cycler and its prequel, cycler. For 24 days of every month, Jill McTeague lives a normal teen life, at least as normal as it can be when the other four days of every month, she becomes her male counterpart, a guy named Jack McTeague. In (re)cycler, Jill moves to NYC with her best friend, who also happens to be Jack’s girlfriend, Ramie. The problem is that Jill’s boyfriend, Tommy, gets left out of the picture and she’s not sure how she feels about that. On top of that, her parents are pressuring her to make plans for college, when she is just trying to figure out how to reconcile her two selves. And on top of that, Jack is clamoring for a life of his own, but existing just 4/28ths of the time has left him with a lot to learn about what it means to be a guy.

(re)cycler is a strange and compelling book that is hard to categorize. It’s not strictly GLBT literature: Jill/Jack is not transgender and Tommy’s bisexuality is an unexplored part of the landscape. At the same time, questioning and redefining cultural norms and categories of sexual and gender identity are at least partly what’s at stake in this novel. (re)cycler is also a surprisingly conventional coming-of-age story, with personal growth, values and other standard teen issues at its heart.

McLaughlin gives Jill a strong and appealing narrative voice; Jack’s is less convincing, though that may be a function of his character’s relative immaturity. Current language and the trendy Williamsburg scene of Brooklyn add to making this a very interesting and fun read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sequel to Cycler, in which a girl (18 in this book) turns into a boy once a month. Her bizarre, not-entirely-sane coping strategy was to entirely separate herself from this guy form, so she's developed two distinct personalities. Jill and Jack.

Now living with her roommate (and Jack's girlfriend) in New York City, she's like.. learning how to be an adult and figuring out her life and junk.

By the end of it, I liked Jack better. Though Jill hadn't improved any in my eyes.

But there still is not any of the resolutions I would like to see. It didn't feel like the book really ended, as a result. I'm like.. that's it? I don't even know if there's going to be another book or not.

Possible resolutions I could live with:
1) Jill and Jack integrate themselves into one person.
2) Jill and Jack realize that, yea, being bi would solve all their problems and on some level they must be, y'know? So they both hook up with the boyfriend, or the girlfriend, or, ideally both.
3) Jill or Jack disappears entirely, never to return.

Or some other resolution that addresses the essential conflict here. And it's not about being small town kids who need to learn about life in the wider world (or new york city specifically). And it's not about sorta kinda liking their parents (who, seriously, locked Jack up, which, is, like, a felony. And morally wrong.).

I won't feel happy about these books until one of those things I listed above happens.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is deeply satisfying. While the first book, Cycler, introduced the characters and got them going on their adventure, this book really lets them shine. It was really wonderful and necessary to see Jack and Ramie's relationship play out, and in this book you finally get to see Jill move beyond being judgmental and stuck in her own head, and Jack get to finally become his own person.

In a lot of ways, this book is a very universal coming-of-age story. It just has some unusually, gender-swapping circumstances thrown in. But unlike the first book, which by necessity had to focus a lot on the nature of Jill/Jack's predicament, this book lets the characters grow beyond that. We get to see them really testing life, and deciding what types of people they want to be.

I wish we saw more college-aged characters in YA books, because college (or the lack of it) is a really fascinating thing for a teenager. I know that when I was a teenager it was something I looked forward to. Not even necessarily the college part itself, but the idea of living on my own, of actually facing adult decisions and responsibilities. This book deals with that, even while it's dealing with its own unique issues.

I definitely recommend reading Cycler before (Re)Cycler, but in my mind it's the superior book.

[Elle Beauregard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a disappointing follow up to Cycler. Satisfying in a few ways (for example, I have a right little crush on Jack, now) but otherwise flat and a little pointless.

By the end of Cycler, I was primed and ready to explore all of the awesome conflicts that McLaughlin had so perfectly set us up for. She had not shied away from grit in the first, and I didn't expect her to in the second.

But instead of exploring all of these whinding paths, she took us on a journey of a boy-obsessed girl who is out to lose her virginity at all costs (and make a pleathora of stupid decisions along the way!)

I got the feeling, by the end of the book, that McLaughlin prefered Jack over Jill. While Jack was witty, smart and insightful (if not understandably, innocently clueless), Jill was calculative in a vapid, stupid-girl kind of way that threw me off and made some of her inner monologue difficult to read. That being said, I still devoured the story and appreciated the ways that Jill filtered into Jack's life in this arc (in contrast to how Jack filtered into Jill's life in the first)

If there is a third book, I am hoping that it will help make this story feel less unnecessary. Simply put, in many ways, this is a story that could have been told in a couple of chapters, stretched out over 250 pages.

[Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jill and Jack McTeague aren't your typical brother and sister. They share the same body. For a few days a month, Jill morphs into Jack and his anatomically correct body. She used to be able to tell when Jack would show up because her cycle was regular. These days, he keeps coming early.

Jill kept Jack a secret all through high school because her mother locked him in her room during his cycle. Her secret (and Jack) come out at her senior prom. Now that she's graduated, it's easy to understand why she'd like to leave Winterhead. Against her mother's wishes, she goes to New York City with her friend Ramie who's beginning classes at the Fashion Institute.

Her boyfriend Tommy gives her the option of driving across country with him on a trip he's been planning for years. He knows about all about Jack and doesn't mind, but Jill isn't ready for a relationship that means losing her virginity. Jack lost his to her best friend Ramie.

In New York, Jack realizes he doesn't have any friends other than his girlfriend Ramie and she's away at class or studying most of the time. The first guys Jack approaches in a coffee shop have a chart rating the girls they've dated. Jack may be new to being around other guys, but he knows rating girls after you've been to bed with them is beyond sleazy.

Recycler, the second Jack and Jill book, was better than book one.

[duck reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, so the first thing I should mention is that this is apparently a sequel, and I have not read the previous novel. The protagonists are Jack and Jill: cisgirl Jill tries to live her life, but a few days a month she transforms into Jack, her cismale counterpart. The first book seems to have detailed their exploits in high school, culminating in prom night shananigans, while this offering tells the story of their first year after high school graduation, living in New York with Jill's best friend/Jack's girlfriend, Ramie. Both Jack and Jill are using their new found freedom to try to find and develop themselves as independent adults, while dealing with their own peculiar situation.

It seems for a while like it's going to have interesting things to say about gender and gendered expectations, queerness, and self-acceptance, but then...none of those things materialise. Everyone is straight except for a token bi character who never seems to act on or discuss his queer feelings and is absent for all but two chapters. All of the storylines just sort of meander to a halt without any real climax or resolution and I am left unsatisfied and confused.

Neither bad/ridiculous enough to be funny, nor actually brave enough to do anything interesting with the premise. Sigh.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars are for the funny story.
Well, half of it.
When you read a story about two people, you're bound to like one person better than the other. But I found Jill so annoying...her stupid pretentions (she tries to be a vamp, she thinks she's a hipster because she lives in Brooklyn, that awful and terrible slang she uses...) and her immaturity mostly, but considering that you can't make it for two paragraphs without that, it's not worth it to read that.
Jack, however, is a real and three-dimensional character struggling with his own identity and his own relationships. He wants his own life, but when it's only 1/7 of one there's not much he can do. But he seemed very real and I agreed with his logic.
So if you want to, read the book. Read the first Jill chapter that explains everything and then you can skip the rest--Jack will explain everything you need.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I choose 4 stars instead of 5 because of the ending... The ending I thought is that Jack and Ramie get back together.... Guess I was wrong, instead... I'm not telling cuz I don't want to spoil it to my friends (even tho i already did XD) Anyways, The characters are awesome, in the end, Jack considers Tommy Knutson a friend, a really good one too!! LOL

Jack has changed from being a "prisoner" to being a MAN!! A responsible MAN. Thanks to his dad (and Jill's dad) Jack and Jill solve their problems and forget their mistakes and MOVE ON!! Right, like I said, MOVE ON!! That's the key pf success... Don't think that "passing" on every opportunity you have will get you somewhere, well it doesn't. U know why? because it creates a huge mistake in the end... and a place where you don't want to be!!

**You think I sound like Jack? Well, I'm not ok, I'm being myself**

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, terrible book. Almost as bad as its predecessor, possibly worst. I can't believe I wasted 40 minutes of my life reading such a boring, redundant, and stupid book.

Okay I apologize for such a harsh review. The book's writing wasn't bad, it's just the story was not very strong. I didn't develop any feeling about any of the characters. The book didn't make me want to care about Jack or Jill. The characters didn't show any interesting developments that made me want to carry on reading the book. It felt slow. The premise of the book(s) are provocative and interesting, but like many other books, the premise is lost to slow writing and an unimaginative story.

[taeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

finished 8/2/12

Following on the heels of Cycler, this book continues the story of the life of Jill (and Jack) who is a cycler - someone who changes sex for 4 days every month. High school is over and there's nothing both Jack and Jill want more than to get out of their small town. They can choose to go with Jill's boyfriend on a cross country road trip or with Jack's girlfriend (and Jill's best friend) to New York. Jill makes the decision to go to New York, where both she and Jack learn a lot about themselves and relationships. A good read. I was disappointed that it ended and really would like more.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think it was as good as the first one. I reached one point in the book and started to wonder why I was still reading. There wasn't anything that was drawing me in. I mean, Jack and Ramie were pretty much over and all there really was was Jill and Ian and Jill and Tommy but both of those relationships seemed to be going nowhere ... Basically, I finished the book because I hate to start a book and not finish it.

If you read the first one and are interested in reading this one, personally, I think you can live without it.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Cycler, McLaughlin introduces us to 17-year old Jill, a girl who once a month becomes Jack for several days instead of having to deal with the issues of menstration that most girls go through.

In (Re)Cycler, Jill has turned 18, graduated from High School, and moved to New York City with her best friend Ramie, who also happens to be Jack's first girlfriend. What happens to a girl who isn't always a girl in the big city? Can Jack keep Ramie happy when he's only available a few days a month? And most importantly, will Jack and Jill be able to live together in the same body?

[Shonele Piersey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recycler is about a girl/guy who tries to find herself/himself in the big Apple. It's a gut wrenching secret she's tried to hide for a long time and now that they are both free from confinement, they have two different ideas of making that first step in a new direction. I found that this book is a coming-of-age novel about a girl (and a guy) who both want to make a mark of themselves and try to find ways to do so. They are two complete personalities, and that can clash a bit, but they are still able to work it out through their friend/girlfriend Ramie.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concepts of these books, a person is sometimes a male and sometimes a female, cycling through the month. I LOVED the first one. So well done. This one was great cause I got to know the next part of the story, but it was not as amazing as the first. A lot more about sex than the changing issue and with a lot more "teen slang" that I found distracting this time around. I still reccomend the series and will be excited to see where book 3 takes us...

[Tara Spears · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in a back alley thrift store and picked it up. The story, although captivating on idea, left me less than satisfied at the end. I found myself disliking Jack halfway through the book. He redeems himself in the end, but it is almost to little to late. I applaud the author for an unusual story line, however, and would recommend this to anyone looking for something different in a sea of similarity.

[Keli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book better than the first one. Cycler was simply a holding pattern for the characters. (Re)cycler allowed them to develop far deeper. While the ending was a bit too perfect and easy, I really enjoyed watching the characters develop into something new and seeing Jack and Jill develop a new understanding for and appreciation of each other.

[Shayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

The worst part of this book was the ending. Not because I liked it so much; because the ending just sucked. I wanted to see if Tommy and Jill resolved their issues, but no...what the reader got was a cliffhanger ending. I cannot express my hatred for cliffhanger endings with mere words.

The book's one saving grace? Jack. He is the only three-dimensional character in it.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, quick read. It's a realistic world except for the fact that the main character turns from a girl into a boy for around 5 days each month. If you liked the first book, then you'll probably like this sequel. I am tempted to label it part of the "Young Adult" genre except that it's kind of racy in bits (I was a little embarrassed to be reading it on the train sometimes).

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sequel to the 1st book. The ending was horrible, though. I also think that Jill is a thick prude that needs to learn how to get over it. She should get the whole romance idea out of her head because most of the time it doesn't really happen a lot. I also think Ramie is a bit on the self centered side and egotistical. Other than that I have no problems with the book.