X, Y

Rating:
Summary: great concept, flawed delivery
Review: The book has a great concept. After losing her memory, or maybe having switched bodies with a man, Frankie first has to gain her boyfriend's help in trying to get her back into the right body. The power dynamics of the relationship and how each tortures each other as they doubt each other is wonderful. But often the book gets bogged down with random medical documents in an attempt at grounding it and most of the emotional drive of the realtionship are underplayed or repeated over several chapters. An interesting try at a great concept though.

Rating:
Summary: great concept, flawed delivery
Review: The book has a great concept. After losing her memory, or maybe having switched bodies with a man, Frankie first has to gain her boyfriend's help in trying to get her back into the right body. The power dynamics of the relationship and how each tortures each other as they doubt each other is wonderful. But often the book gets bogged down with random medical documents in an attempt at grounding it and most of the emotional drive of the realtionship are underplayed or repeated over several chapters. An interesting try at a great concept though.

Rating:
Summary: Great idea, but not that successful
Review: The opening is great. Right away the reader is thrown into confusion along with the main character as his consciousness is thrown into the body of a nubile stripper, and I love how Blumlein plays a bit with the methods of power women have over men. However, little is made of a real comparison of the processes and thoughts of men and women and how they differ. There is also an extreme lack of detail over the physical change. For example, I really wonder how this person dealt with their first period and if s/he ever had real attractions to men. If a person is biologically a woman, but mentally a man, does that make s/he gay if s/he has an attraction to men? More questions like these could have really elevated this book above what it is.

There are attempts at moving beyond the commercial novel form with some insertions of medical texts that explain the transformation by blending reality and fantasy. Read in the right light, it does illuminate slightly on the interpretation of the text, but really does not move the story and will probably bog down less adventurous readers.
As fresh and interesting as his short fiction is, I found Blumlein's novel a mild dissapointment.

Rating:
Summary: Great idea, but not that successful
Review: The opening is great. Right away the reader is thrown into confusion along with the main character as his consciousness is thrown into the body of a nubile stripper, and I love how Blumlein plays a bit with the methods of power women have over men. However, little is made of a real comparison of the processes and thoughts of men and women and how they differ. There is also an extreme lack of detail over the physical change. For example, I really wonder how this person dealt with their first period and if s/he ever had real attractions to men. If a person is biologically a woman, but mentally a man, does that make s/he gay if s/he has an attraction to men? More questions like these could have really elevated this book above what it is.

There are attempts at moving beyond the commercial novel form with some insertions of medical texts that explain the transformation by blending reality and fantasy. Read in the right light, it does illuminate slightly on the interpretation of the text, but really does not move the story and will probably bog down less adventurous readers.
As fresh and interesting as his short fiction is, I found Blumlein's novel a mild dissapointment.