(no subject)

[skygiants]

A while back rymenhild recommended me Preston Norton's Where I End & You Begin, a YA novel about bodyswapping youths during a high school production of Twelfth Night.

Knowing Rym, I had confidence that she was not going to rec me a Twelfth Night take that wasn't at least a little queer, and I am happy to report that this book exceeded my expectations in this regard! As well as several other regards!

The main cast:

Ezra, our first-person protagonist, a depressed, anxious, gender-uncomfortable insomniac with a secret passion for ACTING!!! and also a secret, vaguely stalkerish passion for:
Imogen, a very tall, sweet literary nerd with very large eyebrows and a secret passion for someone who is, unfortunately, not Ezra
Wynonna, Imogen's best friend, a depressed, dyslexic ball of rage who thinks Ezra is a giant creep, but is nursing a secret passion for:
Holden, Ezra's best friend, a tiny anarchist who is nursing a secret passion for absolutely no one. At least at the start of the book! But this is a Twelfth Night and anything can change!

In the first chapter of the book, our kids break into the high school to see the eclipse. The break-in gets them condemned to indentured theater servitude in the high school's production of Twelfth Night, which has just lost all its cast members due to a drug scandal among the theater kids; in a very slightly more implausible turn of events, the eclipse mysteriously kicks off a round of body-swapping between a horrified Ezra and Wynonna, who wake up in each other's bodies every morning and then spend an inconveniently unpredictable amount of each day swapped before switching back.

Although Ezra and Wynonna hate each other, they decide to strike an alliance and make use of the body-swapping situation to woo each other's secret crushes as prom dates, using their premiere best-friend knowledge. This, obviously, is a terrible idea! It goes horribly wrong in about six different ways! And I'm not going to lie, there's a LOT of secondhand embarrassment entailed in this, especially in the first half of the book -- but the whole mistaken identity rom-com situation comes to a head about halfway through, which means that the back half of the book has the opportunity to develop the really fantastic, weird, deep platonic friendship between Ezra and Wynonna as they live each other's lives, explore each other's family situations (Ezra using the bodyswap situation to get closer to freshman baby sister Willow, a tiny goth living through her own high school horror show, is my favorite subplot in the book) and, finally, figure out a little better how to live as themselves.

Also the theater stuff is adorable and I have a deep fondness for the background theater cast members, who barely have any lines to speak but are great as described. Big ups to gay vigilante Sebastian, infamous for hunting down his boyfriend's bullies one by one while wearing a Friday the 13th mask!

I truly loved this book, which by the end became much warmer and sweeter and more complex than I expected from the beginning and the setup. That said, in addition for the high secondhand embarrassment potential of teenagers making well-meant but terrible decisions, I do want to issue specific warnings for a.) the dub-con sort of inherent in all bodyswap romance situations b.) a lot of pretty explicit discussions of various bodily functions (the scene where Wynonna has to help an Ezra insert a tampon is particularly memorable) c.) a subplot about a fourteen-year-old being pressured into sexual situations and d.) a subplot about coping with the death of a parent.

Anyway, here's some spoilery things that delighted me
- all the kids are so queer! ALL THE KIDS ARE SO QUEER. I honestly wanted them to keep bodyswapping forever but I will accept 'they can stop bodyswapping now that Ezra-as-Ezra is comfortable playing with gender presentation'
- Holden's cheerful acceptance of the fact that he's into Wynonna in whatever body, and the subsequent constant running joke of Ezra and Wynonna inconveniently swapping back to their own bodies in the middle of Holden/Wynezra makeouts, made me scream with laughter
- love that Imogen by the end of the book is still not sure where on the Kinsey scale she falls; I was expecting to be mildly disgruntled by endgame Ezra/Imogen and IN FACT I was charmed. The prom scene where Ezra encourages her to go dance with the other cute lesbian and the subsequent scene where she goes dizzy for Ezra in a dress!
- THE PROM! The prom where they bodyswap in the middle and cheerfully swap partners for the photo, I loved it so much
- also the grand finale of the play where they do the inconvenient swap and then Ezra just goes out and NAILS IT as Viola, A DELIGHT
- also! also! THE AIRPLANE SCENE. I can't believe how much I loved the dramatic airplane chase scene! and the group hug with Wynonna's dad that they body-swap in the middle of!
- and also, while I'm talking about family stuff, Willow figuring out and believing in the bodyswap first made me feel a lot of feelings
- as did Ezra and Wynonna going together, while body-swapped, to call out Ezra's parents
- honestly everything in the last couple chapters where Ezra and Wynonna go together to deal with each other's family situations was amazing, I love these kids and the fact that they're now just an unstoppable unit so, so much!

Comments

[oracne]

THIS SOUNDS TERRIFIC.

[skygiants]

It was a genuine delight!

[sophia_sol]

oh dang so I feel like the first half of the book might be challenging for me due to all the secondhand embarrassment stuff but this otherwise sounds SO GOOD that I feel like I have to give it a try!!!

[skygiants]

Yeah I definitely wanted to make sure you had a heads-up for the secondhand embarrassment stuff in advance, but I think it would help knowing where the ending is going! (I spent much of the beginning of the book very concerned about hypothetical endings that would be fine for the characters but annoying for me ...)

[sophia_sol]

♥ I appreciate you making sure I have the info I need for what to expect!

[ellen_fremedon]

WOW THIS SOUNDS AMAZING.

[skygiants]

I really loved it & am still thinking about all the cool bodyswap stuff it does I haven't seen elsewhere!

[kore]

SOLD

[skygiants]

EXCELLENT :D

[rymenhild]

:D

[skygiants]

Did you notice that if they did keep on swapping, they'd form a perfect sedoretu?

[hilarita]

Thanks for the review! I can see from it that it's amazing and also not for me, because of the embarrassment factor.

[skygiants]

Yeah I definitely wanted to write it up in full (rather than just shouting enthusiastically about it on Twitter) because there's a LOT of stuff I think people should be braced for going in, and it definitely wouldn't be for everyone!

[chestnut_pod]

This sounds absolutely wild and I must read it immediately.

[skygiants]

It's EXTREMELY wild and also extremely willing to just, like, stop for a chapter and recap the plot of She's The Man, something which I also appreciate as I She's The Man is a masterpiece of our times.

[sovay]

Holden's cheerful acceptance of the fact that he's into Wynonna in whatever body, and the subsequent constant running joke of Ezra and Wynonna inconveniently swapping back to their own bodies in the middle of Holden/Wynezra makeouts, made me scream with laughter

Yay, Holden!

[skygiants]

Holden's a good lad who deserves to be supported through his very, very brief crisis of sexuality (he has a much more significant crisis over the number of times he casually farted in front of Wynezra before learning about the swap.)

[landofnowhere]

Wow, this sounds pretty cool!

[skygiants]

I did not expect so much about the book and I'm so happy with it!

[landofnowhere]

I'm puzzled that I can't seem to find an excerpt online! But the library has it, so I will get around to it.

[marginaliana]

indentured theater servitude - given my high school experience, this seems very legit!

[skygiants]

Wait, is "take detention OR act in the school play, oh my god, we're so desperate" a real, actual thing that happens to people?

[ethelmay]

My daughter ended up helping with the yearly musical in a desperate bid to get enough service hours to graduate, which isn't quite the same thing. The choir teacher, to whom she appealed, said she needed someone to manage a bit of stage business and play the triangle, and my daughter was so excited she forgot she was speaking to a teacher and said, "I will play the fuck out of that triangle!" Which, I may add, she did.

[alias_sqbr]

Bodyswap (Queer) Twelfth Night is something I never knew I wanted o.O I don't usually like YA but will brave the genre for this.

[skygiants]

ME NEITHER and I'm honestly in awe of the galaxy brain author who was like 'how do I fully channel the complex identity and sexuality-related themes of this play in a modern setting? OH, BODYSWAP, OBVIOUSLY"

[larryhammer]

This. Sounds. Like. My. Catnip.

TOTALLY my 'nip.

[skygiants]

yesssss

I hope you enjoy if you read it! :D

[larryhammer]

Just got it from the library. First page is primo.