firstborntwinja

Actual score 2.75

This book has a really interesting set up that peaked my interest when I was asked to review it. The plot revolves around Ethan, 14 year old boy that discovers he's from a race of people called Changers that transform every year in high school and are stuck like that all year. They have to chronicle their experiences as a different person and by the end of high school they have to choose who they wanted to be out of those 4 experiences. Very cool!

In Ethan's case, he went from being a a boy to a girl and life knows that has to be hard. He had a lot of struggle with it throughout the book but after a while I forgot that he was born a boy. He transitioned into a girl so naturally that that became his new identity. I can only imagine that's what it's like for transgendered people. I don't entirely know and I don't want to compare it without offending another person but I imagine for trans people you wake up in this body you don't believe is yours, you feel the opposite of what you were born and that's a scary feeling. This book touches a similar base to the transgender identity.

The worldbuilding in the book wasn't anything really special.I understood what was explained to me but I can't help feeling like I was missing details or that they're could have been more to the history of how the Changers came to be.

I think all in all this book was cute. Outside of Ethan living his life as a girl instead of how he was born, there wasn't really any diversity. I liked the relationships between some characters particularly between him and his best friend Audrey. But I just felt like there could have been more to keep my interest. I read it, enjoyed it but it wasn't life changing. I like the idea of being a different person for an entire year but what would be cooler is being to change into both male and female and being able to wake up as a different race. Imagine how different your experiences would be being a white girl for one year, and the next your a black guy. That would change how the whole world sees you, your experiences would be waaaay more complex. And think about it....the next person you change into is a female to male transgender of Indian descent. If the concept of the book was like this, I would invest way more into the series. But if the main protagonist doesn't learn anything new in the second installment, I may not continue with the series. After all what more can you learn if you just change into another white teenage boy?

I received this book in exchange for an honest review via the publisher/publicist