It’s not a super power if you can’t control it! Jason Miller’s biggest worries were keeping up with his homework, paying for his classic jazz habit,and hiding the fact that he carried a flip phone. But then one day he finds himself teleporting from place to place, a talent he can’t control. It gets worse when he lands in an alternate world, one that has many, many more women than men. It sounds … sounds great until Jason learns the downside to being a precious commodity: Having a harem is no fun when you’re the one who’s locked up.
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Read for 2021 SPSFC
Overall Thoughts
I had a hard time placing this book, and my perception of it changed several times while reading. On the surface, this is about men who can travel to an alternate Earth where most of those with XY chromosomes have been decimated by a virus. That part is pretty intriguing, but as I got deeper into this one, there were a couple elements that gave me pause. This is treated as a YA book, as the protagonist is almost 17, it deals with school and relationships, and has some simpler moral questions. However, there is a LOT of fairly explicit content, including liberal swearing (which, fine), but also some pretty graphic description of an underage male’s sexual organs and sex positions. Basically, it gave me a bit of squick while reading it, even though the story was good. There was quite a bit of male gaze, objectifying women (which had some to do with the plot but not all), and I thought this was particularly strange coming from a female writer. I wasn’t completely sure if this was intended for teenage males, or other genders, or intended for older audiences (more squick)? However, I felt it stuck the landing at the end and gave some good reasons for what happened, which is what put it in this position.
Plot
Most of this deals with how certain men are able to go to an alternate reality if they get both aroused and then terrified at the same time. Right there this sets the tone, as much of the (horny, young) protagonist’s thoughts are about “hot women” and how to get laid. This tone changes drastically…sort of…when the young man in question gets to the alternate world. Here most of the men (I’m sticking to stereotypical gender norms because that’s what’s used in the book) have been killed off and men are now kept in harems of women, who both run the world and also demand sex and procreation from the few remaining men. This doesn’t stop the young protagonist from leering at anything with breasts for most of the book, but he gets his comeuppance, as in the alternate world it is men who are leered at. He does eventually learn some lessons while hijinks ensue…
Setting
There’s some clever worldbuilding here in the alternate world, and over the course of the book, more and more information is gradually doled out. This turned out to be one of the saving graces for me as it made the plot a bit more complex, and some of the rash decisions made had real consequences for both the main and secondary characters. Learning the workings of a world where men are carefully controlled and apportioned in order to continue the human species poses some crunchy moral dilemmas, for both men and women. Non-binary people are unfortunately not featured, but I’d love to see how that works in this universe.
Character
Mostly, we’re in the head of Jason, a young, inexperienced, and very horny man. While that aspect of the book sometimes got a little annoying, I definitely remember being that young and hormonal, so I believe it’s pretty accurate as well. Again, this book as written by a woman who seems to be older than me, so good job getting into the head of a teenage boy!
Jason sees some interesting character development, especially near the end of the book when faced with some of the consequences of his actions, but for the larger part of the story, he thinks with his, ah, other head. I was happy to see both gay and lesbian people taken into account during the story, though unfortunately no non-binary people. Per fitting a YA story, there wasn’t the depth of character arcs in adult books, but it was an enjoyable and quick read overall.
Score out of 10 (My personal score, not the final contest score)
Temporary score until more books in the contest are read: Not sure exactly the intended audience for the book, as it includes some fairly explicit underage sex between teens, but overall a well plotted and enjoyable story. 5/10.