5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A witty, engaging, and comical story about friendship, November 17, 2005
This review is from: M or F? (Hardcover)
On the Internet, you can be anyone you want to be --- and so can everyone else. You never know if the person tapping hilarious answers to your questions is the girl of your dreams --- or her gay best friend.
In M OR F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts, Frannie has a crush. And for once it's on someone suitable: Jeffrey Osborne. Hot, friendly and socially responsible, he seems to be the man of her dreams. The only problem is that Frannie freezes up around him. She'll relax when she gets to know him better, right?
In the meantime, there's the Internet. Frannie and Jeffrey chat almost every night, and the online conversation is intelligent, smooth and sizzling with chemistry. The fact that the person actually writing the words isn't Frannie at all, but her gay best friend Marcus --- well, that's just a minor detail, right? After all, Frannie is right in the room with Marcus when he's writing. Well, at least at first. When Marcus continues chatting to Jeffrey under Frannie's screen name, without telling anyone what he's doing, things get complicated. Who's falling in love with who?
M OR F? is a fun, breezy, updated version of the classic Cyrano de Bergerac story. Told in alternating perspectives by Frannie and Marcus, the quick pace will keep the reader turning pages. Many scenes are laugh-out-loud hilarious. And just when you think you've figured out exactly what is going on, the story twists and turns and you have to scramble to keep up.
Although both main characters are engaging, I found Marcus particularly well-drawn. This is not a coming-out story; Marcus is secure in his sexuality and neither angst-ridden nor persecuted for it. In fact, most of the important characters in the book are very supportive. But their high school isn't Utopia; there's a well-meaning but clueless faculty advisor for the Gay Students Association, for example, and a few homophobic classmates lurking in the halls. It's a realistic scenario that adds believability to the madcap antics that seem to follow both characters.
Despite some slapstick, M OR F? relies heavily on witty conversation, both for its humor and to develop its characters --- and fortunately for the reader, the conversation works on many levels. Parts of the novel read like a segment from an episode of "Will and Grace," minus the sexual references. (The focus of M or F? is always on friendship and light romance, and neither discussion nor action ever progresses beyond kissing.)
Papademetriou and Tebbetts are careful to show the small details that make Frannie and Marcus's friendship meaningful. Ultimately, M OR F? is more about their relationship with each other and the test of that relationship. This is both the core of the book and its strength, and is one reason why readers might be happy to read it again and again.
--- Reviewed by Paula Jolin
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Defies the format of most typical high school romance stories, April 1, 2006
This review is from: M or F? (Hardcover)
M or F? by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts defies the format of most typical high school romance stories. Like many, it combines a story of friendship with a story of romance. Frannie falls for an attractive guy that her best friend Marcus actually approves of. His name is Jeffrey Osborne and he's all too perfect: popular, smart, gorgeous, and sincere. Frannie even has the opportunity to speak to him online. Here's the twist, though: Frannie gets too queasy to talk to him by herself. So instead, her gay best friend does the talking for her. Eventually, while things are getting hot, Marcus gets out of control and starts chatting with Jeffrey without Frannie knowing. This tests Frannie and Marcus's friendship, and makes both of them struggle to learn which is stronger: friendship or love?
It was a pleasure to read M or F? and I recently recommended it to friends of mine who are members of our school's GSA. Not being able relate to Frannie's struggle of deciding whether Jeffrey is falling for her or for her "brain twin," Marcus, shouldn't stop you from reading the book. No one I know escapes fights with friends over what type of relationship is most important. Organized into chapters from both Frannie and Marcus's perspectives, it is easy and enjoyable to hear both sides of the story for once. As your eyes latch onto the neon-colored cover, your natural paranoia and compassion will latch onto Frannie's mind in this realistic high school setting.
Reviewed by Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good light fun!, October 18, 2005
This review is from: M or F? (Hardcover)
I thoroughly enjoyed this teenage "comedy of errors" set in the world of chatrooms. It's fun, and it also gets points for a plot twist that makes perfect sense in retrospect, but that I didn't see coming (the best kind!). Enjoy!
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