Buy it on Amazon: Paperback / Ebook
Series: Bodyswap a Bad Hair Day Series
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Reardon Publishing; Illustrated edition edition (February 25, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 190103707X
ISBN-13: 978-1901037074
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.4 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
“A unique take on Male to Female body changing, M2F, gender change, Age Regression, gender bender, possession and School work. Wearing a dress on a job to steal alien technology had not been JJ’s idea, and it did not help that they said he looked cute in high heels. Willingly being infected by an alien parasite had been more of a mistake than clear thinking on his part.Perhaps it had not been the best of ideas to ask for help and protection from a gender confused parasite, whilst wearing a dress and pretending to be a woman. Being blown up, shot, thrown off a cliff and then drowned, looked to be time for a career change. But how was JJ to know the parasite could give him a new life package including changing his age and gender. As for protection “she” could now grow homicidal hair that would bite anyone that tried to touch it or her. She did know it was normal for girls to worry about their hair, but her personal worry was how to explain to the police about the bodies” …Excerpt:…Mistakenly making herself home for an Alien Parasite was not as bad as it sounded or so the voices in her head told her, She was of course too old to have invisible friends, so she had put the voices down to just being mad and normally simply tried to ignore them. Now her hair was a completely different matter as if ignored then it became unmanageable. Looking in the bathroom mirror, what she saw was a naked but well-formed, lightly tanned body. Using two hands, she pushed her breasts up and smiled at the result. Firm-breasted and with an air of someone who looked after her figure, she was “Hot”: shoulder-length natural (or maybe supernatural) blonde Hair had a cute fringe that curled down one side of her face. As she watched, the fringe began to braid itself until it looked more like a snake than a cute hairstyle, and the rest of the Hair had now decided to form a tight bun on the top of her head.She knew it was normal for a girl to worry about her hair, but that was as far as normal went; her personal worry was how to explain to the police about the bodies if she forgot to feed it again, and it would get in a bad mood and kill someone. She had heard of other people having uncontrollable hair, but she was sure that they did not mean it in quite the same way.”
Book Trailer:
Reviews:
A Fun Light Read At A Good Price
“What a trippy synopsis this book offers. Gender swapping, age manipulation, aliens, some guy who may be some sort of secret agent? I may have made that last part up, but you get the picture. It is busy. The idea of lethal hair is kind of neat and by no means new in the world of media, but I can’t think of many books which delve into the topic. Perhaps it works best visually, but it was enough of a hook to get me to purchase the book and give it a try. As with all my reviews I will try to go into the reasons behind my feelings toward the book so you can make your own informed decision. So here is my review of bad hair day, please be warned there are minor spoilers.
We first learn about JJ, who is supposed to be the lead, in the synopsis and he is the first person we meet in the prologue chapter. Really what is happening here is stage setting and everything the synopsis talked about is gone over. I wasn’t wild about the synopsis because I feared the gender swap would be a tool for awkward situations and might offend based on trans bashing. . Ect. The intro really didn’t seem to suggest I would be wrong because while our lead does cross-dress, he spends an awful lot of time fixating on his being a man. Now I should point out, this is entirely based on just the first chapter of the book, which is by volume a hairs length of the story. In fact the entire synopsis is based more or less on the prologue, because once this chapter ends so too does JJ exit our life and a new book is born. No really, parts of the synopsis are still relevant but you could have called it a different book from this point on.
On the first real chapter we learn that our real main character is Abbey, whom is for all she knows, feels, excreta, just a girl. The gender swapping really doesn’t apply to her because she has no sense of being a male nor does she feel out of place in a female body, this is just the life she’s always known. The age regression only happened if you consider her as JJ, but she’s really not, she’s a completely separate and new person and once again, this is just the life she’s known. There is still a lot of alien related stuff and the hair part of the synopsis is real, but basically what you’re actually getting into is a super hero origin story slice of life book for a high schooler. Nothing like the synopsis, but also not all bad. I found myself far more engrossed in what the book is actually about than what the book claimed it would be about.
What I liked about this book is that it was light and fun while pushing a narrative that I think might appeal to some readers, the idea of being a female. There is definitely an industry amongst men for this and you can see it play out in other forms of media (like the male gamer playing a female character). I feel this book will do a good job capturing the sense some of them might be going for and for that crowd I’d recommend it. Additionally if you look at the story as just a girl with weird powers and her life, it isn’t a bad book there either. You could skip or cut out the prologue and forget about JJ and still probably enjoy the book. The biggest caveat I have here is expect something that fits the light novel feel as it isn’t particularly heavy in any sense and there is never really any real conflict to be found.
Another cool thing about this book is the style, the chapters come in very bite sized chunks that are more similar to a short story collection. Actually if you read about this book you’d learn that it started as a couple of short stories and grew from there. This might explain why the synopsis seems only accurate for the prologue and seems to become less so in the actual story. Still the style of bite sized chapters that feel like episodes was kind of fun to read and not in any way a detractor for me.
There are some things about this book I should warn that might turn some readers off. For instance the sexual content is shockingly high for a book that seems to otherwise skirt controversial topics. You might argue the suggestive inclusion of LGBT from the synopsis is also controversial, but the book warns you of the possibility of these elements and furthermore I think in 2017 we can start to pretend at least it isn’t a big deal. The sexual content however is a little out of left field, primarily in that there is a lot of book time dedicated to talking about it and specifically changes to the characters bodies with emphasis on their private parts. Personally this was my biggest objection to the story because it just felt a little gratuitous and unnecessary. For me this wasn’t a deal breaker, but you should be warned in advance that it will come up a lot in this book.
Another complaint someone might have is overall length. By the end you certainly will feel like you’ve read a novella and could be expecting more. It is a short and quick read, but it was also about $3 when I purchased it which is a reasonable price I felt for a story of this length. More content would be nice, but as of this writing there is already a sequel which I plan to pick up. Hopefully it will be more of the same, but I’ll write a review of that when I get around to reading it.
In conclusion I found bad hair day to be a fun, short and quick read and for anyone who was hooked by the synopsis I might recommend it. Sure it is a little misleading (more than a little really) but equipped with that knowledge you should be able to make your own decision. I’m giving it four stars because the sexual content was probably a little heavier than it needed to be and ultimately it was a light read, but that was to be expected as the book never pretends to be award winning drama material. Still fun, still worth picking up.
Feel free to comment, I am happy to discuss my reviews.” Supified, May 16, 2017
Alien Companion Symbiote
“Making drastic changes without understanding what your new host wants results in young guy being turned into anime like cute girl and forgetting his past. I do sympathise with its craving for chocolate.
Amazon write up suggests Ranma like changes from boy to girl and back. Forget the back.” Kindle Customer, March 3, 2016
4.0 Out Of 5 Stars, would Still Read
“A couple of things bother me:
1. dealing with the gender change is done with just amnesia, I get it it’s just after reading smoking hot I had very high expectations.
2. she was a professional criminal/spy and they mention how she is a natural fighter and has talent for martial arts yet on two occasions you have random guy A just straight over power her. I hate this trope overall, I still bought the 2nd book after reading the first.” Amazon Customer, November 7, 2016
A Very Interesting Concept. It Was A Little Short
“A very interesting concept. It was a little short so development of the characters was somewhat light. It was an enjoyable book, but was only the start of a much bigger story.” William H. Strom, March 15, 2016
I Don’t Know
“How to categorize that story, but I like what Amy Mah writes. It is always original and this story is no different. It’s worth a read.” Iori Angel, May 29, 2016
DarkLady Marketing, 2017
All About Amy 