When the book opens with teenagers being punished by forcing their involvement in the school play, which happens to be the Twelfth Night, you know it is going to be a good story. When two characters get into the troublesome situation of body-swapping, the story gets even more interesting. While the book dated itself with its many pop culture references (like, are these references going to age well and give the book longevity?), it was still a quirky, humorous story. that I found to be truly unique.

Freaky friday meets shes the man
A coming of age story of 2 teens trying to figure out what they want and it takes a little switcheroo to help things become what they should be.

This book was really unique. I enjoyed it a ton. The characters were quirky and entertaining. I thoughily enjoyed the plot as well, I’ll definitely read another book by the author

Ezra Slevin is a nerdy insomniac who has his own secret YouTube channel full of him doing skits of Johnny Depp characters from all his movies. He's also had a crush on Imogen since they did a Shakespeare play together in 4th grade. Ezra's problem, other than his innate shyness, is Wynonna Jones, Imogen's best friend. Ezra and his best friend Holden break into the school on the night of the eclipse so Ezra can ask Imogen to prom. Sadly Wynonna finds them first and she has no intention of letting Ezra anywhere near her best friend. When Holden, often the target of Wynonna's bullying, tries to run interference, a scuffle ensues and all hell breaks loose. Ezra and Wynonna begin a series of "Freaky Friday-ish" body switching that lasts throughout the book. Although the reasons for it are never clearly explained (a definite negative of the book).

What I really liked about the book was <spoiler>the friendship that develops between Ezra and Wynonna. (I'm a sucker for platonic girl/boy friendships in YA lit, there's just not enough of them).</spoiler> I also enjoyed how the author was able to portray real teens having struggles that they hide from the rest of the world (including their families). For the most part, that rang true for me.

The book was entertaining, but several things just didn't work for me. First, the pop culture references were far more relatable to my generation (80s - 90s) than to today's teens. If the characters hadn't all had their own cars and cell phones, this book could easily have taken place in the 1980s.

The other thing that just didn't work for me was the gender fluidity. The more Ezra and Wynonna stayed in each other's bodies, the more they both began to consider themselves "a little gay" (direct quote from Holden in the book). <spoiler>For example, Holden was all over Wynonna whether she was in her own body or in Ezra's, even though he had never before considered himself at all gay.</spoiler> That just didn't ring true. Instead, I felt like the author wrote the book specifically to convince the reader that gender fluidity is a real thing that can happen to anyone under the right set of circumstances. Being a cis straight woman, I cannot really speak to the experiences of those who identify as gender fluid, but the constant focus on this from the author just didn't strike me as genuine - it felt more like an agenda than a story. Which honestly, was a disappointment because the story was pretty good for the first 80% or so before it got so preachy.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow wow wow, I really liked this book! It was quirky, hilarious, and very well-written. The characters were dynamic and interesting and the way this plays into the body swapping is great. Each character is dealing with something, even down to the secondary characters, and I really felt close to all of them. The author covered sexuality in a way I haven't really heard before and, though I don't personally relate to how it comes up in the book, I think it was so important to see in a YA book (or any book for that matter). Honestly, this book was really beautiful and funny- you should definitely read it.

This book was one that I really struggled to get into. It seemed to me that aside from Ezra, none of the characters really seemed to be fleshed out enough to be realistic. They all seemed to be more of a parody of characters. I felt like if there had been more on each of the characters to make them more realistic, it might have been an interesting story, but as it is, I just couldn't enjoy the book.

I wanted to love this book but I couldn't. I agree with many other reviewers about this book. It was the style of writing, pacing, and characterization that threw me off. I'm an adult that loves to read many genres of books. And YA is one of them. This book was not what I was expecting at all. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

This book was written for pop culture enthusiasts, nerds, and others everywhere. One of the funniest books that I have read in a very long time. Norton encapsulated the torment of being in love, in high school and not quite fitting in or understanding oneself. Then once you are wrapped in that misery, he takes it a step further. Switching bodies between female and male characters who don’t really like each other all that much and allowing for such a personal insight was funny and allowed feelings of empathy for each person’s personal baggage. Looking for more Preston Norton on Amazon and hoping that someone make a movie out of this book.

I was weary going into this about how to author would pull off an original version of freaky friday and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it all came out.

Ezra and Wynonna were quite an unlikely pair and end up really getting to the bare bones of each other to figure a way to handle the situation.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
Quirky and cute teenage rom-com that actually manages to touch on lots of modern topics - sexual harassment, gender fluidity, etc. Our teenage protagonists are stuck in a weird "Freaky Friday" style body switching routine while also performing the play Twelfth Night, adding an additional dimension to the body swapping situation. What could possibly go wrong there, right?

I do wish there had been more about the circumstances behind the swapping (its not overly explained) and more insights into how the characters navigated their regular high school lives, not just the parts that revolved around their love interests and the play. Overall, a fun read that I think a younger YA audience would enjoy.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a bit to get into this book, but once I did, it was interesting to read. It was a lot like Freaky Friday and another movie (or two) I have seen. I liked the details of both boy/girl perspectives - it provided some good humor.

I received a copy of this Where I End and You Begin from Disney Book Group through Netgalley.

The description if this book had me at Twelfth Night and body swaps but it is so much deeper than that.

It's not just a guy trying to get the girl, it's also about building meaningful friendships and being honest with yourself.

I loved this book and would definitely recommend it.

Where I End and You Begin is quirky and delightful. Ezra is struggling - he can't sleep, he agonizes over everything and he is just trying to figure out where he belongs in the vast universe. The one thing he thinks he knows is that his life would be better if he could just get up the courage to ask Imogen - his longtime crush - to the prom. However, everything changes during the night of the solar eclipse. Ezra and Willow - Imogen's badass, best friend - begin body swapping and come to know each other in ways they never expected. Throw in a high school drama production of Twelfth Night, family drama, teenage romance and all of the sarcasm and angst associated and the result is a funny and lovely story about friendship, love and figuring out who we are really meant to be.

Fascinating read. One part Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a bit of the Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, and a lot of gender norm questions that are witty yet poignant.

Overall rating: 2.5-3 stars

Thank you, Disney, for sending me this ARC through NetGalley! I'm a huge Twelfth Night fan and was excited to read this book when I read the premise.

That being said, even though I read the book in a day, I found it underwhelming. I think there was a lot of promise at the beginning, but the book was so all over the place. Let's start with things that I liked about it:
- exploration of gender and sexuality: this part was awesome. I love how this book questions gender norms and what it means to be attracted to someone.
- platonic friendships: there! are! so! many! good! friendships! Seriously though, I enjoyed the abundance of m/f and m/m friendships.

Now with what could be improved upon:
- the plot: when I say this book was all over the place, it wasn't necessary hard to follow; instead, it felt like the author had so many threads that he didn't know what to do with them. Some were deftly resolved, others were knots that even Maniac Magee wouldn't know what to do with.
- underdeveloped characters: Wynonna and, to some extent, Ezra are the only fully developed characters. I wanted to know more about Imogen, but she felt so flat at the end of the book.
- the weird Johnny Depp parts: I don't even know how to parse this. Basically, Ezra does these Johnny Depp impersonations, though he doesn't idolize Depp as a person, just as an actor. There's a throwaway line about separating the art from the artist, which is just...I'm not going to dive too deep into this, but using domestic violence allegations as an example of Depp's weirdness did not settle in great with me.
- the long explainy parts: ugh less of these, please. I don't need a multi-paragraph explanation of Twelfth Night. I think this book could've used a few more rounds of editing, so I'd wait to see how the finished copy deals with that.

This book could've been so much more, but I felt so disappointed once I reached the end.

I enjoyed the freaky Friday vibe I got from this book I’m so glad I got to read this early I’m totally going to recommend it to everybody!

This was a Freaky Friday and Twelfth Night mash-up that I really enjoyed. Norton does a stellar job writing in a voice that's relatable for the YA audience. Characters were well-developed and easy to connect with. Some of the pop-culture references were hit or miss for today's audience. So many laugh-out-loud moments. As a middle school teacher, I would recommend this to students with a bit more maturity, as some of the themes require it. But it's a solid read and definitely adding it to my classroom shelves.

I received a free ARC of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Between this and Neanderthal, I am a BIG, HUGE fan of Preston Norton. This was one of the most entertaining and insightful books I’ve read in a long time. I need to buy a hard copy when it comes out just so I can mark all of the passages I will be repeating for, like, ever!!! Or a really long time anyway. Oh, Wynezra, I love ya so.

It took a little bit to get into this because of the swapping bodies. But not to long, and I loved that the author had Ezra refer to Wynonna as Wynezra when she was in his body. That really helped. The language was a little strong to me, but I am realizing that seems to hold true with most YA. My generation was raised that intelligence can always find a better description. Sad that that is still not the case. All in all though I thought this was a great book.

This was a fun new take on a classic YA contemporary trope. I think high school readers will definitely enjoy this story!