TG Book Review: The Freshman Experience by Maxwell Avoi

(Originally posted on Tumblr)

In an attempt to make this Tumblr a little more than just captions, I’m going to post occasional reviews of TF-related stories I’ve read. I finished The Freshman Experience recently, and had to share my thoughts.

I’m a big fan of universes where stuff like magic is integrated into everyday life, and of various schools of witchcraft and wizardry, so that’s what drew me to give this story a shot. Avoi does well with it, following a college freshman at a magic university who falls prey to an upperclassman prank. The prank involves some fun (and seriously sexy) transformations, and the protagonist works with other affected freshmen to try to unravel the spell they’ve fallen under before it’s too late. 

The book is full of good ideas, with interesting uses of magic that create a very dynamic status quo, and a series of ticking time bombs for the protagonist. The relationships between the affected freshmen feel very well-realized, and are not what you normally see in magical gender transformation erotica stories. By giving us a large group of similarly-transformed people, Avoi’s able to explore characters in more depth than a typical Fictionmania “I’ve turned into a girl, this is how it affects my friends/family/significant other” fashion. 

There are a few issues. Avoi’s juggling a lot of characters here, and all the transformed freshmen have both male and female names. As a result, there are several passages where Avoi mixes up two similar names of different characters. It’s a minor thing, but speaks to the value of close editing. There are some mind control/alteration aspects that make for dubious-at-best consent in some of the sex scenes, which squicks me out a bit. Finally, the plot resolves somewhat abruptly (and a bit too tidily), and rests on something that should have occurred to the characters early on. It’s a bit too deus ex machina, and makes the work done by the protagonist & his pals throughout largely a red herring. 

Despite those issues, I really did like The Freshman Experience, and I’d be very interested to see more from this universe. Avoi has a fun style that fits well with my particular interests, and this is my favorite thing I’ve read of his so far. You can get it at Amazon as a solo ebook for $3.99, or in the Fantastic Variations bundle with four other stories for just a dollar more!