Memoirs of a Shape-Shifter offers a variation on chick-lit: a literary novel, written by a man, with a fully configured female lead character. In giving centrality to a female protagonist and refreshing attention to women's inner lives, its plot is an answer to the frequent criticism that modern novels'even those written by women'do not do justice to the real challenges faced by women today. Yet this particular male author twists the prevailing wisdom whether called ?male? or ?female, ? bringing a darker perspective to common fairy tale notions of love. In taking up the difficulties of love experienced by real women in contemporary America, Kaplan-Maxfield vividly penetrates the complex soul of a modern everywoman in protagonist Nikki Helmik. Provocatively enacting the mystery at the heart of the book'the power of words to make magic'he stands our conventional understanding of power on its head.