Book Review: Switched (Trylle, #1) by Amanda Hocking
Switched (Trylle, #1) by Amanda Hocking. © 2012 St. Martin’s Griffin. ISBN 9781250006318. Trade Paperback. Young Adult / Urban Fantasy. 320 pages. Source: ARC won through LibraryThing Early Readers.
“When Wendy Everly was six-years old, her mother was convince she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed – a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy‘s not sure she wants to be a part of it.” — from GoodReads
I want to start out this review by saying that I have not read Amanda’s original self-published version of Switched and so I cannot compare the two. If you are reading this to see my thoughts regarding the previous version versus this one, I’m going to have to disappoint you. My review will talk solely about the professionally edited version soon to be released by St. Martin’s Press (as received through LibraryThing’s Early Readers program).
The opening is amazing; it begins with a six year old Wendy being aggressed by her crazed mother who is wielding a butcher knife so I was more than hooked from the first paragraph.
I went into this book sort of expecting something a little on the Twilight side of things (i.e., girl is dependent on ‘strong’ male because her life revolves around him to the point of utter scariness) … but I was actually pleasantly surprised. I found Amanda’s world-building very intriguing, her characters are real and strong, and her writing is solid (even if I couldn’t quite buy trolls as human-like beings who simply have special elemental gifts – but that‘s more my sensibilities than Amanda‘s writing). Because of that, the slow mundane-ish bits of the story are still as propulsive as the conflict-driven ones.
For those who are fairly familiar with Western folklore, you will undoubtedly figure out the “monster” Wendy is supposed to be after only about a few chapters but that doesn’t make the reveal any less magical (and I’m not referring the troll bit mentioned above). As you can see, I’m staying away from getting into the plot because it’s best read for yourself. However, I will say that Switched reminded me a lot of a supernatural Princess Diaries. But I shan’t say more, only urge lovers of paranormal YA to pick this up! I owe a big thank you to this book for pulling me up out of my YA slump; I cannot wait to read more! 4/5.
(Pssst. I also hear there are movies in the works! I really hope this series kicks Twilight’s arse…)
