Switched

Switched
Amanda Hocking
216 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's
Source: purchased
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I literally just finished reading Switched and I was going to write the review in the morning, but I thought I'd better get it out while it was still fresh in my head because, to be honest, I'm a bit torn over this book.  Here's what I knew going in: Amanda Hocking originally self-published the series and sold millions of copies.  The series was then picked up by a publisher and is now being released both in actual book formant and re-released in ebook format.  So tonight, after buying my brand new Nook Simple Touch, I was dying to try it out and randomly chose Switched because I'd seen a lot of blogger buzz about it recently.  Also, the cover really attracted me.

I'm really happy for Ms. Hocking for pursing her dream and becoming this successful.  She obviously has worked hard as a writer and deserves it.  I'm just on the fence about how I feel about Switched.

On the one hand, it drew me in right away and had me turning those e-pages all night.  I devoured this book in just one evening.  I love me some paranormal YA, particularly when the heroine is swept away form one home to a fancier, more wealthy home and put through some sort of training.  Wendy grew up privileged, but she soon finds out she's actually a troll, a changeling to be exact.  She was swapped for a human baby when she was born to be raised in the human world until she was old enough to return to the Tryelle (troll) world.  Trolls!  This was so new to me.

But on the other hand, Ms. Hocking's description of trolls sounded more like fairies to me.  Why not just call them fairies?  Moreover, I felt like the book fell short in both plot and character development.  The plot moved very quickly, sometimes with what felt like very little transition.  I also felt like I never got the chance to really get to know any of the characters.  Perhaps the background and characters will be fleshed out in future books; I will probably end up reading the next two books in the series, I'm just still not sure how high up on my list they are.

This book was pretty unique and I think that alone means it's worth a read. Ms. Hocking's personal story is pretty amazing and that also makes the book worth a read.  Overall, I would recommend it.  On a slightly related note, I read a rumor of a movie deal for the series.  I'll probably wait for the DVD to show up in Redbox.

1/12 complete!