When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might’ve been telling the truth. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed – and it’s one she’s not sure if she wants to be a part of.
- ISBN: 9781453688939
- Author: Hocking, Amanda
- Published: 2010 , CreateSpace
- Themes: Fairies, paranormal, Supernatural, troll
- Descriptors: Fantasy, Intermediate (ages 9-14), United States, Young Adult (ages 14-18)
- No. of pages: 306
This is a book that can be read and transacted with on a number of levels. First and foremost it is a darn good read! Well paced, chock full of interesting characters, scented with the whiff of sex (just a whiff mind you!) but plenty of longing, this is one of those books that could be called a “guilty pleasure” or “summer reading.” Yet, Switched is that but so much more.
I write “more” because this novel explores, with no didacticism, some really heavy themes. Universal issues such as family, belonging, identity, and making difficult decisions are woven seamlessly through the fast-paced story line. This may be one of those rare texts that straddle the no-man’s-land between light reading and serious fiction. I have yet to come across this rare bread in YA fiction ( I certainly have read everything) but would place books by Jonathan Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules, etc.) in this category. Like Mr. Irving’s work, Ms. Hocking’s novel is FUN to read while speaking volumes about the human condition, at least the kind of human condition.
The main character, Wendy, is a Trylle (or troll) and she does have some budding superpowers. But unlike so much of what is out there in the YA vampiric world, the emphasis is on Wendy’s search for identity and what it means to belong. All the characters are layered and human or not, illustrate the confusing mess life can be. Wendy is unique in that she has sexual desire and is okay with it. The nuanced relationship she has with her tracker (kind of body guard) is given to the reader from the girl’s perspective and while it is sexually charged, it is what it is, with no moral baggage attached.
I leave this novel glad that my daughter and her friends surreptitiously read it under cover of a textbook when they should have been paying attention to Algebra. While I can only read for myself, I believe transacting with this book has made me think and also reinforced the idea that reading should be FUN and EASYGOING, at least some of the time.