Switched, by Amanda Hocking

- Trylle Trilogy #1
Release date: January 3rd 2012
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 3/5 stars
Find it on: Goodreads,  Amazon











When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

My thoughts:
  
Have you ever read a book that alarmed you, in some way, after Chapter One? Have you ever felt angry after a couple of pages, enough to set off your alarms and make you want to stop reading it? That's what Switched did to me. The premise was interesting at first, a girl whose mother had tried to kill her, based on some crazy instinct, when she was six. Same girl finding out her mother was right, years later. Finding out that she isn't human, but a different race, a changeling. Yeah, the synopsis picked my curiosity, but after 20 pages or so, my eyes were bleeding. 

What bothered me most about Switched was the romance. Now, you're probably thinking, "But a book has more to it than just the romance". And I agree with you. But when the author decides to write a romance novel, it has to have some depth. I, personally, like to see the main character's personality developing a little, to give me a sense of what she would or wouldn't do in certain cases. To give me a sense of who the main character is. Only then, the romance is welcoming. That didn't happen in Switched, at all. Finn, the love interest, is introduced to us in the tenth page or so. How, God Almighty, am I supposed to understand Wendy's attraction to Finn, if I don't even know her?

As the story goes on and on about what changelings are (not much of an answer provided there, either), and what Wendy is supposed to do in order to fit in the changeling society, I just couldn't connect with her at all. It was like I was watching a soup opera, a bunch of characters interacting with each other without depth. I couldn't see past Wendy's narration, I couldn't understand why she liked Finn so much, and what the hell was so special about her. Apart from her powers, she's ordinary, painfully so.

Not to mention that their romance is ridiculous, in the beginning. The guy stalks her, and even though she actually wonders if he's a psycho... she gives him access to her room, in the middle of the night, right after he treated her like dirt. What is wrong with this girl? I was outraged by this, and other parts in which her self-preservation is absent. That's why I was so angry. However, their romance began to work a lot better after a 100 pages or so.


I guess I would've enjoyed Switched a lot more if I had liked the characters. There wasn't a single character in this book that I mildly connected to. They were flat, not interesting, and though I can see why a lot of people loved this book, the story itself didn't feel appealing to me. Don't get me wrong. I didn't hate Switched. I just wasn't drawn by it. I may even read the next book in the trilogy, Torn. Who knows!