Switched was originally first published as an e-book in 2010 by a young American writer, Amanda Hocking. Hocking first started as a group home worker, until 2010, when she wrote a whopping 17 novels in her free time. During the spring of 2010, she started to publish her books as e-books. And by 2011, she had sold over a million copies of her nine books and earned over two million dollars from sales. In March 2011, Hocking signed her very first book publishing contract with St. Martin’s Press. The contract included the publishing of her four books, three of which were apart of the Trylle series, which was re-released in January-April 2012. All of Hocking’s books are young adult fiction and they focus on paranormal romance. Also in February 2011, the Trylle series (thank goodness, I am so hyped for this!) was optioned for a film, with Terra Tatchell taking care of the screenplay.
Okay, so now let’s start with the book itself. I accidentally first picked out the second part of the series from the library and had to wait months to get my hands on the first part. And let me tell you, it was worth it! Switched got me hooked during the very first chapter and I just had to keep on reading and reading.
The book begins with the main character of the whole series, Wendy Everly, describing an awful incident that took place 11 years ago. Her mother, Kim, started accusing the 6-year old Wendy of being a monster and taking away her child. Things get out of hand, and Kim tries to kill Wendy, but only manages to cause a severe injury on her stomach. Ever since Kim got the newborn in her arms, she knew that this was not her child.
”I was pregnant, Wendy! But you’re not the child I gave birth to! Where is my child?” Tears formed in her eyes and I shook my head. ”You probably killed him, didn’t you?
Kim gets transported to a psychiatric hospital and Wendy is left with her aunt Maggie and her big brother, Matt. Both of them are ready to do whatever it takes to make Wendy’s life wonderful because of her awful childhood. Wendy and her small little family move to a new house, meaning that Wendy is switching schools, again. Wendy wasn’t really the best student, to me she seemed like one of those people who just sit in class and don’t pay attention and just want to go home. One day Wendy notices that a newcomer, Finn, can’t keep his eyes off of her, which first comes out rather creepy. At the school dance, Finn asks Wendy to dance with him. The dancing goes well, until Finn starts to insult Wendy, and she gets pissed. She manages to get a guy to take her home by using a secret ability she has no idea of.
I clenched my fists and looked Patrick directly in his eyes. I didn’t like doing this when people watched, but I had to get out of here. I kept chanting what I wanted over and over in my head.
After the little scene at the dance, Finn mysteriously shows up outside of Wendy’s bedroom window, wanting to tell her about things that will truly turn her life upside down.
I was going to go further with the plot, but I don’t want to ruin it for people who probably haven’t read the book, yet.
Okay, so like I said before, the main character of the story is Wendy Everly, a 17-year-old young high schooler who has had a tough childhood. To me, Wendy really seemed like a self-centered, short-tempered person, but she is also very kind to the people she loves. As the story goes on, the way she acts totally changes and she turns into a whole new person. Aunt Maggie, who after the horrible incident became Wendy’s guardian, is a loving person and really cares for her niece. Sadly, you don’t get to hear much about Maggie because she kind of gets ”forgotten” mid-way through the book. Wendy’s loving big brother is the kind that I’m sure everyone would want. Matt is really caring and protective of his sister and would definitely take a bullet for her. Finn, the mysterious newcomer, is a really interesting person. He is really hard to describe, but it seems like he has this huge wall built around him and won’t let his emotions get through it. On the inside, he’s a really caring and loving person, who wants for other people to be happy. He doesn’t care if it’ll make him feel miserable, as long as you’re happy, he’s happy.
The places where the story takes place, are described wonderfully, and you can just imagine that you’re actually there, with the characters. There’s a lot of details, and the way the characters are acting and feeling can also be seen quite well. It’s like you could see what’s going through their minds and know what they’re truly thinking of.
The story has some kind of a love triangle that’s slowly developing, but it can be seen better in the two other books.
I truly enjoyed the book, I’d talk about it non-stop and everything was just so.. lovely. The whole series just takes your breath away and the plot is filled with unexpected twists etc. I would recommend this book to everyone, who loves a little bit of action and fantasy in their books. I have no clue if this book has been published in Finnish, but I recommend reading it in English because usually details and everything are described better in the original language, rather than the translated one. And how did it feel to read an English novel? Well, in English, you can describe things way better because you can use multiple words to describe just one small thing, when in Finnish, that’s not the case. This was the very first English novel I’ve read fully, and it for sure won’t be my last. Anyway, I’m sure people who have read books such as the Hunger Games, Twilight etc. would enjoy many of Amanda Hocking’s books.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Hocking, www.bookchickcity.com/2012/07/review-switched-by-amanda-hocking.html