Book Review: Switched

Switched (Trylle #1)Switched by Amanda Hocking
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was all ready to hate 'Switched' on the grounds that I'd heard so much about it, I was bored before I started reading it. By the end of the first chapter, I'd changed my mind.
'Switched' is a thoroughly modern take on a classic idea that's fascinated me ever since childhood, the idea of changelings - human children taken by fairies, or, in this case, trolls (Trylle).

It's easy to identify with Wendy, the child who just doesn't belong. Even though few of us can have been rejected quite so extremely, we've surely all had moments when we were certain we belonged anywhere but here. Hocking plays brilliantly on this familiar feeling to make the extraordinary events of 'Switched' seem not only possible but almost normal. IPads, music collections, dresses and nail polish help to ground the story, as does the location of the Trylle kingdom in a backwater of rural America.

Wendy's interaction with Finn and the other Trylle is also touching and mostly believable, and there's plenty of suspense to keep you reading as Wendy struggles to find her place in the Trylle world and understand what is expected from her, and what the price might be for finally finding acceptance.

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