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egg_custard's review
emotional
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Such a good book! The beginning gripped me, I had a hard time putting it down from there, and the ending did not disappoint. I loved the writing style and there are definitely a bunch of new favorite quotes from this.
My only complaint is that the main character goes back and forth on a lot of things, and come off once and a while as "not like other girls." In one of the later chapters it's especially bad. But for the most part it's forgivable, and if you don't like her, most of the other characters are really likable. And I still really enjoyed this book :)
My only complaint is that the main character goes back and forth on a lot of things, and come off once and a while as "not like other girls." In one of the later chapters it's especially bad. But for the most part it's forgivable, and if you don't like her, most of the other characters are really likable. And I still really enjoyed this book :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault
Minor: Child abuse
sunsetcity's review
challenging
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
betweentheshelves's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I'll just say, this was out there, even for A.S. King. Usually her books border on surrealism, but this one felt like it just went a little too far. Maybe I read it too fast? However, there are elements in this book that do connect to everything that happened in the last year. Maybe I just wanted a little more clarity by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, and Cursing
Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse
colleensreadingadventures's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I think my brain broke reading this! 🤣🤣
Honestly I don’t think I’m smart enough or even have a good enough imagination to wholly appreciate the story. But the writing is excellent and certainly creative.
Switch is an extremely unique book. It involves some magical realism mixed with a story about a family in crisis. “Real” time has stopped for the world and the world is looking for answers. Tru is one of the students tasked with helping through a class called Solution Time. She and her classmates are each tasked with coming up with ideas on how to keep going with numerical time standing still.
In Tru’s home she notices there is a switch in her house, she doesn’t know what it is for, but she does know that her dad keeps building boxes around it to stop anyone from touching it. And every time she takes some of the boxes down her father just puts more up.
Tru’s life is a bit of a mess. Her mom is not living at home, her dad quit his job and continues to build all these boxes. Her brother is wound up so tight and her sister is some sort of sociopath. Tru’s only thing that’s all her own is her new found ability in throwing the javelin. Which she can throw farther than anyone has ever thrown before.
Can Tru get her family back on track, figure out how solve the worlds current crisis and get all the boxes taken down in her home? Only time will tell!
While for me Switch was a little on the bizarre side I really enjoyed Tru’s story. The story was never boring. The cast of characters were interesting, especially Tru’s family members. The sister was definitely a scary character and I would have had her committed at a young age if I were her parent. That or put locks on the outside of her door..lol.
I was fully invested in the outcome, waiting to see if Tru could fix her broken family, if she could ever get to the switch, and she would fix time.
Kudos A.S. King for such a distinctly refreshing novel. And a big thanks to Penguin Teen allowing me to review the ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Child abuse
thebookmouse's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
For the longest time A.S. King has been the author I have been most anticipated to read from. I have never read a book written by her, until now, but I have every single one on my TBR. I don't know why I chose to read this one first, but I think part of it was that it is her most recent and she has written so many it's intimidating on knowing where to start.
Switch is the story of Tru, a young girl living with her father and brother in a house with a switch. No-one knows what it does, just that it shouldn't be touched. Inside her house, her father keeps building bigger and bigger boxes around this switch to keep it protected, so that their house has become a maze, and Tru lives in box number 7. Outside of this the world is stuck in a fold in time, so that it has been the same day, year, minute since it stopped. Artificial time is now being marked on a website someone created called N3WCLOCK.com.
Weird right? Yes. This much I understood, but the story is so abstract it was hard to make sense of what was going on. It was written in a very strange way that didn't quite feel like a novel, but also didn't feel like poetry - something in between. It made me feel very disconnected from the story, I couldn't gain any insight, or develop any feelings about these characters because everything was so choppy.
I like the idea's she was trying to convey about time, about how everyone is so determined to meet deadlines and feeling so much pressure on time that they forget to live and enjoy themselves, but outside of this, I didn't love it.
I will still work through my A. S. King tbr and hopefully will adore some (if not all) of the others. This one just did not do it for me.
Thank you to A.S. King, the publishers and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
Switch is the story of Tru, a young girl living with her father and brother in a house with a switch. No-one knows what it does, just that it shouldn't be touched. Inside her house, her father keeps building bigger and bigger boxes around this switch to keep it protected, so that their house has become a maze, and Tru lives in box number 7. Outside of this the world is stuck in a fold in time, so that it has been the same day, year, minute since it stopped. Artificial time is now being marked on a website someone created called N3WCLOCK.com.
Weird right? Yes. This much I understood, but the story is so abstract it was hard to make sense of what was going on. It was written in a very strange way that didn't quite feel like a novel, but also didn't feel like poetry - something in between. It made me feel very disconnected from the story, I couldn't gain any insight, or develop any feelings about these characters because everything was so choppy.
I like the idea's she was trying to convey about time, about how everyone is so determined to meet deadlines and feeling so much pressure on time that they forget to live and enjoy themselves, but outside of this, I didn't love it.
I will still work through my A. S. King tbr and hopefully will adore some (if not all) of the others. This one just did not do it for me.
Thank you to A.S. King, the publishers and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia
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