Switched (Trylle #1) by Amanda HockingPublication date: January 3, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
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 discovers her mother might have been right. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy's not sure she wants to be a part of it.
This review consists of SPOILERS, just so you know.
Like a lot of other reviewers before me have said, I really like that Hocking chose to use trolls as her choice of mythical being as opposed to vampires, werewolves (though, gosh, I love werewolves), fairies, or witches (though, gosh, I love fairies and witches too). They are described as gorgeous trolls, but they are trolls nonetheless, so thank you Amanda Hocking. You have a place in my warm and never cold heart. I also like the idea of Trylle, a nice little secluded, gated community of trolls in the mid-west. The character Finn is the usual sensitive bad boy fare and I am intrigued by Tove . While there are definitely moments that I enjoyed, Switched has some situations that I had trouble overlooking:
1. I feel that Wendy is too quick to accept her new situation. She finds Trylle and discovers that she's not only a troll, but also a princess and then seems to just go with the flow with no argument. There's a moment later in the book when Wendy is told how she is strong-willed like her mother, but since entering Trylle, I had not seen her do anything that would show this. For a main protagonist she seems a bit too passive.
2. No one ever explains to Wendy what is going on or gives her details on her new life. Then when she makes a mistake, they look at her like she's dumb for not knowing anything or what she's supposed to do. I can understand if this was chosen as a character trait, particularly for her mother, but almost every single Trylle character does this and Wendy, once again, just seems to accept it. Fight it Wendy! Get them to answer your questions! An example is when Elora and Finn find her after she's fallen asleep with Rhys. When Finn apologizes to her for overreacting, Wendy tells him that actually he and her mother were right to be angry. It made me upset that she gave into them because it wasn't right that they were angry because they never gave her a reason why. Sleeping in Rhys's room was only an accident.
3. Contradictions. I noticed a lot of these. Finn is very protective of Wendy and flips his lid (like he should have) when she is attacked outside of her home. Now, there's a moment later in the story when Wendy finds a painting showing her hurt that was done by her mother Elora. Supposedly this picture is from a moment in Wendy's future and Finn doesn't even react. In fact, he brushes it aside. This felt off to me and very unlike Finn. I feel like Finn would have at least reacted in some way. Also, Finn is always telling Wendy to ask her mother when Wendy asks a question. Then later, there's a moment when he tells Wendy that it's his fault she doesn't know anything and how Elora designated him to teach her about Trylle. If this is the case, then why was Finn always telling Wendy that he couldn't answer her questions and to ask Elora? There are more, but this is getting long.
4. The ending. A hole in the fence? Escaping took, like, two pages. This seemed too easy to me. I craved so much more from the ending, especially after all the action that had happened before it. BUT it did leave me intrigued as to where the story will go, so...
I want to make my readers aware that I never had a problem with the actual story and am hoping the second in the series will be more fleshed-out. If not, well...then there will be no third for me, but for now, I'm still interested in reading about Wendy outside of Trylle with her new knowledge. It's not on the top of my TBR pile, but it's in there.
