Review : Switch
Switch by Carol Snow
Pages : 224
Genre : YA, Fantasy
My Rating : 
What it’s about :
Two years ago, when Claire hit her thirteenth birthday, she discovered she had her own unique ability : electric storms allowed her to switch bodies for a short period of time with girls born under the same moon as her. Helped by her grand-mother’s ghost, Claire has learned to deal with her special talent without too many worries. That is, until she gets stuck in another girl’s body and can’t find her way back to her life.
Let’s get the less positive thoughts out of the way first; although the premise was original and intriguing, I felt it was never developping its full potential. Maybe it was due to the book’s length, but when I turned the last page, I felt I had only had a brief, superficial view into Claire’s ability. I would have loved to know more about her ability’s origin and its mechanics, but Claire isn’t too preoccupied by those details, and so we don’t get to know much about it.
Now that I have addressed the less positive points of the book, I have to say that I did enjoyed reading it, and I appreciated Claire as a main character. Her voice was simple in a good way, easy to relate to, and she was surrounded by a great set of characters. Her grand-mother added a light and funny touch, while her mother added one with more depth. While I found her love interest, Nate, to be a little on the boring side, I was glad to see that the author didn’t go for the cliché by making him a jerk; instead, he’s a very sweet guy, maybe just a little on the superficial side.
Aside from what I’ve mentioned before, I really liked Claire’s ability. If I wish the book had been longer, it’s because I would have loved to see Claire explore her power a little more. Snow’s writing was good and got me hooked into the story very quickly, and I finished reading it in one – very entertaining – sitting.
All in all, Switch was good, but sadly not as memorable as I would have hoped. This being said, if you’re looking for a fun and quick read, Switch might be just what you need! 😀
That’s definitely a premise I haven’t seen worked through before! Sounds interesting, but I think I’d be bothered that we didn’t get much backstory on the origins of her powers, etc. … That would give me terrible Evermore flashbacks, haha!
Great review.