I can kind of see what this book was trying to do, but it was so bizarre that nothing came across. Even the weirdest books with the least logical settings need to have some kind of world building and this just didn’t.

So here’s the thing: I have had this book on my shelf for a long time now and I have not once attempted to read it. I’m so sorry for accepting the request on this and not reading it but I can only blame my baby Bookstagrammer self who was so excited to be a part of the Penguin Teen influencer list and requested all the books.

This was a very strange novel that felt somewhere between horror and surrealism.

In this world, time has stopped, but someone developed a clock to keep track of how much time is passing. People just try to continue life as usual, and Tru just tries to make it through the day. Her dad has been building boxes and rooms in boxes and boxes in rooms and on and on, and Tru spends her time taking nails out of the boards and honestly I'm not really sure.

Tru is able to do really good at the javelin throw and sets a world record, so all this attention gets sent her way even though she doesn't want it and isn't interested. Her mom comes back after having left for a while, and I'm not sure if I really understood what happened, but it seemed like she was being accused of being abusive?

Honestly this book is very confusing to me and I kind of wish to sit with the author and just have them explain page by page what they meant. You need to be in the right space to read this book, but I don't know what that space is.

This book is very trippy, the language is all over the place, but the idea is really good! The concept of time being lost and then the world struggling to go on without it was really cool. Plus the mystery of the switch will keep you hooked on this tale!

As always, AS King is amazing... Her books have so much depth, and Switch is no different. I think this book will be perfect for the SHS in our district. However, I think I'll stick to her middle grade novels for our 7-8 building.

Quick read. The description caught my attention, but I overall felt a little bored reading this. Interesting plot, I just felt like it didn't pull me in as much as other books have. I didn't feel like I connected with any of the characters either.

I'm a big fan of the point of the book, but man, I did not love the execution. That's going to fall to personal preference because I've already recommended it to someone that I know will love it. Genuine kudos to the author for trying something different and covering such important themes in a unique way, I've just never been one for the lyrical, existential, or surreal and this is all three. A solid case of it's not you, it's me.

I think this was probably very clever and had something good to say! I'm just not a huge fan of surrealism. Bold of King to try something new, and for people who are into it, I'm sure they'll love it!

This book just wasn't for me. Mad respect for someone who can write this type of story, though! Just too hard for me to read

DNF'd @ ~20%

I can't say much about this book other than it was way too abstract for me personally. This may be a fantastic book for many readers, but be aware that King elicits an atypical style of storytelling in Switch.

In June 2020, time stopped counting. The world became trapped in a fold in time and space and a website called N3WCLOCK started keeping time. Tru Beck had to deal with a lot of other issues during this time. Her house had a switch in the middle of it, but no one knew what it controlled. Her father began building boxes around the switch to protect them from it. Her brother was moody and surrounded by strange rumors of an inappropriate relationship with a minor. Then, Tru discovers that she can throw a javelin in track and field faster than anyone ever has before. No one knows where Tru’s sudden talent came from, so they’re suspicious of it. Tru has to deal with all of these issues while also figuring out how to fix time.

This was quite a strange story. The concept of time stopping in 2020 was a relatable aspect. With the pandemic, it felt like time stopped last year. A company reacted by creating a new way to stop time. Whenever we think that one system is gone, another one sneaks up and replaces it, sometimes doing the same thing but with different packaging. This new website was able to take over and profit on time.

Tru’s house was one of the strangest parts of the story. Tru’s father obsessively build boxes around their house until their rooms were all just numbered boxes. The house became unstable and started flipping over. It was hard for me to imagine this concept. With the exception of this idea of time stopping, most of the story could have been set in the real world. The way the house behaved was a little too strange for me to believe.

Switch is an unusual dystopian story.

Thank you Dutton Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was really confusing. I think the time stopping is both a symbol/representation but also 'real' in the context of the story. This was told in a pretty confusing way. In that there are symbolisms and representations everywhere but also straight forward parts. Some I'm not sure are made to be symbolisms or not. It's told in such a roundabout way. But I think I know what story it was trying to tell. Although it has this main element of time stopping, I think that the story is mainly about the family. How they came apart, how they were functioning after, how they are trying to heal. But the setting in which this story was told was pretty confounding. So it's not that this was a bad book or poorly written. I just think this was not for me.

This story was very mind-bendy and strange. But at it's heart it deals with family drama and all the trauma and heartbreak that comes with it.

This book was a little too weird for me. I tried to read it but it just got to be too much. I had no clue what was happening and I felt really dumb while reading it.

I read this and the weirdest thing was the slashes. The plot of this book was……loose, at best. I don’t think I’ll be reading this (or anything else) by this author again.

𝟑.𝟓 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝟒 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬⁣
⁣
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.

This book was definitely out of my comfort zone. it took a while to grasp the writing style of the book, but once I got into the story, it flowed well. Even though I really enjoyed this book, I wish there would have been more back story for each of the characters because I found myself barely connecting with them. Other than that, this was a weird, mysterious read that definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone!
Full review to come on my YouTube channel.

First of all, I think Switch by A.S. King was too smart for me, and I am pretty sure some of the point was lost on me. However, that didn't stop me from really liking it, and this is definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read. This list seems to be getting longer, and while I don't always appreciate bizarre books, for some reason this one really clicked with me. I listened to the audiobook and finished it in just an afternoon and I really had no idea where it was going or what was going to happen. King actually narrates her audiobook and I thought she did a dang good job. She obviously knew the tone she wanted for the story and it came across very clearly through her narration. I was fascinated with the fact that Tru could randomly throw a javelin further than anyone else ever, and I would frankly love to know where King got the idea of this book from. It is all about time and Tru being trapped in a box in her home that her dad keeps building around. I think this part might have been the hardest for me to understand, and even now after I'm done, I am still a little lost. I definitely need someone smarter than me to explain, but on an obvious level, I did slightly get it.

I got a kick out of the fact that in the acknowledgments the author calls her books weird because that is really the word that popped into my head for Switch. It is weird, bizarre, and all the other words like that, but it was also strangely engrossing and held my attention the entire time. It is an incredibly short novel, and the audio was even a bit shy of 6 hours, so it is very easy to read or listen to it in one sitting. I liked the human connections talked about in the story, and I found Tru's family to be very interesting. Her mom would hold family meetings which is something I remember my mom doing when I was growing up too, and it was fun seeing that mentioned. King's writing style is very unique which added to the mysteriousness of the book for me and frankly kept me reading as well. This is definitely not going to be a book for everyone, but if you like odd books and YA, I think it would be worth checking out either in print or on audio!

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

3.5 stars

This took me a long time to finish and I'm not sure why because this was a relatively short read page count wise. I think I just was not really connected to the main character which was likely due to the writing style. The writing style is definitely not for everyone (most people?) and while I normally love weird flowery writing this was just too nonsensical for my tastes. As for the actual story I liked that this is clearly at least partially about the pandemic without overtly feeling like it, but a lot of elements of the story were left too vague for me to really feel like I knew what was going on. The javelin throwing and "special" children thing never really feels like it comes to a head and felt a bit pointless. As well as whatever happened with Truda's sister. I did enjoy how this story shows A.S. King's penchant for featuring very imperfect families. I'm discovering that I feel like she does that well and this book wasn't an exception.

Overall if you're looking for a weird quick read that feels mostly melancholy but slightly hopeful I'd give it a read.

Admittedly, Switch is the first book I have read by A.S. King, and while I expected some magical realism or surrealism, this one really pushed the boundaries of what, as a reader, I consider enjoyable in a novel.

I think some readers will find this novel controversial, a hot take (if you will), but for me it was esoteric and I couldn't quite adjust like I think I was meant to. While this is a very short read, it is dense and at times nonsensical. I can appreciate the craft, the abstraction of structure (I absolutely get the metaphor and the implicit warning here about the confines of structure, aka, time), and the overall otherness that permeates this text.

I have a couple of students in mind that I think will really latch on to this unique narrative and fully intend to pass it along to them in the fall semester.

If surrealism, abstractness, esotericism, complicated narratives, and disconnectedness are your cups of tea, then by all means enjoy this feat.

I wanted to enjoy it, and maybe after a second attempt I will, but for me, this novel didn't land me in the fan corner for this author.

Summary for context:
Tru Beck is a teenage girl from Pennsylvania who lives in a world that has become trapped in a fold in time and space, where “real” time has stopped but humanity continues to mark artificial time based on a website called N3WCLOCK.com. Tru lives in a house that has a switch at its center. No one knows what the switch controls, but her father continually builds larger and larger boxes around the switch (Tru lives in Box #7). Tru leaves the box through a Tru-shaped hole to go to school, where she pays no attention to the new “Solution Time” curriculum. In fact, the only interesting thing that’s ever happened to Tru at school is when she discovers (on her first try) that she can throw a javelin farther than any human has ever thrown anything before in human history.