I'm really not sure what I've just read...
Switch is really strange and I don't think it's in a good way in this case.

The writing style is...difficult. It doesn't flow like a regular novel does. It's broken and those pieces are terribly confusing. I felt myself losing interest fairly often because of the choppy writing. The synopsis of this book is super interesting, I mean...that's why I wanted to read it, but I'm not sure where that description stemmed from as I feel like I've read a completely different book. Such a bummer!

I'm not even sure who to recommend this book too...
I'm sure there will be those that will love it...I just didn't, sadly.


Thank you, Dutton Books for Young Readers via NetGalley for the e-ARC to read and honestly review.

"Forever is a family thing. Blood thicker than water/forever. Always look out for your own/forever. In our family, it's different. Mama will be gone forever/sister will control us forever/AFT3RMATH. We don't know what to do quite yet. In time, we'll figure it out/take more dares/stop living in boxes."

Time has stopped, yet the world has moved on, relying on N3WCLOCK to continue normal life. In Truda's house, there's a switch nailed into a box. She doesn't know what the switch does, just that she's not supposed to flip it. Instead, high school seniors across the country are working on projects to restart time. Truda believes that learning to experience your emotions and care about others might hold the answers.

This book is highly speculative and philosophical. I was never quite sure if I was supposed to be taking it seriously or assuming everything was allegorical.

At the heart of this book is a very troubled family struggling to move on. Sister has a narcissistic personality and has tortured her siblings for years. Six months ago, she moved out, but her presence lingers. Then Mama left, deciding the family would be better off without her. Daddy copes by building boxes all throughout the house, nailing Truda's room in box 7 and Richard's room in box 11. Richard copes by jumping rope and learning Portuguese and making sure his secrets stay well hidden. Truda becomes exceptionally good at javelin throwing, setting a new world record and joining the ranks of people who seem to have gained magical abilities since time stopped.

The sweetest moments in this book happen when Truda helps the girl who learns to fly cope with her mysterious magical abilities.

All that said, this book left me feeling like I wasn't quite smart enough for it.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the advance review copy of this book.

Disclaimer : I got this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was honestly captivated by the premise of the book but it was weirder than I expected it to be. This is a novel about how time stopped and people are following something called N3WClock.com. Truda notices a switch that her dad covered in her house and thinks it’s connected. Although this book wasn’t for me, I’m sure there are others that will enjoy this one.

Ah, so confusing! I won’t say I didn’t enjoy it because on some level, I did! Mind-bending magical realism can be an extremely interesting read and with Switch by A.S. King, I did get a bit of this. I’m just not sure I’m smart enough to process it all.

For me, there can be no absence of time, as long as the sun keeps coming up and going down. If this happens, it means that time still exists so this is where I couldn’t fully enjoy the story. I couldn’t open my mind enough to understand just how time stopped? That being said, the writing is good and the concept new and unusual, which is what kept me reading until the end.

The whole switch and the Tru shaped hole? I’m mind-boggled but again, for some reason, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to not keep saying to Tru, hit the dang switch, sister!
So, not really my thing but I’m sure there’s plenty of people who will love this story.

While the premise was fascinating, this was not an enjoyable reading experience. It takes way too long for things to start making any sense and by then I feel like the book was wasted on me not getting it. It might just be personal preference but I’m not even sure who I would recommend this to.

CW- emotional abuse, toxic relationship, pedophilila, suicidal thoughts
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Switch is a strange book which follows a sixteen year old in a world where time has literally stopped.
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To start, I think this concept is amazing. It sounds super interesting, and I also love the cover. However, this book was sometimes a little too weird for me. It was quite confusing in the beginning, and the /s throughout the book made it difficult to read,
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There was some character development, but seeing as the book is very short and it was very focused on world building, there wasn’t a large amount of it.
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Overall, I would recommend this for fans of books that stray from the average story,
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Thank you to PenguinTeen and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

**Switch**
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔: ♥︎♥︎♡︎♡︎♡︎/♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎
𝐼𝑛 𝑎 𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙: A surreal book about the concepts of time and human interactions.

𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤:
Tru Beck is stuck in a world where time has stopped but life moves on. Each moment is spent trying to solve the riddle of the frozen clocks, but still continue living life and getting by. In Tru’s house is a mysterious switch, one that her father seems to do everything to hide.

Okay, in all honesty this book reads like a fever dream. It’s confusing, it’s strange, it’s weird, and it’s literally like nothing I have ever read before.
There’s no connection you build up with the characters, emotions are forced (literally) and the idea that Tru has on each person in her life is constantly changing up- her thoughts bouncing around like ping pong balls in her head.
For me- I wasn’t a fan. I went into this thinking it would be totally different- but it wasn’t. But if this ‘the world is lost and thoughts are rampant’ kinda thing is your jam- then I feel as though you will like!

The one shining point about this book though, was that time is a construct. I can see how the author connected it with COVID and the isolation and repetitive days that so many experienced. It was definitely an interesting take on how each day felt while one is in a lockdown- that being because of the virus or the world froze.

𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛: If you like strange books, that make you think and twist your mind- then you may enjoy this one!

Reading this novel was definitely an interesting and fun journey. I definitely was quite lost towards the beginning, but as the plot built the pieces slowly came together for me. I got quickly addicted after the pieces came together. I found that I wasn't as in love with the characters as I could have been, but the plot and interesting take on the book's world completely made up for it.

It has been quite a while since I've read an A.S. King novel, and WHOA did I miss the weirdness. I literally have no idea what was going on in this story, only that it makes sense? Like most all of A.S. King's novels go, we're sort of thrown into the world/narrative with little to no explanation as to what is happening or if we can trust the narrator. And that is what makes the book so enjoyable.

It is also so, SO relevant and timely but in such a way that it can be read again and again in years to come.

This is my first AS King book and it was a trip! I was lost for probably the first half of the book but in the end I really did enjoy it! The writing is incredible and I would recommend this if you like weird, trippy books.

A twisty, weird (in the best way), and brilliant book! I was sucked into this world and everything that it was facing. It was weird, and a bit creepy, and all around really, really good.

I'm not sure if it's the formatting of the ebook ARC, the author's writing style (this is my first book by them), or the topic, but I found it impossible to connect to the story or the characters. The layout of the text and the disjointed thought patterns made this a really difficult read, even though the topic was really interesting to me. A world where time has stopped dedicated to the class of 2020, for whom I'm sure it felt like it did. There's so much here to love, but sadly, I didn't.

I'm still curious to see the layout of the finished novel and hopefully, that will work better for me. Perhaps the audiobook?