The Switch

Getting this as an arc from netgalley, I wasn't fully sure what I was getting into, which I don't mind. That is why I love netgalley, I get to find gems I would have never known about otherwise.

This book was great and I loved the story and the characters. Jake was a great main character and I really connected to him, which is a huge deal for me as I read books. If you like time traveling, life lasting friendships, heartwarming moments, and finding their way back home types of books, you'll definitely love this like I did.

This is like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch for the Young Adult world!

Jacobus is a 15 year old that is not happy with the life that he has. That is until he and his Conner decide that it would be a good idea to flip a switch in a vacant house. At first things seem normal but once he is home he noticed that his parents were acting weird and by the next day of school he realized that The Switch caused the life he knew to be gone. No matter how unpleasant his life was he wanted to get it back.

I love how the science is given is small doses building up to a larger idea that would be impossible to understand without all the "education" we receive in earlier chapters. It has peaked my curiosity about some of the science it mentioned and I am not a big science person so that is saying a lot.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend reading it.

Time Traveling, friendship, defining what is ‘home’ and the unknown. Aren’t you the least bit curious?
There were so many uplifting moments to grab a hold of with this intellectually stirring story you’d be hard pressed to find anything wrong with it particularly thanks to the great character development of Jake and pals. They were so diverse yet so easy to see how their bond could form it made it easier to ride the journey with them. For a SciFi driven novel the heart of this story is its characters which felt so real you could believe in the multiverse without questioning the scientific or logical possibilities. It could be real right?

I can’t be the only one who thought of that really old show Quantum Leap as you’re reading this right? It did give me the feel of a mash up between that show and the Jet Li movie The One. Granted there are differences or maybe I just need to turn Hulu off at night and stop binging old shows/movies.

Aside from the time travel, which if you love the idea you’ll love this but if you’re tired of the idea just hang in there with me, cause yes it’s a time travel book BUT where the author’s talent lies is HOW that plot device really affects the story. Each time they flip the switch the world shifts so each time there have to be differences and similarities enough to know they aren’t in Kansas anymore but not enough so they don’t realize where they’re at and what part they play in this new world. It was actually a lot of fun watching how they set the scenes each time and intriguing to discover the new details they put into it as they not only had to alter the places but the people too from looks to personality changes and everything inbetween.

I liked it because it makes your brain work a little harder to mull over the scientific possibilities, the what ifs, would you take the offer to flip the switch, could you ever be satisfied with whatever world you find yourself in now, would you just keep flipping and the questions spiral on.

The most salient feature of The Switch that stood out to me is the voice that is employed in the story. This is a humorous, entertaining, and all-in-all believable young voice that I believe would engage many of the young readers I have worked with.

Multiverse!!! So satisfied and happy and my imagination is firing all over the place and I wanna go on that ride again!!! Dialling ... 1-2-3-0-0 ...

I did the Dory thing with The Switch. I was so excited to read it and then before I started I got distracted by "ooh look, a book!". New ones piled up and while this one wasn't forgotten it lay in the middle of my brain trying desperately to climb its way to the top. So I'm late reading this one and kicking myself for it because I could've been living in Jacobus' worlds weeks ago! Well, I'm here now and wow, what a ride!

The moral to this story (option 1): If you see a switch in a red house on a truck that's not connected to electricity yet has a lightbulb turned on inside and there's a sign in Latin next to the switch, maybe pop those words into Google and translate them before you flick the switch. Unless you're Jacobus or Connor. If you are, just go for it!!!

As I was reading this book I kept thinking back to being obsessed with The Butterfly Effect when the first movie was released. For me, this was so many levels above The Butterfly Effect. The characters in this book weren't the only travellers. I travelled with them through all of the worlds and I want to experience it all over again. I don't know the last time I used this word but I kept thinking as I was reading that this book is exquisite. Father and son team A.W. Hill and Nathanael Hill have exploded my brain in such a wonderful way!

It is deep, so deep you could get in over your head if you don't pay attention but if you take the time to read carefully, you'll be rewarded greatly. The way that the knowledge of how travelling works is doled out in bite sized pieces is fantastic because otherwise my brain could have exploded from information overload instead, but as the characters learned more, I learned more. Then each time my brain said, "But hold on. How does that work? Why did that happen?", one of the characters would ask something similar and my answer would come, usually from sweet, adorable, geeky, wise, catcher outfit wearing Gordon.

I know just enough sciencey stuff to be dangerous but not enough to be able to discuss the scientific validity of the events in this book so I'll leave that for a different breed of nerd. However I was given the imagination bone (Huh? It's not a bone?) and from an imagination standpoint, the authors get a jumping up and down ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. As a token of my appreciation I gathered each star from a different world for them and boy, was it awkward carrying them all home!

Some serious thought has gone into the way the universes work in The Switch - which rules apply universally, which rules rely on whether you pulled a switch or not, which parts of you remain you regardless of the universe you're in.

I love a story that whets my appetite and makes me want to learn more. The Switch did that for me. I've had Brian Greene's 'The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos' calling me for way too long and I long to read that and then come back to experience The Switch again, this time as a sciencey-type person.

The moral to this story (option 2): The grass is not always greener on the other side. Who knows whether their grass is green or if they even have grass over there at all?!

In case you can't tell, I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the concept. I loved the execution. I love that it got my brain all tingly, wanting to learn. I love that it got my imagination doing gymnastics in my mind. I love the message that our choices have the power to change our world.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

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The Switch by A.W. Hill, Nathanael Hill is a book I requested from NetGalley and the book publishers and the review is voluntary. This book is a terrific sci-fi teen book that had me reading and loving every page! The characters were well developed and seemed like people you knew yourself. The science was introduced in a way that didn't overwhelm and was fun and interesting. The 'switch' came when one of the boys flipped a switch and the next day they noticed things were a lot different in their world. It reminded me of Quantum Leap, an old show on TV I loved with a touch of the movie The One because it was alternate realities of the same persons. Pretty heady stuff but a lot of fun. A great read all the way around. Lots of action, adventure, suspense, wild but wonderful plot, and great characters. Not much for time travel books but this was absolutely awesome!