Review: Switched by Amanda Hocking

Switched (Trylle #1)
by Amanda Hocking

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publication Date: Jan 3rd 2012

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Format: ARC, 318 pages 

Series: unbelievably, yes

Source: my own copy (ARC), which I got from a trade

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My Review:

Ouch. This review is going to be one hell of a BURN, so I'm making sure to let you know this ahead of time. If you don't like slightly mean reviews, please go check my other, more gushing ones. 

This is the first time I've bothered to write a 1-star review, so you can already tell how much this one bugged me. If this was an ebook, I'd have just deleted it after the first chapter, just to get it over it... BUT, as this one was a physical copy (an ARC, as a matter of fact, so maybe things got better in the final edition?), I pushed myself to actually make more of an effort.

What. A waste. Of livable lifetime.

Seriously.

• Characters: A bunch of maladjusted, rude, spoiled, unpleasant, self-centered, self-important, ignorant MORONS, aka, 'trolls'. They may look pretty on the outside, but damn, they are COMPLETELY rotten on the inside. Talk about assholes. And that applies especially to our dear main-character, Wendy. She has a stupid name, evil powers, an amazing 'host' family and she couldn't be more of an ungrateful, useless bitch. YES, I'm pissed off at her. Her 'mother' really should have killed her when she had the chance. Too bad her 'brother' managed to save her. A waste of oxygen and space, that's all she is. Or, in this case, of paper and ink. If I had to find one good thing about her.... uhm... well, this is awkward. Let's see... maybe.... no. How about... argh. Ok, I got it! She has brown hair and eyes. THAT'S IT. That is ALL that is good about her. (I am fed up with the hordes of blondes and redheads). 
• Plot: It had promise. I was curious about the changeling thing and to see what was the author's vision of trolls, buuuuuuuut... the whole 'I'm too lazy to raise my children, so I'll send them over to wealth human families to be raised as spoiled, rich teens, and then I'll bring them back and use their money, while we pretend I never sent them away in the first place.' Hum... I do not think that sounds like a very good enough reason, if you ask me.

The only reason I didn't DNF Switched was because I found myself in a very boring situation, away from home and other books/options of entertainment, and was forced to read the whole thing for lack of anything better to do. I know, the truth may hurt, but it's still the truth. Otherwise I'd have just given it up and started on the next title from my TBR list. 

In a nutshell, if, like me, you start this book and feel like you cannot go through the freaking FIRST chapter, don't keep your hopes up that things might get better. They won't. So don't bother.