This was an all-around, interesting read. The concept and characters were well-though out, which is unusual in sci-fi books. I like the writing, and the plot, and the characters. I did not love the high school setting, but that's a personal preference. All-in-all, a well-rounded, interesting book.

We follow five travellers - Jacobus, Gordon, Moses, Jemma, and Connor - who are stuck in an alternate universe.

I gave this a 3.5 / 5 Star rating.

It is very rare that I would want to read a book without considering the cover. I do not like this cover. I did request this because of the synopsis though.

This had a great plot and there were a ton of twists and turns that made it fun and exciting. It was really well written and the cleverness of the concept and all of its ripple effects were well thought out. It was a philosophical thinking kind of book and it took me back to my Philosophy 1001 classes. What if? This is an extremely important question in this book and I like that it made me contemplate my own life. It is introspective and really made me think. I love a book that doesn't give me all of the answers and that meant this was great for me. I loved the science of it all but as always in fantasy, you have to suspend your ideas about reality.

I liked the characters but there were moments where I felt they fell flat and didn't really feel as deep as they could be. They were still really well written and I felt like they were real, thinking people. I wasn't necessarily attached to any of the characters or the plot but I still had fun reading this book.

I love the concept of this book and I feel like it was executed pretty well. It’s fast pace and easy to read. And it rapped up pretty nice over all a pretty good read!

This is a multiverse science fiction tale done believably and well-imagined. The characters are well-grounded, and I could get into the storyline. I think that my older students would enjoy this book.

I couldn’t get into this book, not because of the storyline but because it wasn’t really my style. If you are a fan of science fiction you might like it though.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full of plot twists with an amazing story through dimensions and amazing characters. This book has a very interesting way to tell its stories while being captivating. Would recommend to any YA or sci-fi lover.

The book was good. I’d recommend it. The characters were easy to identify with and like them. The story plot was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in return for an honest review.
I really enjoy a book that makes you think, go aha, then think again. The Switch absolutely makes you stop and think about science, the universe and the possibilities for moving through time and space. What would happen if you suddenly found yourself living a totally different version of your life - people who were your friends are now your enemies and visa versa? You look in the mirror and you are not the same person you were when you last looked.
Jacobus Rose, a teenager living a fairly benign existence, finds himself on the adventure of many lifetimes when he and his best friend, Connor, enter a peculiar little house and pull an oversized switch, somewhat like a circuit breaker, He now finds that he has opened the pathway to other worlds and he begins travelling through them as various forms of 'the switch' are pulled. Jacobus finds that Connor is not always the Connor of his world and that there are others traveling through these paths as well. Moses, Jemma, and Gordan become part of his many new existences and significant pieces of the puzzle that he must solve in order to find his way back to the person he once was and the world that it all began in.
I really liked this book because it challenged me to really see the world in a new way. All the characters and their relationships were quite convincing though I do think perhaps Jacobus was set a little too old for some of the naivety with his belief system. There were times when I probably would have been more convinced if he was a fraction younger but that really didn't stop me from enjoying the adventure. Certainly, some people look at life with different eyes so why not have a fifteen-year-old who hasn't become too jaded to see life simply. Each world Jacobus found himself in was well shaped and most times I was able to get lost in what the authors were creating. There were only a couple of times when the need to think about what they were explaining broke the magic of the story being told. Overall this is a story well worth many a young adult's attention and one that would work for any science fiction fan.

I started this a while ago and didn't finish it till the other day, it was a brilliant concept and great idea for a story which is what initially drew me to read it.
However, I think it was too long, there was too much science which took away from the adventures the kids were having and I also think they switched too many times, I got half way through and wanted them to be back home already.
That being said, I think it would be awesome if was ever made into a movie!!

Cute and well planned out, but the writing felt a little too juvenile for me, and I didn't believe that the characters were really fifteen. Younger YA and Middle Grade readers will definitely enjoy this title, but I'm not sure it will resonate with older readers. The multiverse concept was well done and the characters were all very unique, but at times it was a little scattered.

I kicked myself for having this as part of my TBR for so long without reading. It's an excellent story with a strong, engaging voice. I couldn't put it down.

I was given an ARC of The Switch from #NetGalley for an honest review.

To be honest, I couldn't really get into this book. I know after reading some of the other reviews that a lot of other people really liked it, so maybe it just wasn't for me!

I found the character Jacobus Rose really difficult to connect with, and so it was hard to actually care about him. For me, the dialogue just did not sound like it was coming from a 15 year old at all. At times it sounded quite formal and it was like the authors were telling us directly instead of it being in dialogue.

Aside from these issues the story was fun, but inspired a lot of thought about life and choices, so I appreciated it for that, can definitely see why so many people enjoyed it, but it just wasn't my thing I guess.

This was an interesting book. I liked it as it was like no other book I've read, I can definitely see 12-15 year ols enjoying this story.

If you could change something about your life or travel to a different universe, would you? If you find a switch, in the middle of nowhere would you switch it? This was a very fun read for me and an interesting book. I enjoyed the Multiverse part of this book. I was immersed in what the switch was and if the characters should use it and what a great imagination the author had for this book and in this story. *This book was given to me for free at my request by Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

Since I’d read anything multiverse, The Switch was a no-brainer for me. Although I have to admit that I got distracted and read other books first before I devoured this book in a few hours.

This book is THRILLING. I probably overuse that word, but it’s true! It’s amazing how the book moves fast without leaving any important information out. Everything happening in the book was explained in very vivid detail that it almost felt like I was watching a movie in my mind while imagining the scenes.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The cover and synopsis had me intrigued from the beginning! I love stories that involve time travel and those kinds of weird paradoxes so I figured this would be right up my alley. The Switch did not disappoint.....but it didn't blow me away, either.

The premise was great! The execution was good. It certainly delivered. It was entertaining and had me wanting to keep reading. But it was too long; it was also confusing. I think part of the confusion stemmed from the first-person point-of-view storytelling. Even though Jacobus is telling the story after the fact, we only know as much as, or a sliver more than, he did when he was living it. And the hardest thing to grapple with when stories involve time travel (or universe travel, in this case) is keeping the rules straight. I never once felt like I had a good handle on the rules of this kind of travel. Nor did I feel like the characters had a handle on it.

I was a bit irked by all the philosophical discussions these teenagers had throughout the story (normally in response to a new rule they discover or figure out). I'm not saying teenagers can't have philosophical discussions but it made them seem older than they were supposed to be. I expected them to act a bit more like teenagers. And if they are capable of all this theorizing and philosophizing, surely Jacobus would know a word like enigma. It's nitpicky, I know, but it bothered me a little.

I wouldn't just blanket recommend this book to everyone but I would absolutely suggest it to a specific audience. Probably one closer to Jacobus's age.

This read wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, but it was an adventurous one nonetheless. It is creative and imaginative, but in ways, I found it lacked a visual element. I often had a hard time placing myself in the different worlds.

The story centers around a young boy on the verge of being a teenager, young Jacobus Rose, who decides to explore a mysterious red house attached to a large truck one day after school. In this house, he and his best friend, Connor, discover a large old looking switch and nothing more. Being curious, as most boys that age are, they decide to pull the switch to see what happens. After flipping the switch, a single light in the center of the room dims and they realize that it's nothing more than a large light switch. How very odd. Deciding they better hurry home, Jacobus discovers something odd, a sudden change in the weather, in Chicago the spring weather has been known to be unpredictable, but not quite like this. Once Jacobus reaches home he discovers something else that's odd, his parents are getting along, they never get along? And the Oreos, what happened to the Oreos? In his room there were several baseball trophies, he didn't play baseball? He decided he needed to call Connor, he had to talk to Connor! Only when he phoned Connor he learned that he and Connor were mortal enemies. What was happening?

This is were the novel kind of reminded me of Coraline. An alternate reality, is it better, or is it worse? Whose to really say? At first, I was really liking where the story was heading. That is until Jacobus and his soon to be new traveler friends start venturing into more worlds and each new world was more far-fetched than the next. I guess it wasn't so much that I didn't buy into the different worlds, so much as how they characters didn't fit into them. At the start, Jacobus, Connor, Jemma, Hartun... they all fit into the alternate realities. In the new worlds, it was as if they were never part of that world. I think I would have preferred if when they traveled to the different worlds if they were somehow already connected to those worlds having to figure out how they were a part of it and what their roles were. Because it lacked connection, I lost a bit of interest.

I think I also lost interest at times because I couldn't quite visualize some of the more far advanced worlds. I think the descriptive writing lacked at times. I will say however, that I did find that the character development was very well put together. I did enjoy each of the characters in the book and they fit into the story nicely. I liked the connection between Jacobus and his fellow travelers. Though, I will say that they seemed far more mature for their age.

It was an interesting read, full of adventure and scientific wonder. Some lacking in credibility, some possibility. At the heart of it all though, it centers around an unbreakable bond. A connection that can seemingly stay with you no matter the universe. The possibility of an actual soulmate. A very touching and human desire.

I want to thank NetGalley, Curiosity Quills Press, A.W. Hill, and Nathanel Hill for allowing me the chance to read this novel in exchange for my review.

for me, this novel started off slowly, and usually this means reading it will feel like a chore. Great writing and plot, it just seemed to drag on forever

I really like the book and I am a bit of a nerd so they had enough science in it to make it interesting but not overwhelming at least to me. I loved the concept of it an the main character reacted pretty much the way that I would think I would react if I was at that age. The journey through the book was much like the characters I could not wait to see what happened next and if anything I wish some explanations would have been more detailed or vivid in some chapters and that is why I gave it 4 stars.

"Reality comes in a plural form..."

This is a fine middle grade multiverse book. Sure, for adult readers I'm happy with a bunch of physicists sharing quantum gobbledygook while standing around a big humming piece of equipment. But put yourself in a kid reader's shoes. How do we launch ourselves into the multiverse, have an adventure, and get back home wiser and more mature? This book provides the answer.

So, you need a clean hook, a grand adventure, some creatively weird worlds, and, of greatest importance, a kid hero and his companions you can like and relate to. This book checks those boxes.

First off is our multiverse macguffin. In this book there's a big switch in an empty room. Flip the switch and flip your world. I'm a kid reader and I get the general idea of multiple parallel worlds and I get the idea of a big switch. Mission accomplished. All of the later chat about the multiverse, switching tracks, and traveling is then just bonus time.

Second, we get just the right kid. I don't want a whiner or a drama queen or John Carter of Mars or Richard Feynman Jr.. I want a smart, decent, observant, thoughtful, sometimes childish or inappropriate, real kid who can reach down to find the hero within and who can cope with the craziness in a way that I can relate to. Here, our hero Jacobus fits that bill well. Indeed, as he moves among panic, acceptance, anger, understanding, desperation, and resolve, this kid is like a study in what a solid middle grade hero feels like. (Jacobus is supposedly 15 but he usually acts and reads more like 12. That was fine by me because 12-ish felt like the target audience for this book.)

Finally, we get a progressively weirder series of worlds that are nicely conceived but not beaten to death. Sometimes authors put so much into world building that they forget about plot and characters and pacing. Here, we a good balance - intriguing without overkill. This is all spiced up by some excellent supporting characters. It's something of a mixed bag, (the author likes his stereotypes), but many of the other wanderers Jacobus meets have style and distinct personalities. The interactions between Jacobus and each of these other characters adds variety and color, and allows for exposition without transparent lecturing.

The upshot, for me, was that this was engaging, well constructed and written, and both suspenseful and sciencey in a good way. A happy find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)