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.)

This is a cute book and a quick, fun read.  If you like parallel worlds, alternate realities, and stories about the multiverse then you might like this book. It is unclear from the books blurb if it is intended to be YA but it reads like it is a young adult book (the publisher lists the books as young adult/teens).  The book is told from the view point of a 15 year old and a lot of descriptions that use comparisons and it is a fast paced story. I think kids as young a middle school could read this and one that parents can feel comfortable letting their young teens read. I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Note: I received a review copy of this book via Netgalley. This in no way influences my opinion.

I first discovered this book on Netgalley. The cover is eye catching and the premise sounded extremely promising - so of course, I had to request it! However, for me, this book fell flat and didn't live up to its promise - I ended up DNFing.

I think my biggest issue with this book was the writing style itself. Whilst I don't mind the author breaking the fourth wall and having the characters' speak directly to the reader, it has to be done right for it be successful. For me, it wasn't done right and was written more as if the character was stood with me talking to me, rather than hooking me into the story itself. The writing was very much "and then this happened, and then that happened..." which irritated and bored me. The writing style itself affected the execution and it just didn't work for me. 

Another issue I had with this book was the plot. Whilst the premise sounded extremely promising, I don't feel that the plot lived up to my expectations. It was relatively repetitive, which made me want to put the book down and do something else. I loved the idea of multiple realities and all of them being different, but I would have liked to have seen more of the reality that he switched to before he switched again. The multiple switches in such a short space of time meant that we didn't really get to see a lot from the other characters and how they changed etc. 

Which brings us to the next issue, which was the characters. They fell mostly flat for me, but I think that was because the authors didn't give us enough time to really get to know and care about the characters before switching them out for another reality and a new set of personalities. I didn't have that reader/character connection because I felt that I wasn't given the opportunity to really get to know anyone other than Jacobus

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with this book. Whilst the premise itself was extremely promising, I don't feel that it lived up to that promise. I gave this 1/5 stars.

I had 42 comments on this as I read it because I could not stop pointing out all its failings.  The writing looked like an editor hadn't even touched it with a 20-foot pole.  The character were flat as pancakes, the world-building was mostly a scientific, condescending talk-down... just... no?

Lets get technical here.

The writing.

The writing style fluctuates between fragments and run-on sentences.  The author delights in phrases like "But there’s stuff we don’t have an explanation for that will be science someday." and "It was a perfectly reasonable question, to which I had no answer." to get away with not explaining his own universal concepts.

There were places where there were both periods and commas.  Sometimes the two were interchanged.  This book definitely suffers from a lack of proper editing... to the point where I actually looked into the publisher and discovered this wasn't self-published, it was small-published... and there was an editor because she is thanked in the acknowledgments.  If she improved this book, I'd hate to see what it looked like before.

The world building.

Less went into building the individual world and more into explaining what a multiverse is.  By 31% the concept of a multiverse had been explained 5 times, and after that I stopped counting.  The multiverse was the only part of this book I was really interesting in! ...  Or would have been...  I watch Rick & Morty y'all - I know what a multiverse is.  AND SOMEHOW this manages to get explained to me in a more condescending way than by Rick Sanchez?  Someone give this guy a medal.

The only world with a bit of interest is Jemma's beehive world, which seemed like a rip-off apocalyptic future with a German takeover (the "Vaterland" as opposed to "Vaderland").  I thought maybe we were going to get better at that point.

NOPE.

The characters.

Oh boy.

So we've got a character named Hartun who is clearly of middle eastern decent (exactitudes elude me) and who is the biggest bully.  We're got Moses from the 'hood who drops letters in his word so'times just cuz that's his way.  We've got lovely Jemma who is in the story simply for Jacobus to fawn over, and Jacobus himself, whose worst, weirdest reality was when he was a redhead.

We also get to look forward to lovely phrases like "A reggae guy. Like Bob Marley. With dreadlocks and a beeg spleef, mon." (spoken by Moses) and "He smiled, but his jaw trembled, and I knew that if Mose had been born with different pigmentation, he’d have been white as a ghost." (describing Moses).  DEAR LORD MAKE IT STOP.  There's literally nothing to be gained by this type of racial fingerprinting and it's just plain offensive?  Like... ignorantly offensive.  Something your well-meaning but SUPER racist grandfather would say with a good heart and a foul mouth.  STILL INEXCUSABLE.

Editor, WHERE WERE YOU.

For the cherry on the top, we've got Hartun in the last couple pages calling Jacobus a 'faggot'.

NOT OKAY.

I cannot in any way endorse this book.

It's just plain embarrassing that so many red flags didn't get taken care of in revisions.  The multiverse concept isn't very interestingly done (they run through each world, barely acknowledging it, trying to get home).  I wanted to stop reading this so many times because it was actually painful, but I felt obliged to finish it since I received it free in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.  You wanted honest?  Here's honest.

This book needs to go back to the drawing board.  It needs several more revisions to remove offensive choices and build action and interest.  I'm happy for all those on Goodreads who've been really pleased with this book, but as someone who reads a lot and it actually quite interested in the science used here (that's why I requested it to begin with) I am shocked at how raw and unfinished this book felt.

Plus the derogatory comments.  COMPLETELY unnecessary.

What if we could switch to another reality?
Sounds interesting right?
This book exactly about this. A young guy with his friend enters another reality. The story is full of suspense. I was intrigued. 
But I felt the main protagonist who is around 15 or 16 seems to be little young. Other than that you will surely enjoy this book if you are a fan of such fictions.


Note: I received a free e-copy of the book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Special thanks to the author and publisher for giving me a chance to read it.

The book has a great premise, but gets lost in itself. The plotting is too complicated and the worlds that are created aren’t compelling. Basically, the book loses focus at the point when it should be gaining steam.  It’s worth reading for the journey, but k ow that it could have gone someplace even better.

An excellent read! The premise was great and the characters were strong. A delight.

Excellent YA novel about perception and perhaps the life that one desires not quite measuring up if acquired.

I don't normally rate DNF's but I got this book in exchange for a review and normally I try my hardest not to DNF eARCs that have been given to me but I just had to for this one. I did manage to get halfway which is why I'm reviewing it properly. (normally I'll DNF books by 20% or before).

The main issue I had with it wasn't that it was badly written or boring it was just that the target age felt wrong? I was expecting YA and the main character is 15 which I guess is on the lower edge but he really came across younger than that. The writing and storyline both came across more as middle grade fantasy too. Which is fine, I like a good middle grade adventure but it just felt a bit confused which is sad because the idea is great. Also sometimes the characters motivations were vague. Sometimes the main character cared greatly about everything and other times he didn't seem to care at all. Going from not being bothered that your best friend is gone to risking everybodys' lives for a girl you had a crush on is - off. I feel like that was the only reason the character was made 15. If the character had been aged down to 12 then I think everything would have fitted a bit better. The other thing is that it's written in a humorous, diary type way that pulls you away from the plot which again is fine in some cases but maybe if it had been written in a deeper pov the motivations and feelings would have been clearer. As it is, it distances you from the action which I feel like is a no go for YA.  It could have been a great middle grade fantasy and maybe people who enjoy those exciting but lighter books would really like this one but for me everything was just a little bit confused.

"And it occurred to me, standing there in that bleak, cavernous space, that nobody is ever just one thing: villain or hero, dirtbag or prince. If the multiverse was about choices, and all possible choices were being made, then we might be all those things and everything in between."

I received a free e-copy through NetGalley from the publishers at Curiosity Quills Press. The whole time I was reading this book, I was thinking it sounded exactly like something my friend Roberta at Offbeat YA would like. Then I looked closer and saw that it was a Curiosity Quills Press book, and I knew she would! I highly recommend reading her review, since she’s much more qualified to speak about this genre than I am.

When Jacobus and his friend Connor discover a massive switch inside an old red house, they feel compelled to pull it and see what happens. At first, they think nothing has changed, but when Jacobus gets home, he realizes that he and Connor have been transported into an alternate world. It’s almost exactly like the old one with a few unsettling differences, and Jacobus continues seeking out switches and catapulting himself into alternate worlds as he tries to get home.

This is almost a totally new genre for me. I don’t read a lot of science fiction (unless it says Christopher Pike on the cover), and I don’t believe I’ve ever read a book that directly engages multiple worlds theory. I can’t speak to whether this is an original interpretation of the idea or not, but I can say that the writing itself is quite good and that the Hills do a nice job keeping the science on a level that’s accessible to the average reader. I never felt like I was in so far I couldn’t understand, although occasionally it seems like there are a few too many concepts introduced to really do them justice. There’s only about a paragraph on entanglement before Jacobus’s inner monologue moves on to other things, and I would have liked to see the novel try to tackle one or two of those in more depth.

The characters are good; they’re more interesting and unique than a lot of mainstream fiction, and while I don’t have a lot of strong feelings about Jacobus (that happens with narrators), I really like his companions. Gordon and Mose are clever and brave, and Jemma is strong and coolheaded. For some reason, Gordon’s attachment to his catcher’s uniform really struck a chord with me. He’s been traveling through worlds for an incomprehensible amount of time; I’d want something that made me feel protected too, and it does a lot to demonstrate the characters’ vulnerability. Of all of them, he was my favorite. I never could resist a smart character.

The only problem I had with the novel is, I think, inherent in its type. I get tired quickly of a universe where anything can happen, and I like my stories with more limitations. Things are defined, in part, by their limitations, and things are less interesting when anything can happen. I also got weary of all the scenery changes as the characters hopped worlds, and I could have done with one or two fewer of those. It’s hard to establish a setting when the characters are constantly moving on (a lot like a road trip novel, and you know how I feel about those), and without a consistent setting, it’s difficult to feel grounded in the novel. I feel like the Hills try to counteract this with consistent characters and the similarities among the worlds that keep resurfacing, and it works to some extent. I never felt like I was in a totally nonsense-reality like Alice in Wonderland, but it wasn’t quite to my tastes either.

This isn’t the the kind of book where everything is wrapped up neatly at the end, and there are many questions left unanswered. The book has thematic closure though, and more than that, it’s a rather smart novel that intelligently entertains a lot of interesting concepts. I’m okay with some open-endedness that leaves room for the authors to return to this world, should they ever want to. As far as forays into science fiction go, I think The Switch falls on the better end.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

This book was so good! I could not put this book down and I highly recommend reading it.

From the prologue, this book seemed like something that would pull me right in. However, I was left slightly disappointed by the writing. It didn't end up sucking me in quite like I thought, and I was left bored at times. I do think this book is intended for a younger YA audience.

This was such an interesting book!  Each new switch of worlds was such a twist and new way of thinking. I liked the characters a lot. I did end the book with questions and would like to see a sequel

*thank you to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

1.5 stars.
Ohh. Try as I did, I just didnt enjoy this. The description sounded great though so I was pretty excited to find out I was given a copy to review and for that I am thankful. But unfortunately, It just wasnt for me. I dont think that there was anything wrong with it, It just didn't hold my attention. I really like the cover though and while I didnt enjoy it, I would recommend it to people who love Ya, sci-fi, time travel, and alternative worlds. I do want to give this another try at some stage and see if I get a different feel for it.

Great Book!!! Keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time! I can’t wait to read more!!

This book is so original and unpredictable and I value that alot, since it is not the typical story that we are used to in the genre. I had some problems with the scientific part of the book and some of its explanations to the events were a bit flat to me, I would have liked to know more about the characters, I feel I haven't been able to connect with any of them and that makes my rating go down a bit . I don't usually read sci-fi, since I usually have problems with it, but this is a good one within the genre, so I think I would recommend it, but only for sci-fi lovers who believe they read it all :)