Switch

Switch by Douglas Davey is a bildungsroman. It explores the struggle of a bisexual young man coming to terms with his feelings and with prejudice from bullies. Being bisexual is confusing for him and his friends, with everyone questioning how he really felt about his girlfriend.

The narration is great, and makes it feel like Sheldon is a real person. The footnotes are funny and informative, but I’m not sure teens will enjoy them as much as I do.

This is a book that could be helpful to a teen who is questioning their sexuality. It explores different opinions and misconceptions about bisexuality that they may face. You don’t have to be gay to enjoy the novel, but sexual orientation is the main focus so it will probably appeal the most to those who can relate or have friends they are trying to understand.

There are no explicit sex scenes in this novel, it’s more about the identity struggle than the actual sexuality.

Switch

*I received Switch free from the publisher as a submission for the CLA YABA

I have mixed feelings about Tish Cohen’s novel. On the one hand, it flowed beautifully and on the other it was painfully predictable.

I loved the stream of consciousness narration. It made Andrea feel authentic, as a rambling, motivated, slightly outcast teen. The voice of the novel was clear and amazingly written, there’s no doubt Cohen has a vibrant and youthful style that will appeal to teens.

However, I have trouble liking a novel with such cliché plot points. I knew what would happen to each of the characters long before it did. I disliked some of Andrea’s plans at the end of the book, they were not in keeping with her character and yet I knew Cohen was going to go in that direction.

It was interesting to see a foster home from the perspective of the biological daughter, seeing as most books that deal with foster-care make it the main focus. I never thought about how heart-breaking it would be to lose siblings over and over. I had considered being a foster mom at some point when I’m more established but I wouldn’t want to put my (theoretical future) kids through that and frankly I think I’d get too attached to everyone to be a temporary stop in their lives.

For a book that made you think about abusive parents, drunk driving, hit and runs and all sorts of serious issues it stayed pretty light and fluffy. I’d been dragging through the last book I read for weeks and this one I finished in about 3 hours over the course of two days. It was like organic, eco-friendly whip cream if there is such a thing. Fun, well intentioned but not quite as good for you as you’d hoped.