I really enjoyed “The Switch and the Soul.” I was told it was Stephen Kinglike. I have never read anything by King, but by the length of the book, maybe Stephen King-lite would be more appropriate. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like this book, I loved it. I enjoyed the narrative and liked the different perspectives of each chapter. The author did a great job getting into the head of a 10 year old girl, a crazed serial killer, and the bounty hunter. What I really LOVED about this book, was that I thought I had it figured out, and I mean at every chapter, I thought I knew what was going on, but I was wrong! And I like being wrong when I think I know what is going on, if I nail it chapter after chapter, I will deem the author uncreative. The description on the back of the book does not do it justice. “The Switch and the Soul” is so much more than the brief descriptions of the characters, it is how their lives twist together and spread out over the entire novel. The humor was dark, but no more so than say Chuck Palahniuk, and had me laughing out loud quite a few times.
There were things that I wasn’t sure if I liked or not throughout the book. There were introduction of certain plots that just didn’t make much sense as they were being introduced, but by the end of the book I understood why they were introduced and it made perfect sense. One complaint is an issue with Mickey that was never resolved, but I’m hoping that this is explained in the next book. The writer left the end open to a second book and man, do I wish I had had it in my hand the second I had finished!
“The Switch and the Soul” was an excellent first novel and I look forward to reading more of R. Chaffee’s work in the future! There is more than enough room in the concepts opened up in this post-apocalyptic world for a prequel and a least a sequel! ( )