Switch

March 29, 2021
On June 23, 2020, Earth fell into a space-time fold that stopped every clock. Now, per government mandate, all students must spend two hours per day—as measured by a website that “tells you what time and date it would be”—contemplating a fix. Truda Becker, 16, suspects the universe pressed pause because people ceased caring about each other, but has no clue how to rectify the situation, particularly since her own family is struggling due to her sociopathic older sister’s sadistic manipulations. To cope, Truda throws javelins, which “teach me how to fly through time when no time exists,” and endeavors to uncover the mysterious switch over which her father has nailed a series of increasingly large boxes—some the size of rooms. Every night, while her household sleeps, Truda takes a crowbar to her father’s handiwork, hoping to learn the mechanism’s purpose. This powerful tale from Printz Medalist King (Dig) satirizes society’s time fixation while illustrating the importance of candor, compassion, and self-care. Surreal imagery and poetic narration capture Truda’s inner turmoil without obscuring plot or hindering pace, resulting in a read that’s poignant, propulsive, and profound. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary.

April 1, 2021
Printz Award winner King returns with another surrealist masterpiece. On June 23, 2020, the world became caught in "a fold in time and space." For the past nine months, the United States has enacted Solution Time and been using N3WCLOCK to keep some semblance of normality. High school javelin star Truda Becker isn't satisfied with these patched-together efforts, though, and she is determined to use psychology to find the "Real Solution." While she puzzles over the irregularities of time and their grander meaning, Truda is also weighed down by irregularities in her home life. Her father, an immigrant from an unspecified country, spends his days obsessively building and rebuilding room-sized plywood boxes, making a disorienting warren of their family home. Her "clairvoyant" mother comes and goes, her brother is acting jumpy and suspicious, and the shadow of Truda's abusive sister casts a pall over them all. Truda is determined: "By the end of the month, I will figure out how to make people give a shit about other people. I still have no idea how I'll do this because I live in a house where emergencies are cubed like snack cheese and giving an actual shit has been put on hold." Intentionally perplexing, the book carefully doles out reveals as it steadily weaves together seemingly disparate threads with precision. This otherwise stellar title unfortunately is marred by the repeated use of deaf to describe emotional evasion and dishonesty. Main characters read as White by default. Timely and timeless. (Speculative fiction. 14-18)

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April 15, 2021
Grades 9-12 After time stopped, "nothing [moved] forward," including clocks, and the world scrambled to adjust to this unexplainable phenomenon. For Truda, nine months later, this means Solution Time, where schoolkids are tasked with exploring ways to fix time. She believes the key is getting everyone "to give a shit about people." This challenging, surrealist novel is rooted in psychology, grounding its mind-bending world building in Tru's mental state as she navigates the mysterious tension circulating through her household. As her father turns their home into a plywood labyrinth, her brother hides from some secret shame, and her absent "clairvoyant" mother flirts with returning home, a loose plot tracks Tru's sudden javelin-throwing superpower. It's difficult to distinguish between metaphor, delusion, and "reality," but King invites readers to embrace the confusion as she guides them, and Tru, out of the maze, gradually revealing the characters' underlying traumas, which revolve around an unnamed sister and her cruel manipulations. The text is experimental, often reading like poetry, with forward slashes breaking sentences into agrammatical formations. A work of literary significance that, while it will speak worlds to some, may find limited appeal thanks to a high barrier of entry.

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Starred review from May 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-On June 23, 2020, Earth became trapped in a fold in time, and time stopped. A temporary solution was found as humanity kept keeping artificial time using a website called N3WCLOCK, but high schools across the world continued to task their students to find a permanent solution to the crisis. Tru Becker is one of these students, but she doesn't think that she is the best person to solve this problem. She has enough problems at home: Her father is obsessed with building boxes around a mysterious switch in the middle of their house, her mother-as far as Tru knows-is in rehab, her brother Richard spends most of his time teaching himself Portuguese, and her sister...well, maybe it's best Tru not think too much about her sister. But then two things happen that make Tru think she might actually be the perfect person to solve the time issue: She accidentally stops time by taking a nail out of one of her father's boxes, and she breaks the world record javelin throw at her first track meet. But being the center of attention is the last thing Tru wants. King perfectly captures a feeling of listlessness with this surreal and experimental novel. Highly conceptual with a unique writing style, feelings of isolation are intertwined with explorations of how it feels to connect with another human being. Tru is an interesting and inquisitive main character and acts as the perfect vehicle for readers' own explorations of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. VERDICT Timely and extraordinary, teen readers will find themselves immersed in this timeless world-if they can get past the unfamiliar prose style. Highly recommended.-Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn P.L.

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