Switched

When she was six, Wendy Everly’s mother tried to kill her, proclaiming her a monster who had replaced her real child. Eleven years later, new student Finn tells Wendy she really is a changeling (Mom was right!), and he’s arrived to take her to her real home with the Trylle, a tribe of beautiful trolls with special powers. Hunted by a rival tribe, Wendy agrees. As she gets to know her birth mother and prepares for her debutante ball, Wendy finds her new life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Tapping into the YA zeitgeist of alienation and forbidden love, Hocking’s self-published Trylle trilogy was an e-book bestseller. Packaged with a bonus short story (not seen by PW), this melodramatic fantasy tickles many of the same fancies as the Twilight books and has already established a devoted fan base. But while Hocking grabs readers early on, thinly drawn, enigmatic characters with deliberately poor communication and a flair for high school–style drama stall the story’s momentum. The plotting recovers, but the last chapter simply sets up the sequel, Torn, which pubs in February. Agent: The Axelrod Agency. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)