Body Swap
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A fatal collision — who’s to blame? Two bodies, two souls switch in search of justice. When fifteen-year-old Hallie gets knocked flying by a Hurricane SUV, her life ends without her ever having kissed a boy. At an otherworldly carnival, she meets and argues with the eighty-two-year-old driver, Susan. Both return to life, only with one catch — they’ve swapped bodies. Now Hallie has wrinkled skin and achy joints while Susan deals with a forehead zit and a crush on a guy who’s a player. Hallie faces a life in a long-term care residence. Susan gets picked up for shoplifting. As they struggle with technology, medications, and each other’s fashion foibles, they start to understand and maybe even like each other. But can they work together to prove that a defect in the Hurricane caused the deadly crash? Or will their time run out?
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This was an okay read. It wasn't anything really special and didn't stay in my heart. Partly because of the characters. Partly because of the writing. I enjoyed the plot, don't get me wrong, but it fell flat a lot of the times.
So, Hallie was the 15 year old who got stuck in Susan's body, and Susan was the 82 year old who got stuck in Hallie's body – which seems pretty easy enough, since you think their two voices would be vastly different – and not just because of their ages, but because their personalities – but so many times I had to flick towards the start of the chapter or read on until I can find out whose chapter it is.
If I had to pick a favourite character (of the mains), I'd probably choose Hallie? She had the more interesting personality and I maybe even wanted to be friends with her. Susan, I felt, fell into the stereotypical old person viewpoint – which isn't exactly the wrong thing here, because as you get older, you do have a different viewpoint on issues and whatnot – but Susan was definitely on that stereotypical line and it was annoying to read.
The plot, though a good one, did have some flaws. A big thing was that I thought it felt too preachy, too life-lessony. Now the author is an older person (which isn't the issue here because older writers can and do write YA), it's just that there was a definite feeling of the writer pushing a life lesson onto the readers – there's even a Dear Reader letter that speaks about what inspired the book – again, sounding preachy.
Do I recommend this: It was a good read, so you can be sure of that, and the characters were fun.
