The Trylle Trilogy

The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

Switched 

  (Book #1)

Switched follows the life of Wendy Everly, your typical under-achiever who is bounced around from high school to high school while her older brother Matt and guardian Aunt Maggie plead with her to stop slacking off. She’s felt like an outsider her entire life, well, ever since her mother tried to impale her with a butcher knife at her sixth birthday party. Her mother claims that Wendy is not the same child she was pregnant with and swears that Wendy is responsible for somehow misplacing her unborn son. Shortly after Wendy makes a promise to Matt that she’ll begin applying herself at school, she begins noticing a dark, mysterious figure watching her (amazing the things you notice when you’re actually awake in class). Finn Holmes isn’t your typical teenager and when Wendy confronts him about his staring problem she realizes just how unusual he can be. He begins dragging her down a frustratingly sloping road of “He likes me; He likes me not”, and constantly turns up outside of her bedroom window, much to the displeasure of Matt who promptly vows to kill him. Finn forces Wendy to acknowledge the reasons why she feels like an outsider. Why she seems to always get her way, why she hates wearing shoes and why she’s the only Vegan in her entire family. Wendy is an outsider, in fact, she’s not even human. Worst of all, for any teenager, Wendy realizes that her mother was right.

It’s a little sad to say, but what initially prompted me to download this book was her clever use of the word ”Batshit”. In all seriousness though, the storyline grabbed me immediately. I can’t resist dark stories about violent, knife-wielding family members, it helps me forget about my own dysfunctional family for a while. Now I know what you’re thinking, a high school teenager in a new town being stalked by a mysterious guy who has a habit of climbing through her bedroom window. I get it, I thought that too.  Rest assured, there are no sparkles involved. While there are more than a few similarities to *ahem* other stories I’ve read, this book manages to hold it’s own and cleverly veers off of that “Been there, done that” road. I was hooked by the storyline but I stayed for the characters, especially Matt, who openly struggles with the unstable balance of being both a father-figure and brother to Wendy. It was way too easy to develop feelings for these characters, and that has to be one of the best things about this book.

(*Note: I chose to grade each book as a separate entity instead of grading the entire trilogy as a whole.)

Torn 

  (Book #2)

The one thing I hate about sequels is that they don’t begin where they left off. They constantly go back and re-explain things that (if you had read the first book) you should already know. And honestly who reads the middle of a trilogy without reading the beginning?

Okay so to catch you up to speed, Wendy isn’t human, in fact, she’s royalty. Wendy has to come to terms with who she is, battling her longing to remain with her host family or her duty to step up and lead her people, the ones who have been waiting so many years to finally meet her.  Wendy is also struggling with the immense disappointment of meeting her biological mother, Elora, who is distant and cold, and learning to share Matt with his biological brother, Rhys. Things begin to get a little more complicated. The Trylle tribe (or the dream team as I’ve come to think of them), which chiefly consists of Wendy, Finn, Duncan, Rhys, Willa, Tove and most recently Matt, is having an incredibly busy time. Finn, as a low-ranking tracker, has to learn to hide his feelings for Wendy from everyone else for fear of exiling himself and his entire family. Also, the Vittra, an enemy tribe who are bent on kidnapping Wendy prove that they’re not afraid to kill, maim and injure innocent bystanders to get to what they want. It’s only then that Wendy learns the truth about her biological father, King Oren, leader of the Vittra. It’s in her father’s household that she befriends Loki, a strange, non-violent member of the Vittra who seems amused and even intrigued by her.  Tove takes on the immense goal of training Wendy to control her psychic powers, preparing her for an inevitable battle with her own father and his people. We learn a little about Elora’s past, at least the love triangle she plays a part in, which her daughter, it seems, is doomed to repeat. Elora’s powers have drained her to the point where she’s clinging to life by her fingernails. When she dies Wendy will become Queen and the Vittra will come with a vengeance. Wendy’s complicated love triangle comes to a point with an awkward proposal before abruptly transforming into an unpredictable love square. Between wedding plans, strategizing how to overthrow the king, and wondering just what dark secret Matt has been concealing under the covers, Wendy has less time and more to lose than ever. The choice between love and duty has never been an easy one, but where do you start without knowing exactly where you stand? Wendy has to find out, and she has to find out fast.

This took what I expected to be a thoroughly predictable storyline to astonishing new heights and undiscovered depths. Sure, I was able to foresee the proposal probably from the very beginning but that’s where my crystal ball became hazy and unfocused. The love square, well that was just brilliant, and the fact that Wendy’s father would be revealed as her darkest enemy was just another pleasant surprise. I have to admit I didn’t see that coming and that’s exactly what I like to see (or not see) in a good book.  

Ascend 

   (Book #3)

Wendy begins coming into her own, taking on the duties her mother is now too weak to perform and actually, for once, acting like the Princess everyone expects her to be. She’s fighting against centuries of narrow-minded traditions set in place by both ignorance and fear (and just think she hasn’t even turned 18 yet). The coy but friendly Loki is treated like a chew toy, allowing the King to take out his frustrations on his skin to invoke a reaction from his daughter, and seeks shelter in Wendy’s palace. He then begins to reveal his true feelings for her and he’s not the only one. Ironically, it takes Elora being on her deathbed to prompt her to have a decent relationship with her daughter. It becomes clear just how much she now regrets her isolation and how much she had to go through to keep Wendy safe. With her childhood now behind her and her wedding fast approaching Wendy doesn’t have time for doubts or hectic thoughts. So, of course, the night before her wedding Finn decides to arrive ready and willing to show her exactly how much longing he’s been concealing (now that’s good timing). Her father decides to crash her wedding the next day to simply deliver a message and when Wendy assures him that she can’t be intimidated he saunters off but by no means backs down. Instead, he attacks a nearby village, destroying houses and killing thousands. He then launches an ambush on a small Trylle group who were out assessing the damage, killing some and injuring others, including Finn, much to Wendy’s dismay. Wendy then takes matters into her own hands attempting to barter with the king in exchange for peace for her people. However, the king’s twisted words convince Wendy to question Loki’s motives and she begins to wonder just how much of what he’s told her has been a lie. When the group travels to help the nearby village recover Wendy’s life joins the shambles surrounding her. She’s overcome with unexplainable emotions and overstressed about the future of her kingdom. After being beaten physically and emotionally, she’s close to the very edge of sanity. Her loveless marriage, her kingdom and her mother’s life are all hanging by a thread. The devastation around her opens her eyes to how real the threats from her father are and how horribly this could all end for her friends and her people. She begins to realize that this can only truly end in either war or murder. The question is just how do you kill pure evil and how much do you have to sacrifice to protect the ones you love?

This was by far my favorite book in the trilogy. It was the first time I allowed myself to leave the shallow waters of denial and was forced to admit that I was falling for these characters. The scenes between Tove and Wendy had me laughing so hard that I actually had to put down my Kindle, pick it up, reread the lines and start cracking up again. This was definitely the darkest of the three books, with unsuspecting turns and downright shocks to the system. I found myself actually screaming “What!?” at some of the choices being made. The one complaint that I have is that the grammar was a constant annoyance throughout the entire trilogy. There were misspelled words and even entire halves of sentences missing. However, for me, this book saved the entire trilogy.  Ultimately by the end, I was sad to see these characters go.