Switched (book)

Switched is a novel by Sienna Mercer, and the first of eight books in the My Sister the Vampire collection. It features 13-year-old Olivia Abbott, and Ivy Vega. Olivia and Ivy meet each other and find out that they are identical twins because they each have identical emerald rings. Soon, however, Olivia finds out that Ivy is a vampire.

Plot

Switched is the first book to the My Sister the Vampire series. The book is about a young 8th grader named Olivia Abbott, who moves to Franklin Grove due to her father's job.^[1]

On her first day at Franklin Grove Middle School, Olivia encounters a fashionably dressed Goth girl who points her to the main office. The girl turns out to be Ivy Vega, who upon running into Olivia, feels a strange sensation, as if she had met her before. While at the main office, Olivia meets and be friends Camilla Edmunson, a curly blond-haired sci-fi-obsessed fan.

In social studies class, Olivia Abbott is introduced to the students. Ivy has a strong feeling of déjà vu upon seeing her again, and asks her best friend Sophia Hewitt if they knew her, to which Sophia replies, "She's 2 pink 4 us 2 know!" (It is also revealed that the two girls, along with most other vampires, call humans "bunnies"). After class, Olivia is cornered by The Beasts, a gang of four greasy, creepy boys, who call her "new meat". Ivy comes to Olivia's defense and fends off the goons, to which Olivia gratefully thanks her. Ivy is hit by a powerful wave of nausea mixed with strangeness, and rushes off before Olivia can finish talking. At cheer-leading tryouts in the gym, Olivia meets and befriends Charlotte Brown and her minions Katie and Allison. Charlotte invites Olivia to sit at their lunch table, and Olivia reluctantly agrees, who had been hoping to sit with Camilla. Charlotte explains the "rules of Franklin Grove Middle School", which mostly just revolves around her, the cheer-leading captain-ship, and the color pink. As Ivy and her friends pass by their table, Charlotte makes a snide remark, but Ivy says nothing. Olivia is shocked and stands up for Ivy, but Charlotte dismisses Ivy, saying, "the walking dead don't have feelings!"

In science class, Ivy is annoyed that the new girl, Olivia had been sucked into Charlotte's web so easily and was now her best friend. Instead, Olivia comes up to Ivy's table and apologizes for Charlotte's insult and compliments her on her incredible style. Ivy reveals to Olivia that she had tried out for cheer-leading in sixth grade (to Olivia's astonishment) and actually made the squad, beating out Charlotte, who was first alternate. She then decided that cheer-leading wasn't her thing, but picked being on the newspaper as an extracurricular. While working on the lab experiment, Ivy notices the dark emerald ring on Olivia's middle finger and realizes that it looks exactly like the ring Ivy wears on her neck. The ring is the only thing Ivy had from her real parents and was given it on her tenth birthday. After class, Ivy pulls Olivia to the bathroom where they discuss their rings, their birthplace and date, their adoptive parents, and find out that they are identical twins.

As the story progresses and Olivia and Ivy's sisterhood bonding grows stronger, they decide to switch places and fool everyone, sometimes for the fun of it, but also to fill in for each others' places in times of need. They switch places, everything from makeup to clothes and learning how to talk and act like each other - which won't be easy, given that Ivy is a pale, low-profile Goth who only has one adoptive parent and several Goth friends who use different terms like "sucks" (which is slang for "good"), and "deadly", meaning "awesome". On the other hand, Olivia is a perky pink vegetarian cheerleader who bounces and smiles when she walks. Also, Olivia doesn't mind being the center of attention. Their eating habits are also a problem - Ivy's food always contains blood or strong iron content, and Olivia's family are strict vegetarians and are strong lovers of tofu and salads. But the hardest part of switching identities is trying to fit in with the people that the girls usually hang around. Ivy and Olivia face many differences in their new world as the All Hallows Ball approaches; Brendan, Ivy's longtime crush, and Ivy finally start to date; Olivia badly wanting to make it onto the Franklin Grove Devils Squad, and telling Sophia about the newly-discovered fact that they are definitely long-lost twins. Everything seems to go fine until Ivy finally tells Olivia that she is a vampire and proves so, and that Sophia and a lot of other Goths in Franklin Grove are not just goths, but vampires.

References