Change Places with Me by Lois Metzger

“‘It’s as if you’re not here.’
Rose felt her throat tighten.  ‘So where am I?’
‘Somewhere else.’
Rose couldn’t believe it.  What was she talking about?”

I feel like that quote right there could probably sum up this entire book.  In the very beginning, I found it to be incredibly confusing and hard to follow, but the more I read, it began to make a lot more sense.  It was like being underwater – at first everything is cloudy and foggy, but as you start to surface, everything gets clearer, and finally it all makes sense.  The idea behind Change Places with Me is such a superb idea, and I believe that Ms. Metzger did a fantastic job with execution…the fact that it is a tad confusing will make readers continue to read through this one of a kind novel until they reach the conclusion.

The year is 2029, and our main character, Rose, wakes up with her step-mother.  She’s happy, talkative, and is trying her hardest to have a great time at school with girls at school who are popular and not really her friends.  When she gets the popular girls to start hanging out with her, she doesn’t realize that they are using her, and she is over the moon about spending time with them.  However, although her life seems somewhat perfect…things don’t quite feel right to her.

It feels like things are missing.  Or just flat out wrong.

As things continue to feel off for her, Rose seeks out the reason why she feels so uneasy…and doesn’t really like what she finds.  Rose discovers that she just might not be Rose after all – she might be someone else completely.

I can’t really elaborate on the synopsis of the book without giving too much away.  I hate spoilers in my reviews, and I don’t want to give any out, but I do want to say that this book is extraordinary. The writing is different…there aren’t any drawn out detailed descriptions about things or endless “this is what the future is going to be like” parts of the book that eventually make you just want to skip over them.  It’s all about the story, and I love how it’s put together.

The way the book is laid out is different, as well…it’s broken into three different parts – the present, the past, and the present again.  It not only introduces us to Rose in the first section, but it tells us about her past in the second section, and the brings us to the events that are happening now in the last section.  Because of how this book was written, it was really nice to get in touch with Rose’s character and learn about her, and the horrible events of her past that led her to make certain choices to be the person she is now.

From fellow bloggers and reviews that I have read online, it is clear that it will have a difficulty finding an audience that can appreciate it for what it is.  There’s just so much about it that might not appeal to everyone…including the “I don’t know if this is really happy or not” story line, the main character with just the right of attitude to make the book, but not enough to make her memorable to some, and the writing style, that seems to do quite a bit, but might not be doing all it can to captivate readers.  This book does, however, prove that you can still do new and exciting things with a genre that seems to be overworked. 

This book just flew by, and I finished it in a single afternoon.  It’s rather short, which while I wish it would have been longer, the short and “to the point” attitude of this book made me appreciate it even more.  Once I got over the initial confusion going on here, I couldn’t put it down.  Change Places with Me is a novel that will change the way you think of things…namely how things will be handled in the future.  It will also make you appreciate who you are.

The message that Change Places with Me sends is something that every teenager should keep in mind when he or she feels completely alone, depressed, and unwanted – even if you aren’t happy with who you are at the moment, the real you is always the better version.