The Switch by Beth O'Leary: a review

Right at the beginning of this year, I read Beth O’Leary’s debut novel, The Flatshare. It remains a firm contender for my top ten of the year, and I was looking forward to seeing what else she brought to the table. I’ve had this pretty much since it came out, but we all know what I’m like for getting to new releases on time. However, I’m on it now, so let’s go.

            The Switch by Beth O’Leary sees a grandmother and granddaughter swap lives for a couple of months. Leena Cotton blows a huge presentation at work and is told she needs to take a two-month sabbatical. Her grandmother, Eileen Cotton is 79, and looking for love, but there doesn’t seem to be an eligible suitor in her home village. They come up with a plan to swap lives, putting Leena in a quaint little village and thrusting Eileen into big city life. While stepping into one another’s lives proves more difficult than they thought, the people they meet and become makes it all worth it.

            O’Leary has such a talent for creating characters. I just kept thinking about how much I want my own Eileen in my life. She’s so cheeky and fun, and she’s also got this real fire to her. When she puts her mind to something, it is absolutely getting done. Leena fumbling in her new life is endearing but O’Leary manages to avoid the clumsy=cute trope really well; it’s just a case of her being overwhelmed and not used to country life. Her characters are so easy to fall in love with but remain incredibly well-rounded. They’re not two-dimensional, though. There are some rough moments, especially with Leena, where you aren’t on their side, but they learn and grow becoming better people. This is especially apparent when O’Leary covers what happened with Carla, Leena’s sister.

            We learn that, sometime before we meet these characters, Leena’s sister and Eileen’s granddaughter, Carla, passed away due to cancer. Everyone is grieving in different ways, with Eileen and her whole village able to talk about her openly, and Leena preferring to bottle it all up. She knows she has to confront her feelings eventually, but because she’s pushed everything down, it all comes out in an argument with her mother. That scene is really kind of visceral, but O’Leary manages to balance everything out. That scene is necessary for the growth of both the women in the argument, even if they’re both handling things badly. I must also say that I morbidly enjoyed the image of these two having a full-blown row while the woman who Leena was meant to be driving to bingo is just kind of sat there. I think we’ve all been privy to an argument we shouldn’t have seen/heard, and there’s just something so incredibly awkward about it, and O’Leary really manages to tap into that.

            While I personally preferred The Flatshare this is definitely going to be something I come back to in the future. It might make it into the top ten, but I know I’ve said that a few more times than ten so far, and we’ve still got a few more months left. I guess I’ll have to see where I’ve said that at the end of the year, and see which of those truly made it top tier. I’ve always got the option of honourable mentions. Of course I recommend this book. It’s great fun, and if you did enjoy The Flatshare, then you’ll love this.