Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

7 reviews

lancemama's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Racism, Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Misogyny, Child death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

jaqxun's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Child death, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Blood, Death, Torture, Gun violence, and Murder

jess4276's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book was incredibly slow and there was so much that wasn't resolved or explained. I couldn't wait for it to end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse, Racism, Cursing, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

tey_lynn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

bookbelle5_17's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Review of The Changeling

By: Victor La Valle

            Apollo’s father abandoned by him when he was a child, and he was raised by his mother.  As an adult he marries Emma, builds a career as a book collector, and they have a baby.  Unfortunately, Emma starts experiencing postpartum depression and believes that their child isn’t their child.

            This novel defies genre with its crazy plot that starts as a story about a young black man’s life, but the plot gets crazier as it progresses eventually getting downright fantastical.  Both Apollo and Emma are complicated and relatable.  I like how Apollo appreciates reading books as well as selling rare books.  There’s even a discussion between him and another character how most collectors and sellers of rare books don’t care about reading them, but just making the money.  As for Emma, I imagine a lot of women experience postpartum depression that manifests in different ways.  I found myself siding with Apollo as we are in his head, but as the story progress I began to question things with Emma and her belief that baby Brian isn’t there.  It is one of those stories where you ask yourself is this a supernatural situation or is Emma crazy?  Who the antagonist was happened to be one of the twists in the story, so it was a surprise, though there are moments that hint that things aren’t right with a certain character.  I liked the exploration of fairytales and what they do for us, the lessons we learn from them, and how today they’ve been sugar coated.  There is a cult aspect exploring the idea of why someone might join one and how it can be cathartic for someone experiencing grief.   There is also discussion parenting and those parents who constantly post pictures about their children on social media.  The story talks about the consequences of that and how it make them targets. The writing is good and immersive, but the story is slow moving until it picks up a little more than half-way through.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Addiction, Grief, Cursing, and Murder

foxo_cube's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wasn't sure how this one was going to go when I started reading it - I didn't get on too well with the writing style initially, and, although I settled into it, I'd still say it's not my favourite. Not outright bad or anything, just not for me. 

Nonetheless, it wasn't a dealbreaker, and I'm very glad I continued reading because it's a HELL of a story. If ever you think you know where the plot's going - which, for me, was often - you are proven wrong pretty quickly. It heavily telegraphs one thing, then does something else entirely. The book narrowly avoids going into the territory of silliness, and I mean that in a good way. At least, I like that sort of thing. 

I do think some of the "Internet bad" messaging is a little heavy-handed. It's not preachy, or even totally anti-Internet - part of the book's sentiment is simply about caution when using social media, which is a pretty important thing. Still, I can't not mention it. The troll bit is especially obvious as a metaphor. The only other big criticism I have of this book is that the characters are a little flat. They're enough to be invested in - what shines through most is Apollo's absolute adoration of his son, and that is beautifully expressed - but it's sort of... just enough for that, if that makes sense.

The thing that made this story work for me is how curious it made me to find out the truth. Because you mostly know only what Apollo knows, and uncover things along with him, you will often find yourself led to believe one version of events only to discover, later, a whole different truth entirely. The way that LaValle pulls that off is fantastic. 

I think this will be a book worth re-reading because, having read this in two sittings, more-or-less, I noticed that there was a sort of breadcrumb trail for the curveballs in the plot, and I'd like to see if this is more visible the second time round. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Body horror, Mental illness, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Torture

Minor: Racism

griffinthief's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Vomit