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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I heel-turned on this after a few weeks sitting on it and decided that it’s just too ridiculous and self-serious. It falls apart, it’s overstuffed, thin as it is.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Oh, you poor thing. You were begging to be devoured. Maybe it's you your child needed to be protected from. You leave a trail of breadcrumbs any wolf could follow, then act shocked when the wolf is outside your door.”
Wow. A haunting and disturbing story yet so riveting I couldn’t wait to turn the page. The Changeling is a mix of ancient mythology, folklore and modern day challenges wrapped into one story.
Wow. A haunting and disturbing story yet so riveting I couldn’t wait to turn the page. The Changeling is a mix of ancient mythology, folklore and modern day challenges wrapped into one story.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
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:
No
What a creepy little book! The story was all kinds of twisty-turny, and I enjoyed the descent into magical-folklore-come-to-life.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty much a hot mess. Nothing happens for a long time and then suddenly something that is completely unrelated to the story up to that point happens. Repeat. Hey, let's throw in a Norwegian folk tale!
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I needed the epilogue to explain what they told everyone. How they explained it all.
As I’m trying to be more realistic with my ratings this year, I’ve got to give The Changeling 2 stars. I’m also trying not to read other people’s reviews before opening a book and reviewing it myself, to avoid being influenced by anyone else's opinions.
Read more of my book reviews here: https://tildareads.wixsite.com/tilda-reads
So, my personal opinion is that I really wanted to enjoy The Changeling. But I just didn’t love the writing style, I didn’t forge any rapport with the characters, and the whole story felt quite unfinished.
There were too many storylines which were unnecessary and I couldn’t grasp their significance or follow them to their conclusion. The Changeling starts with Apollo’s parent’s story which then flows into Apollo’s story. There’s the story about what happened to Apollo’s dad and Apollo’s ensuing nightmares. Neither of which have a real link to the main story in my opinion. There’s some parallels between what happens to Apollo as a child and Apollo’s own son but there’s not any real significance to this in the end.
I felt myself constantly waiting for the story to start. You’d get a story going, then you’d move on to another story. So you’d think, ok it’s starting now. Then you’d move on to something else. By about halfway through I gave up waiting for that moment and resigned myself to rushing through to the end and hoping that I’d get some sense to the whole thing by the time the conclusion came around.
I was waiting for it all to come together and for there to be this big revelation but that never happened. There was no twist or surprise. There were lots of different sub-plots going on, none of which had a tidy conclusion or even relevance to the main story. I don’t understand the significance of hearing Apollo’s parents story, I don’t understand why the photos were being sent to Emma’s phone, I don’t really know what went on on the island with Cal at the end, I have so many unanswered questions. It needed a couple of chapters at the end to just tidy everything up.
There were lots of really specific details that then had no relation to the story. The make and model of the cars kept being repeated over and over again. So you were expecting something to be done with that. But no. The description of Patrice’s computer was really specific but probably wouldn’t mean anything to anyone unless they were into computers, so again didn’t really serve a purpose. An author can only put a limited amount of description into a story, so they have to be critical about what they should and shouldn’t include. The descriptions need to serve some kind of purpose. Is it to create an atmosphere? Is it relevant to the story later on? Or is it just included because the author has done some research and wants to show that off?
I had no favourite characters. Apollo was the only one you really got some kind of detail to.
Emma’s breakdown was not obvious or defined or described. The fact that her ‘unspeakable act’ happened when it happened was a surprise to me. I was expecting it to be built up far more than that, to really create a story and emotion for the characters. For having such an integral role in the story, I didn’t feel like I knew Emma at all.
I did tend to enjoy individual scenes. Like there was a flash of something good. The Changeling almost felt like it was written to be a movie. Each chapter was a scene, flitting between stories and timelines. Which works in a movie but, to me, defeats the object of the medium if it’s done in a book.
I also enjoyed the weaving of fairy tales and folklore into the modern world. I liked the storyline about how dangerous social media and the internet is; how easy it is to get people’s information online and the implications of that. In my mind, that’s the read horror as it’s the world we live in now. And being a fairly recent victim of hacking, it’s something that I feel strongly about now.
Although The Changeling is a horror story, (similar to The Ghost Tree) I feel like this should sit more in the Dark Fantasy genre. It’s just not as scary to me as I expect horror to be. And I’m easily scared too. I’m tempted to try some Stephen King just to really make sure that it’s not me being too critical of horror books. In fact, I’ve just hopped over and added ‘Carrie’ to my TBR list on Goodreads.
Reading the reviews that are on the cover of my copy of The Changeling, this book is way overhyped. One person said: “Genre-defying, achingly literate phantasmagorica of a novel”. Which is an insane review for such an incomplete story. I had high hopes but once again, they were dashed in the execution. The concept was interesting and I was intrigued enough to keep reading. I always appreciate some magic and fantasy. It’s also a very different book to anything I’ve read before, especially with it being heavily about parenthood. I’m glad that I’m trying some new genres and subjects.
If other reviews are to be believed, many people have enjoyed this book, so if you’re into dark fantasy and bringing fairy tales into the modern world then I would recommend The Changeling. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I did.
Read more of my book reviews here: https://tildareads.wixsite.com/tilda-reads
So, my personal opinion is that I really wanted to enjoy The Changeling. But I just didn’t love the writing style, I didn’t forge any rapport with the characters, and the whole story felt quite unfinished.
There were too many storylines which were unnecessary and I couldn’t grasp their significance or follow them to their conclusion. The Changeling starts with Apollo’s parent’s story which then flows into Apollo’s story. There’s the story about what happened to Apollo’s dad and Apollo’s ensuing nightmares. Neither of which have a real link to the main story in my opinion. There’s some parallels between what happens to Apollo as a child and Apollo’s own son but there’s not any real significance to this in the end.
I felt myself constantly waiting for the story to start. You’d get a story going, then you’d move on to another story. So you’d think, ok it’s starting now. Then you’d move on to something else. By about halfway through I gave up waiting for that moment and resigned myself to rushing through to the end and hoping that I’d get some sense to the whole thing by the time the conclusion came around.
I was waiting for it all to come together and for there to be this big revelation but that never happened. There was no twist or surprise. There were lots of different sub-plots going on, none of which had a tidy conclusion or even relevance to the main story. I don’t understand the significance of hearing Apollo’s parents story, I don’t understand why the photos were being sent to Emma’s phone, I don’t really know what went on on the island with Cal at the end, I have so many unanswered questions. It needed a couple of chapters at the end to just tidy everything up.
There were lots of really specific details that then had no relation to the story. The make and model of the cars kept being repeated over and over again. So you were expecting something to be done with that. But no. The description of Patrice’s computer was really specific but probably wouldn’t mean anything to anyone unless they were into computers, so again didn’t really serve a purpose. An author can only put a limited amount of description into a story, so they have to be critical about what they should and shouldn’t include. The descriptions need to serve some kind of purpose. Is it to create an atmosphere? Is it relevant to the story later on? Or is it just included because the author has done some research and wants to show that off?
I had no favourite characters. Apollo was the only one you really got some kind of detail to.
Emma’s breakdown was not obvious or defined or described. The fact that her ‘unspeakable act’ happened when it happened was a surprise to me. I was expecting it to be built up far more than that, to really create a story and emotion for the characters. For having such an integral role in the story, I didn’t feel like I knew Emma at all.
I did tend to enjoy individual scenes. Like there was a flash of something good. The Changeling almost felt like it was written to be a movie. Each chapter was a scene, flitting between stories and timelines. Which works in a movie but, to me, defeats the object of the medium if it’s done in a book.
I also enjoyed the weaving of fairy tales and folklore into the modern world. I liked the storyline about how dangerous social media and the internet is; how easy it is to get people’s information online and the implications of that. In my mind, that’s the read horror as it’s the world we live in now. And being a fairly recent victim of hacking, it’s something that I feel strongly about now.
Although The Changeling is a horror story, (similar to The Ghost Tree) I feel like this should sit more in the Dark Fantasy genre. It’s just not as scary to me as I expect horror to be. And I’m easily scared too. I’m tempted to try some Stephen King just to really make sure that it’s not me being too critical of horror books. In fact, I’ve just hopped over and added ‘Carrie’ to my TBR list on Goodreads.
Reading the reviews that are on the cover of my copy of The Changeling, this book is way overhyped. One person said: “Genre-defying, achingly literate phantasmagorica of a novel”. Which is an insane review for such an incomplete story. I had high hopes but once again, they were dashed in the execution. The concept was interesting and I was intrigued enough to keep reading. I always appreciate some magic and fantasy. It’s also a very different book to anything I’ve read before, especially with it being heavily about parenthood. I’m glad that I’m trying some new genres and subjects.
If other reviews are to be believed, many people have enjoyed this book, so if you’re into dark fantasy and bringing fairy tales into the modern world then I would recommend The Changeling. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I did.