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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
The Changeling is a fairytale about fairytales. It is the kind of fairytale that you sink into slowly, lulled and calmed by the gentle cadence of its familiarity - until you aren’t. LaValle is so skilled at the subtle deception that you barely notice the slip into the uncanny. It's slow in a way that only pulls you further down, and the characters are brilliantly rendered. Apollo and Emma orbit around each other in unexpected ways, and despite the near-predicability of the book's ending, its I love this book for its balance of darkness and light, of the different kinds of love, of its fairytale tropes and new inventions. LaValle's narration of his own book is also stellar - his soft, New York accented voice is the perfect thing to carry the story.
Spoiler
sweetness is a pleasant surprise after the violence that precedes it.
So much love for this novel. This will be forever one of my favorites. I cannot recommend highly enough.
3.75! Really enjoyed this one but I wish the supernatural element bled through to the whole story instead of just the middle/end. It felt like it came a little out of nowhere. The Facebook group stuff was a little too on the nose for me, but it wasn’t too bad. Overall, a good spooky dark fairy tale with characters I cared about. Really loved the beginning-middle of this.
LaValle lays it on a little thick at times, but overall achieves what he set out to and wrote a really entertaining story.
This wasn't horror or fantasy really, even though I saw it advertised as such. It's more of a drama where touches of lore break through. I really loved it, but I'm taking one star off because parts of it were pretty slow. The writing was great, and I thought the main character was really well developed.
I listened to this on audible, and I was so intrigued right from the start. This book was so good and made you think about parenting choices and technology. I just didn't see anything coming. I definitely recommend it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
adventurous
dark