A review by amandaquotidianbooks
The Changeling by Victor LaValle

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

4.0

Victor LaValle’s The Changeling explores what happens to a young family when the worst occurs, descending from the newspaper-reported atrocities of modern life to the bowels of ancient nightmares.

LaValle blends the topical with the folkloric, and brilliantly questions the place of technology and social media in our daily lives. He also shows how racism further threatens Apollo on his harrowing journey as he tries to save his family.

Apollo is an excellently nuanced main character. He is consumed with his own life’s mythology and ensnared by his dreams of his absent father, after whom he names his firstborn. I especially enjoyed how the one relic left to him by his father is a nightmarish picture book about the kidnapping of a child and her replacement by a changeling. It upped the creepy factor and was a much appreciated bookish element.
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