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A review by katiehicks
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
I have sort of mixed feelings about this book, and by the end I felt myself kind of slogging through the audio book- though I'm not sure how much of this had to do with being in a reading slump at the time.
For the first quarter, I was REALLY enjoying the audio book. Its read by the author, and LaValle gives the whole book a quiet, dark, yet still beautiful tone which makes it feel truly like a bed-time story or fairy tale. I also appreciated the slower pace in this section, as it added to this tone and let us get to know the characters.
However, from the time the "inciting event" (I think its pretty clear from the synopsis what this is) to the end, I kept thinking that the pacing was off, and that it might have been better if it had been narrated by Emma instead of Apollo. I thought this for a couple reasons, all of which are spoiler-y:
1. Because we did not see the night Emma killed the Changeling from Emma's perspective, it made her very difficult to sympathize with, even by the end. Obviously, she did not actually hurt Brian, but she did actually hurt Apollo. She tied him up, essentially tortured him, and then hit him over the head so hard that he was in the hospital for weeks undergoing multiple surgeries and almost lost his eye. On top of that, it seems like her plan was to get Brian back from the troll and then just leave, without ever telling Apollo that his son was still alive. She spent months letting him believe that this horrible thing happened, even after he threatened her coworkers with a gun and went to jail.
And yet, when they are reunited, it is only Apollo who apologizes, as if he somehow deserved this abuse because he said some hurtful things and was not understanding of her mental health issues. I just think I may have been able to sympathize with Emma a bit more if I had seen what led her to that moment, and known if she felt even a little remorse for the physical and emotional pain she caused Apollo.
2. Because Apollo does not know about the Changelings for most of the book, when he meets the other women who have lost children to Changelings, he sees them as evil and murderous. Most of these women had also been victims of domestic abuse (like Greta) so framing this community of women and children as the "bad guys", even for a little while, made me pretty uneasy. Again, if this had been narrated by Emma, then we, the readers, would have already known about the Changelings by the time we meet Cal and her community, and they would have been framed as survivors from the start.
3. Again, because Apollo does not know about the Changelings for most of the book, it means that he learns about all of it in a series of kitchen table info-dumps right when the story is reaching its climax. It threw the pacing way off that he had to sit down and have everything explained to him right before running off to face a troll Again, I think this could have been fixed by having the story narrated by Emma, who would have been learning about all of this gradually from the beginning.
All that being said, I love a good re-imagined fairy tale which actually respects the original folklore, but adapts it for a modern audience. Discussing Norse troll mythology in the context of modern technology with the added layer of race and racism in America was incredibly smart and unique. The audio book was great and truly felt like a new classic fairy tale.
For the first quarter, I was REALLY enjoying the audio book. Its read by the author, and LaValle gives the whole book a quiet, dark, yet still beautiful tone which makes it feel truly like a bed-time story or fairy tale. I also appreciated the slower pace in this section, as it added to this tone and let us get to know the characters.
However, from the time the "inciting event" (I think its pretty clear from the synopsis what this is) to the end, I kept thinking that the pacing was off, and that it might have been better if it had been narrated by Emma instead of Apollo. I thought this for a couple reasons, all of which are spoiler-y:
1. Because we did not see the night Emma killed the Changeling from Emma's perspective, it made her very difficult to sympathize with, even by the end. Obviously, she did not actually hurt Brian, but she did actually hurt Apollo. She tied him up, essentially tortured him, and then hit him over the head so hard that he was in the hospital for weeks undergoing multiple surgeries and almost lost his eye. On top of that, it seems like her plan was to get Brian back from the troll and then just leave, without ever telling Apollo that his son was still alive. She spent months letting him believe that this horrible thing happened, even after he threatened her coworkers with a gun and went to jail.
And yet, when they are reunited, it is only Apollo who apologizes, as if he somehow deserved this abuse because he said some hurtful things and was not understanding of her mental health issues. I just think I may have been able to sympathize with Emma a bit more if I had seen what led her to that moment, and known if she felt even a little remorse for the physical and emotional pain she caused Apollo.
2. Because Apollo does not know about the Changelings for most of the book, when he meets the other women who have lost children to Changelings, he sees them as evil and murderous. Most of these women had also been victims of domestic abuse (like Greta) so framing this community of women and children as the "bad guys", even for a little while, made me pretty uneasy. Again, if this had been narrated by Emma, then we, the readers, would have already known about the Changelings by the time we meet Cal and her community, and they would have been framed as survivors from the start.
3. Again, because Apollo does not know about the Changelings for most of the book, it means that he learns about all of it in a series of kitchen table info-dumps right when the story is reaching its climax. It threw the pacing way off that he had to sit down and have everything explained to him right before running off to face a troll Again, I think this could have been fixed by having the story narrated by Emma, who would have been learning about all of this gradually from the beginning.
All that being said, I love a good re-imagined fairy tale which actually respects the original folklore, but adapts it for a modern audience. Discussing Norse troll mythology in the context of modern technology with the added layer of race and racism in America was incredibly smart and unique. The audio book was great and truly felt like a new classic fairy tale.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Mental illness
Moderate: Child death, Violence, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts