You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

madmax8506 's review for:

The Changeling by Victor LaValle
4.0

If this book focused more on the fairly tale side of the story or delved more into lore behind the creature I think it would been better.

The book was fun, but there were parts that were choppy, and made little sense in the big picture of the story. Particularly the middle after
SpoilerEmma kills her child and nearly kills Apollo and runs off in the middle of the night.
The reader is left wondering what possessed her to do that. Her paranoia had been built up, and she ultimately breaks.

Next we're with Apollo in is search for Emma, only to discover that she was seen on an island in the East River. We're briefly introduced to a group of women and children on the island, but their part in the story is ultimately unclear, other than to give help tell the story of the book collector that Apollo sells a book to.

Finally, we have a disjointed timeline as Apollo learns the truth. I won't spoil the end here, but there are quite weird time jumps. It is meant to be a continuous timeline with Apollo arriving at night an moving through days or nights to the completion, but it seems to jump around a bit, it was a bit distracting, but the end was satisfying.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a fast read that kept me interested even if I wondered where the story was going at times. If you aren't worried about minor time inconsistencies, and enjoy fantasy and lore then you will enjoy this book as well.