juushika 's review for:

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

3.0

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A young father's world is turned upside down by the death of his son. That’s somewhat a spoiler, given it comes so late in the book, but it's also the central premise--which speaks to the pacing. The slow drift from the normal anxieties of early parenthood into the nightmare landscape of tragedy and supernatural elements requires a gradual build in order to be effective, but these aren't anxieties that interest me, and the pacing, exacerbated by the transparent and terse narrative voice, is tedious. The racial and economic tensions I find more effective, and the book's second half is significantly less mundane--bizarre, almost incoherent, a little pedantic, but more interesting. I'm the wrong audience for this, and my disinterest in the themes turns erstwhile strengths into weaknesses; I'm not sure how to appraise its more objective merit.