The Changeling in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jun 18, 2017 KT rated it liked it

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I received a request to review "The Changeling," I was intrigued. The only description of the book was this quote: "If the literary gods mixed together Haruki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor LaValle."—Anthony Doerr and this one sentence summary: "The wildly imaginative story of one man’s thrilling odyssey through an enchanted world to find his wife, who has disappeared after having s Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I received a request to review "The Changeling," I was intrigued. The only description of the book was this quote: "If the literary gods mixed together Haruki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor LaValle."—Anthony Doerr and this one sentence summary: "The wildly imaginative story of one man’s thrilling odyssey through an enchanted world to find his wife, who has disappeared after having seemingly committed an unforgivable act of violence"

I do happen to know from my childhood love of folklore and fairy tales that a changeling is a creature left behind when fairies steal someone's baby. Typically, the changeling is magically disguised as the baby and is raised by the family in place of their actual child. So I went into this book expecting that to crop up at some point, but not knowing what to expect other than that.

Having read it, I would class this book as an urban fantasy. Internet trolls coexist and even collaborate with fairy tale trolls. Wives become witches and then go back to being wives. Fathers sometimes sacrifice children to monsters in the woods and sometimes to the monsters living in their own minds. And yes, children are stolen and replaced by things that are not human babies.

LaValle plays on modern fears while at the same time invoking ancient ones. The internet and social media play an equally large role in the story as monsters, witches and dark woods. And at it's heart, this is very much a story of parenthood and the overwhelming love and fear inspired by becoming a parent. This was one of the few books I have read recently where I really never predicted what was coming next, other than the fact that once a baby appeared on the scene, the titular changeling was probably coming soon.

There pros and cons to the writing -- LaValle really knows how to set a scene, giving modern New York locations a dark fairy tale vibe, so you always feel like everything is a bit off-kilter, even when presented with a totally ordinary scene. On the other hand, he has a tendency to overexplain sometimes, or put explanations in strange places. Information is sometimes repeated unnecessarily, interrupting the flow of the story. The pacing also is a bit off in the middle of the book. The beginning flows well, establishing Apollo, our main character and his wife Emma and their backstories, which play an important part in who they are and how they react to the events of the story. But after Apollo is left on his own and before he discovers what really happened with his wife and son - the pacing seems to slow to a crawl and the story loses momentum.

I think this could have been remedied had LaValle been able to give us some of Emma's perspective as well as Apollo's. It would have changed the story quite a bit, but it also would have allowed us to spend more time with the "fantasy" part of this urban fantasy and give us more insight into fascinating aspects of the story that are only touched on (like Emma's "mommy group" and what she was doing during the time she was missing). Instead we have to stop halfway through the story, right when we should be starting to solve the mystery, because the main character doesn't yet know there's still a mystery to be solved. And we've got to tag along with him for a while until he finally figures it out. If you can stick with it through that lull in the middle, however, the end is a thrill ride, when all the monsters and witches come out and Apollo also becomes a hero, the sun god striding into the darkness to confront the big bad and save his family. ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Jesse rated it really liked it

It was a little hard to figure this one out to start with. If I analyzed it too deeply, it would probably drive me crazy that there were so many loose ends, but overall it was a good mix of mystery, supernatural, and horror. Some nice twists that caught me off guard, which kept the story moving nicely.

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Aug 26, 2019 Jason McKinney rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: around-2019

I approached this with a little hesitation because the other LaValle book that I've read, Big Machine, had an entertaining buildup and then didn't turn out to be much at the end. This was a much, much better book. It's long for sure but I didn't mind that and, in fact, I really hated to see it end. The memorable characters, insightful consideration of fairy tales and what they've come to mean for modern peoples and a helluvan exciting story all combine to create one fun novel that also happens t ...more

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