The Changeling

If I think about this book too much I will change my review and knock it down a star or two, so I am choosing not to. The Changeling is a fast paced modern fairy tale page turner which is interesting and exciting throughout most of the book, but perhaps runs out of steam a little towards the end.

It is a book of many perspectives and themes and maybe a few of those themes are a little bit on the nose. It's a novel about families and about parenthood. It is a straight up horror. It is a critique on our society, about how different racial lived experiences in America are felt, about men's perspectives on women and their place in the world. It is a critique of a life lived to be viewed and validated by others.

Some of the things I really liked.... when this book is horrific, it genuinely is unsettling and it's not just from a gore, blood and guts angle. It's really creepy and I remember certain moments that I am sure I won't be able to shake quickly. I like when the book is at it's most human. I've seen some reviews that critique the early parts of the book as we go through some family history and it meanders through a couple of generations but I loved it. It was like setting off on a journey on a long and winding path, and that path is well tended and gentle before it starts to get rocky. I really liked the pace, and LaValle is a good enough writer to keep me engaged. I generally don't like short chapters in books, feeling that they are a device to keep me reading and I feel manipulated. Not so here, I wanted to read more.

I liked the treatment of the central character Apollo. I didn't particularly like him as a character or a man. I don't think he is particularly likeable. I think (hope!) this is intentional. He is trying to be a good man, is making decisions based on what he thinks is best, but his masculinity and generations of patriarchy play out in his words and deeds. I found it uncomfortable relating to him and also my own thoughts as a man, as a 'protector' and how men can resort to power and violence to resolve problems. LaValle acknowledges masculinty, the love of a father and husband but also the worst instincts of 'good men' no matter how latent.

There is a blistering critique of 'new Dads' in here. Men who do the bare minimum of sharing childcare responsibilities are both seeking validation and being put on a pedestal. I read it and it resonated strongly. As someone who walks around being proud of my parenting skills maybe I should stop looking for that 'well done' badge.

I also really liked how aspects of race and gender are weaved throughout this book. There are little touches in here where as a white reader I am forced to see colour and how life as a black man in America has a different level of threat to it than that of a white man. I can see the perspectives of social services and how they view parents of colour different from white parents, how Western societies are built for people who look a certain way.

There's not much I don't like in here. The book does seem like three novels stitched together. The actions and outcomes feel implausible (though we are in a fairy story and I could wave away the unrealistic elements accepting we have a degree of magical realism going on). There's a middle section, where something really cool is introduced and then exits stage left, pursued by a bear. The fairy tale tropes land well, though one or two are laboured just a little but so often I was reading this horror fairy tale and thinking about something else entirely which I guess is the point of a fairy tale.

Recommended.