Skip to main content

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

The Changeling by Victor LaValle {Goodreads}
Published by Spiegel & Grau in 2017
Hardback edition; 431 pages

Apollo is about to become a father. He's ecstatic about it but at the same time there is a fear at the back of his mind. His own father abandoned him when he was a little baby and he is scared about not being a good father because he didn't have a fatherly figure while growing up. Once the baby arrives, he starts to settle into his new life, being a committed father and then, one day, everything changes. Emma, his wife, starts acting strange and after seemingly committing a terrible violent act, she disappears. Now Apollo's odyssey begins. He must find her and bring her back.


The first thing I'm gonna touch upon in the review is how deliciously written this book is. LaValle completely captivated me with his writing style. He knows when to push it and when to take a step back. The writing flows perfectly and it's what made the story so great for me. The characters are also fantastic but not all of them are given equal treatment. It's true that the story is mainly focused on Apollo and he's the one we get to know and understand very well but I wish I could've got to know Emma just as well. We do learn about her, for sure, but she doesn't feel as present as Apollo.

Fairytale references are everywhere and the blending between reality and fantasy works very well. The more you read, the more bizarre it gets. At the beginning, the story is more rooted in reality but as the story progresses, you notice how the fantasy elements take over and what appears to be a book with a fairytale touch becomes a fairytale on its own.

The Changeling explores what it means to be a father and the fears attached to it. The anxiety of failing, of not being good enough. It proves how, as much as we try, being a parent is trial and error. Making mistakes is part of it. The important issue though it's trying our best. In this sense, this novel is also about the length parents will go to protect their child. As you can probably tell I absolutely adored this story and I started doing something I don't tend to do: annotate it. I normally underline favourite quotes and such but with this? I had so many thoughts and I needed to write them down. I loved interacting with the story.

Follow

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vintage Classics: Brontë Series

Maybe you don’t know this about me but I collect different edition of Jane Eyre and when I learnt that Vintage was releasing the new Brontë series I just couldn’t say no. 

April 2017

And another month goes by. To be fair, this time it didn't fly around for me; it was quite a slow month in general and I spent half of it reading - I can't even believe I have managed to read all of these books -  and half of it studying for University. I'm all caught up with all my courses and I'm ready to start revising for finals which will be at the end of May/beginning of June. I'm still in awe that for once in my life, I've being productive as hell if I say so myself. Hurray! Basically I wrote down all I had to do and I organised it throughout the first three weeks of April. At the same time I told myself I had to read for fun at least 30 minutes every single day in order to avoid being slumpy due to stress. It worked.

Welcome to A Day In Bookland!

Hello fellow Bookworms! My name is Noelia. I’m 23 years old and I live in Spain. I’m a Psychology Grad but at the moment I’m studying an English Culture & Literature major. I consider myself quite the Anglophile (a what? You may be wondering… well, an anglophile is basically a fan of English culture. Yep! That’s me). Anyways, I should have studied this one since the beginning instead of Psychology but what would be life without some wrong decisions? Well, the important thing is that I’m studying it now and I’m super happy because I just love it. I would love someday to work in the publishing world to be surrounded by books 24/7. It would be the perfect job for me. My dangerous addiction to reading made me go to YouTube to look up for bookish stuff which is making that addiction even worse now that I think about it (Oops!). Reading has been always a part of my life, since I was a little girl and it has got bigger and bigger the older I get. It is true that YouTube...