The Changeling

A Novel

By: Victor LaValle

Narrated by: Victor LaValle

Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

“[This] haunting tale weaves a mesmerizing web around fatherhood, racism, horrific anxieties and even To Kill a Mockingbird. And the backdrop for this rich phantasmagoria? The boroughs of New York.” (The New York Times)

Winner of an American Book Award, a Locus Award for Best Horror Novel, a British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel, and a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, an International Dublin Literary Award, and a Mythopoeic Award for Literature.

When Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and strange recurring dreams. Now, Apollo is a father himself - and as he and his wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo's old dreams return, and Emma begins acting odd. At first, Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes. Thus begins Apollo’s quest to find a wife and child who are nothing like he'd imagined. His odyssey takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

Named One of Paste’s Best Horror Books of the Decade • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • USA Today • The New York Public Library • NPR • BuzzFeed • Kirkus Reviews • Book Riot

“The thriller you won’t be able to put down.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)

“By turns enchanting, infuriating, horrifying, and heartbreaking, The Changeling is never less than completely engaging.” (NPR)

“Strange and wonderful.” (The New York Times)

“A dark fairy tale of New York, full of magic and loss, myth and mystery, love and madness. The Changeling is a mesmerizing, monumental work.” (Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings)

“[A] bewitching masterpiece.... Like a woke Brothers Grimm, his clever new spin on the ages-old changeling myth is a modern fairy tale for the Trump era, taking on fatherhood, parenting, marriage, immigration, race and terrifying loss.” (USA Today)

“Intense, riveting.... The story is a long, slow burn with a lingering sizzle.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

“A modern-day tale of terror rooted in ancient myth and folklore, brimming with magical revelation and emotional truth.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

©2017 Victor LaValle (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"If the literary gods mixed together Haruki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor LaValle." (Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See)

"LaValle has a knack for blending social realism with genre tropes, and this blend of horror story and fatherhood fable is surprising and admirably controlled.... LaValle has successfully delivered a tale of wonder and thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a parent. A smart and knotty merger of horror, fantasy, and realism." (Kirkus Reviews)

When Papa was away at a book sale...

11.03.2017
I think I'm a 1/3 of the way through this book so far.
I love this book, even more so because I've just had the singular experience of stopping an audiobook and jotting down Patrice's slow cooker lemon chicken recipe and I'm now making it for dinner. I have never cooked from a novel. I'm excited.

11.10.2017
This book was incredible and listening to LaValle narrate it was incredible. The melding of myth and now was amazing and I wasn't even mentally tsk tsking over how the use of an iPhone or referencing Maurice Sendak will date the novel in the future because this story is timeless and it doesn't matter.
We had lemon chicken and olives again tonight.

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

Interesting premise, but ultimately unsatisfying

I was intrigued by the premise of this novel; it was interesting, a fairy tale for adults. I wanted to like it but the plot ran for so long without much happening, and when the climax finally came it, like the resolution, was a rather disappointing. It’s as if the author spent so much time and effort crafting many plot events but then didn’t quite know how to finish it.

fantastic story

Awesome, it's a slow build but worth the wait. Also even though it's a modern fairy tale it's not a rehash gingerbread house with leather and gun oil pulp novel.

Magical Storytelling

This is a good book. It is a modern fairytale about trolls and monsters, love and horror, tradition and the new, and the past ryhming in the present. This is a book about books, about stories of books, the storytellers that tell them, and the stories that we tell ourselves. This is a story about nightmares being tame and reality being wild. If you are looking for an easy read, avoid this book. If you are looking for the familiar, avoid this book. If you are looking to escape reality, definitely avoid this book. This fantasy feels real. And that what makes it, a good book.

Loved It

This was a wonderful and unique story. I enjoyed the realistic dynamic between the couple. The narration was strong. And I loved how it wasn't magic overload, but enough magic to keep the story compelling.

Excellent!

I normally stay away from books that contain children being injured, but I took a chance on this one and I am glad that I did! It's not what you expect, but so wonderfully crafted you can't help but get pulled in. This was one of those rare books that I made up chores so I could listen longer.

Listened twice

I think this is fantasy and ties to reality pretty well. But I need to know the back story of Emma the witch and what powers she has to their ever after?

not what I would normally read but amazing

This book was hard for me. Not the type of book I would normally read and a bit slower in pace then books I tend to pick up. But it makes you really feel what the characters are going through to a level that few books reach. very happy to have finished it.

A tale to suspend your disbelief

I usually don’t love stories with a blatant supernatural element, and I guess this one almost isn’t that. It winds it’s way down a path of interesting normalcy, so far that the reader is inside these characters’ lives and minds by the time something not entirely normal seems to be taking them in a direction even they don’t want to believe. It’s a very modern twist on an ancient fairy tale. I loved it.

Don’t tease a troll

This book took forever to get to the meat of the story. Lavelle‘s voice sometimes put me to sleep, but I stuck with it based on his other novel. In the end, I enjoyed the way the story was wrapped up and came away with watch out for trolls even the real life ones that are on the Internet. A little less detail would’ve made this book a four-star story.