Review: The Changeling

The Changeling by Victor LaValle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle

Occasionally one happens upon a book which draws one through the valley of the shadow of death, or in some cases, through hell. Such is the case for me, for example, when I read about Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Era, or accounts of the Holocaust. I wasn't expecting this to be the case when I commenced THE CHANGELING. I was fresh from my one-sitting reading of Victor LaValle's extraordinary rendering of magical realism and Lovecraftian delight, BALLAD OF BLACK TOM. I remained over-the-moon from it, and then THE CHANGELING (published 2017) wrung me inside out, plunged me into the depths of emotional agony {I'd become too jaded, and no story had affected me like this in an extraordinarily long time.} THE CHANGELING made me crawl through the depths, all the time crying "Why? Why? Why?" which is certainly never an efficient response to tragedy, which just is. What carried me through my emotional grieving was the outstanding quality of Mr. LaValle's writing, and the incredible nuances of the story he tells. Victor LaValle is a champion writer, and I shall continue to seek out anything he ever writes.

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