The Changeling: A Novel - Softcover

"The combination of Grimm-ish allusion and social commentary might seem pat in the hands of less capable authors, but [Victor] LaValle executes the trick with style. . . . LaValle has written a story full of things to terrify not children but the parents who lose sleep worrying about how best to protect them."--Time

"One of the reasons to read Victor LaValle's novels is the simple sentence-by-sentence pleasure of them--they offer hundreds of baby dopamine hits, tiny baths for the prose snob's reward system. . . . LaValle's observations about race remain, as ever, both stinging and mordantly funny. . . . And his imagery is a source of immense satisfaction. . . . If monsters are your subject, writing like an angel helps."--Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

"[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. . . . LaValle impressively maintains his storytelling momentum throughout The Changeling. . . . He not only recaptures the need for fairy tales but makes his essential reading as well."--USA Today (four out of four stars)

"Victor LaValle's fabulist ode to fatherhood and fairy tales offers a new take on themes as old as time. . . . Throughout western mythology, white men with swords have been the heroes while the rest of us watch, oohing and aahing, from the sidelines. With his genre-bending novel, The Changeling, Victor LaValle updates the epic narrative for the twenty-first century."--O: The Oprah Magazine

"Fiercely defies categorization. Written as a self-proclaimed 'fairy tale' in a punchy, inviting style, Mr. LaValle's 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."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"I was frequently startled by The Changeling's piercingly beautiful insights into parenthood, childhood, [and] adulthood. . . . By turns enchanting, infuriating, horrifying, and heartbreaking, The Changeling is never less than completely engaging. . . . It's a book that makes me want to seek people out to talk about it, to share together our own stories of reading it."--NPR

"Fans of the macabre can't miss the latest offering from prolific horror master Victor LaValle, which hurls us into the most harrowing abyss imaginable: parenthood. . . . Definitely scarier than anything you'll hear around the campfire."--Vulture

"This is a perfect summer horror read."--Houston Chronicle

"Like a good Coen brothers film, this genre-defying, achingly literate phantasmagoria of a novel will work every nook and cranny of the imagination, taking the reader to places we're either too afraid to visit or never knew existed."--Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout

"Absolutely compelling, completely thrilling, The Changeling overflows with menace, wonder, and beauty."--Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble