Surely, there won't be any creepy woods in this book
The Changeling is a novel written by Victor Lavalle. It follows Apollo, a rare book collector, with a beautiful young wife named Emma and a kid on the way. He’s looking forward to being a father and to being a better father than his father ever was. But things take a turn not long after the baby is born.
The Changeling is a modern day horror/ dark fairy tale: think Grimm’s fairy tales before they were bowdlerised. It’s at times frightening, funny, touching, and frustrating. It touches on the darkest parts of old stories and urban legends...old world ways and new technologies.
In 2023, it was adapted into a TV miniseries on Apple TV+, written by Kelly Marcel and starring Lakeith Stanfield as Apollo and Clark Backo as Emma.
The Changeling contains examples of:
- Changeling Tale: Apollo's son Brian is replaced. When he digs up the grave, the body appears to be a human child until he touches it, revealing a creature made of hair, teeth, sticks, etc.
- Child Eater: The troll eats children.
- Disappeared Dad: Apollo was raised by a single mother; his father disappeared when he was four.
- I Am Not My Father: Apollo is determined to be there for his son, unlike his own father who disappeared when Apollo was young.
- Meaningful Name: Apollo is named after a god associated with the sun, and ends up killing a troll; traditionally, one of the ways to kill a troll is by exposing them to sunlight, which turns them to stone.
