It’s hard to write about a Victor LaValle book without spoilers. Like predecessors Big Machine (2009) and The Devil in Silver (2012), the cult New Yorker’s latest novel The Changeling is a dark, shape-shifting, unpredictable beast, best enjoyed as a series of surprises. With books like this, the reviewer is like a naughty Freemason, breaking the agreement by spilling closely guarded secrets with irresponsible abandon. Even suggesting a genre is potentially joy-killing, though labelling The Changeling a modern horror fantasy morality tale and love story doesn’t square too many swirling circles.
The story centres around Apollo Kagwa, a New York native raised solely by his Ugandan mother, Lillian. Despite being haunted since infancy by a sinister recurring dream about the father who disappeared when he was four, Kagwa becomes a…
