So, Philippa Gregory is writing a YA series, and this is the first installment. It is not great. It is not good, either. Even “mediocre” would be an undeserved compliment, because this book failed so hard to live up to my expectations (which were not high to begin with), that I’m a little miffed. And it’s not even a so-bad-it’s-good book, which would have redeemed it in some way. It’s just pretty bad. And that is a sad thing.
Changeling is the first book in the Order of Darkness series, and both of those titles would lead you to believe that this is a much more exciting book than it is. It’s set in 15th century Italy and features teenagers Luca, a boy tasked with investigating strange goings-on at an abbey (like stigmata!), and Isolde, the Lady Abbess who may be at the center of said goings-on.
This premise could have been so good, but instead it’s boring. The solution to the mystery is telegraphed right from the beginning and will come as a surprise to no one. (It’s sad that it does come as a surprise to the characters.) The dialogue is repetitive, the sentence structure is simplistic, and the “clues” Gregory drops are more like anvils. And then after Luca wraps up the mystery at the abbey, the book goes on pointlessly for another 100 pages, featuring an investigation into a supposed werewolf in another town. This mystery, while blessedly shorter, is even more obvious, and I really don’t know why it was included, unless there was a page count goal. It felt very much like a bad monster-of-the-week episode of a bad tv show.
And then there are the characters. Luca and Isolde are bland, Luca especially. They have hopes and fears, but we’re told about them, not shown. Neither have much personality. The ancillary characters are stock: Luca’s sidekick is the fool who is wiser than he appears, and Isolde’s maid is the exoticized, dark-skinned foreigner with dangerous knowledge from afar.
All of these factors show that Gregory feels like she needs to write down for her audience, which is a rookie mistake, and an unforgivable one. The characters have no nuance, the writing itself is lazy and unimaginative, the mystery is ridiculously thin, and the romance she tries to foist on her readers near the end is so unbelievable (seeing as her two leads have no personality to speak of), it’s insulting.
I say all this having read and greatly enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl, which was soapy and fun and fascinating, even though I knew Anne was going to lose her head at the end of it. I compare that to this travesty, which for all its faults could have been made enjoyable if only one aspect of the book (writing or character or plot or setting or something) were engaging. None of it was.
Naturally, then, I have two paperback copies to give away, courtesy of Big Honcho Media! I encourage you to enter, even though I clearly didn’t enjoy the book, because hey, you might like it. Fill out the quick form below for a chance to win. Then you can commiserate with me or tell me just how wrong I am.
Not entering since I already read it, and I'm certainly not going to say you're wrong. I kept wanting the book to get better than it was.
I'm a fan of her. But I don't think I want to read YA coming from her. I mean, there's a lot YA authors out there already…
I had all these same thoughts! I thought it felt like two short stories shoved together for no good reason. Like the part with the werewolf could have been book 2. And then both stories could be more developed/better written.
I also think she totally wrote down to her audience because I enjoy her adult books and this just wasn't the same at all.
I had much the same problems as you. I couldn't figure out what genre it was supposed to be either – I was going for fantasy from the name, and all the Rumours That Luca Is Actually A Changeling But Isn't (But Totally Is), but then nothing happened with that, so wrongly or rightly, I felt ripped off.
I wonder if Gregory read any YA before writing her own?
I feel like she couldn't have read any YA, because otherwise why would she try and pass this off as acceptable? I don't know. I mean, I've read plenty of reviews from people who liked the book, but…
Hi 🙂 long-time reader, first-time commenter!
I completely agree with all the things you said here. I was a fan of her adult stuff-like you said, soapy and fun!-but I just felt like she was talking down to me as a reader when I read Changeling. Like she didn't know the audience well enough to figure out that we're smart people…
Yes, exactly! I can forgive a lot of faults in books…sloppy world-building, underdeveloped characters, etc., but writing down for your audience is insulting.