Changeling by Matt Wesolowski – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass, when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995.
Elusive online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel, his son and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. He takes a journey through the trees of the Wentshire Forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there. He talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know where Alfie is…
Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought provoking, Changeling is an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Changeling could be read as standalone novel but I would recommend reading Six Stories and Hydra first. Not just because they are great books but it will also make you familiar with the format and Scott King. Changeling is my favourite one out of the three.

I struggle to describe how this novel made me feel. And how it was responsible for lost sleep. In my wisdom, I decided to start this book late one night. With its level of eeriness, unexplained events, sounds and threats from, bizarrely, a forest added to a child that vanished into thin air gave me plenty to think about. When I should have been asleep. Not gazing at the ceiling listening for taps and knocks.

As always, little was as it seemed and each interview revealed more about the family. I am probably one of many who was quick to jump to conclusions. Just like the media and locals did. When more was revealed I felt a little remorse. A strange feeling, when it is after all a novel.

I wasn’t prepared for what happened. I have never felt so stunned by the ending of a book before. I have never still been gazing into space two days later trying to find the words for a review. I’m sure it will be one I am thinking about for quite a while.