This story is told from two perspectives, that of new mother of twins Lauren and that of Detective Sergeant Harper. There wasn't an organized, strictly enforced back-and-forth between the two perspectives, but it wasn't something that bothered me or that entirely surprised me. Many of Lauren's sections were headed by epigraphs: excerpts from traditional western European folklore - which was really cool and definitely added to the mood. Lauren's sections themselves had little bits of weird, surreal imagery that I absolutely loved. It was creepy in the most delightful, faerie tale way (traditional, scary faeries; no princesses here).
However, Harper was a lost cause to me from the beginning. She's established as a "the rules don't apply to me" cop whose star intuition leads her to the bad guys, evidence (and proper procedure) be dammed. Not to mention her "connection" to Lauren's case is revealed right away and never really made relevant again until the very end (It's technically a chapter, but it reads like an epilogue). If that angle is going to be pursued, we need to actually delve into it. Plus, there's Amy who, apart from the fact that Harper is a woman, fulfills the pretty standard cop-love-interest-with-some-unusual-but-helpful-connections stereotype exceedingly well. The whole story could have remained confined to Lauren's head and I think it would have been stronger.
I love the theme of the changelings, though I think it came up to early and happened a bit too quickly in terms of the timeline of the story. Lauren was just a little too "crazy" even before the switch for it to really hit. But I love the writing at the prose level and in terms of creativity, so I'm very likely to pick up another Golding book in the future.
However, Harper was a lost cause to me from the beginning. She's established as a "the rules don't apply to me" cop whose star intuition leads her to the bad guys, evidence (and proper procedure) be dammed. Not to mention her "connection" to Lauren's case is revealed right away and never really made relevant again until the very end (It's technically a chapter, but it reads like an epilogue). If that angle is going to be pursued, we need to actually delve into it. Plus, there's Amy who, apart from the fact that Harper is a woman, fulfills the pretty standard cop-love-interest-with-some-unusual-but-helpful-connections stereotype exceedingly well. The whole story could have remained confined to Lauren's head and I think it would have been stronger.
I love the theme of the changelings, though I think it came up to early and happened a bit too quickly in terms of the timeline of the story. Lauren was just a little too "crazy" even before the switch for it to really hit. But I love the writing at the prose level and in terms of creativity, so I'm very likely to pick up another Golding book in the future.