The Changing Man follows Ife Adebola as she begins her first year at the privileged, private Nithercott School as part of The Urban Achievers scholarship program. She is missing her old friends and school and is hearing creepy stories of The Changing Man, a school urban legend. When her new friend Malika undergoes a personality change, she teams up with Ben, whose older brother has vanished, rumored to have been taken by the Changing Man. Joined by a third friend, Bee, they team up to investigate the school's history of students who have seemed to disappear and reappear.
The story started as a slow build getting bogged down with private school drama. The pace picks up in the last third of the book and the story heads in an unexpected and interesting direction. The characters felt much younger than they were meant to be which gave the book a middle grade RL Stine vibe. An entertaining mystery, horror, sci-fi story combined with dark academia with diverse rep and a strong focus on the value of friendship.
The story started as a slow build getting bogged down with private school drama. The pace picks up in the last third of the book and the story heads in an unexpected and interesting direction. The characters felt much younger than they were meant to be which gave the book a middle grade RL Stine vibe. An entertaining mystery, horror, sci-fi story combined with dark academia with diverse rep and a strong focus on the value of friendship.