Changling: Not Really a Changling
Changeling is a unique title as it’s only mentioned in just one part of the book, but the book has a lot more to offer than a very Celtic tale of fae people. Think of it like an all girl Harry Potter story. A ‘muggle’ called snipes in this story, works for the wealthy Winters family and has always been sickly.
One day, she skips her pills and mistakenly does magic out of fear in front of her magical ‘guardians’. Guardians are people with magic from families of magic and wealth. All the snipes work for them in this world order that’s like a magical steampunk world. It’s a fun world and the section talking about how this society came to be was the best part of the whole book! I hope we get to go more into that as the story goes on.
But this book is clearly inspired by Harry Potter and Harry Potter did the same thing. It didn’t do a lot of going into the world behind it all until much later in the series. Really, imagine if Pure Bloods got their way back in the victorian era and that’s what this society is. And the ‘muggleborn’ aren’t a thing, so when one does happen, the ministry (called the Coven guild) freaks out. But it’s also a social tabo to be found having this happen.
So rather than turn over our Sarah the Snip with magic, Mrs. Winter gives her a new identity as her niece and teaches her the ways of her people. Then Sarah, now called Cassandra, is chosen by a magic book to be the translator when she goes to start at her witching school.
And really, even with that, my interest started to taper off as I’m not much into the school drama. We get to see our lady Mafoy and deal with the school drama. Cassandra/Sarah finds out the teacher she trusts is her main villain and with the help of her friends defeats her at the end of the term.
So if you’re looking for an all girl school version of Harry Potter, you’ll really like this. I thought the world building was great, so wanted to see more, and it didn’t give me much. I’ll likely go into the series looking for more of it as it goes on.
Book 2 is already out with a third on the way. I'm waiting for them all to be out before diving more into it.
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