I often find myself entranced by the cover and the premise of a book, only to finish the book questioning the significance. This most often occurs with fantasy books, as it’s much easier to get lost in the story writing a fantasy novel than with a contemporary book. The Last Changeling most recently elicited such a reaction; even at the end of the book, I found myself thinking, so what?
Elora, the princess of the Dark Faeries, plans to overthrow her ruthless mother, the Dark Queen. Yet her plan to bring faeriekind (haha, love this play on mankind) equality depends on her mother’s enemy, the Bright Queen, joining Elora’s cause. Of course, the alliance comes at a cost – a human boy who is a “young leader of men.” Thus begins Elora’s adventure. She changes her appearance and infiltrates a high school, a surprisingly easy task. Then Elora meets Taylor, and she thinks she’s found her offering… until she falls victim to the four-letter word that infects all YA novels these days, love.
Usually it’s a guy whose task is to hunt down someone, only he ends up falling in love with his target. I applaud the author for turning the tables – major props to Chelsea Pitcher! That being said, I found the heroine Elora one-dimensional for most of the story. Her attraction to Taylor is immediate, and she puts aside her duties very quickly. There’s nothing wrong with putting love first, but that’s definitely a problem when she portrays a love struck teenager two seconds after claiming her hatred of humans. In short, Elora is just the typical faerie princess parading around as a love struck teen.
Let’s talk about significance now. The stakes in The Last Changeling are high; after all, we’re dealing with equality for faeriekind and Taylor’s life. However, the combination of Chelsea Pitcher’s lyrical writing that is more suited for realistic fiction and the lack of action– such as tense confrontations or physical combat– had me literally yawning throughout the latter half of the book. Elora and Taylor’s romance, if one can even call their attraction a romance, simply exacerbated my condition. The lack of character development and Elora’s lack of contact with the faerie world had me questioning just how much trouble the faerie kingdom was in.
The Last Changeling isn’t refreshing, but it’s a good read if you want something quick and lighthearted.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Publisher: Flux (November 8th, 2014)
Length: 360 pages (Paperback)
ISBN #: 9780738740843
Source: Netgalley
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