Review : Changeling by Philippa Gregory

Summary (from Goodreads)

Italy, 1453. Seventeen-year-old Luca Vero is brilliant, gorgeous—and accused of heresy. Cast out of his religious order for using the new science to question old superstitious beliefs, Luca is recruited into a secret sect: The Order of the Dragon, commissioned by Pope Nicholas V to investigate evil and danger in its many forms, and strange occurrences across Europe, in this year—the end of days.

Isolde is a seventeen-year-old girl shut up in a nunnery so she can’t inherit any of her father’s estate. As the nuns walk in their sleep and see strange visions, Isolde is accused of witchcraft—and Luca is sent to investigate her, but finds himself plotting her escape.    

Despite their vows, despite themselves, love grows between Luca and Isolde as they travel across Europe with their faithful companions, Freize and Ishraq. The four young people encounter werewolves, alchemists, witches, and death-dancers as they head toward a real-life historical figure who holds the boundaries of Christendom and the secrets of the Order of the Dragon.     

The first in a series, this epic and richly detailed drama is grounded in historical communities and their mythic beliefs. It includes a medieval map of Europe that will track their journey; and the interior will include relevant decorative elements as well as an interior line illustration. And look for a QR code that links to a note from the author with additional, detailed information about the setting and the history that informed the writing. With Philippa Gregory’s trademark touch, this novel deftly brings the past—and its salacious scandals—vividly and disturbingly to life.

Personal Thoughts

Philippa Gregory is a highly revered author in the historical genre. However, I've never read anything by her because the genre never appealed to me. Ever since I read Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, I've been craving for more YA historical books. While searching for such books, I came across Changeling. I was pretty much convinced that I would love the book and would most probably give it 5 stars, but I ended up being completely let down.

Changeling tells the story of Luca Vero, a 17 year old boy accused of heresy by his religious order. Soon, Luca finds recruited by a secret Order to investigate cases of evil across the continent. Around the same time, Isolde, a girl raised almost like a princess, finds herself sent to lead a nunnery against her wishes. Right after she arrives at the nunnery, strange occurrences begin and Luca is sent to investigate these happenings.

The characters in Changeling were of a wide interesting range. However, I felt like some of them were not well-fleshed out, particularly the two main characters, Luca and Isolde. For this reason, I failed to make any sort of emotional connection with either of them. Luca was described as being smart and gorgeous. Beyond that, I didn't have much insight to his personality except for the fact that I found him to be incredibly dull. Isolde, on the hand, had a little more depth to her. She had been shifted from her 'princess' lifestyle into a nunnery and it was quite clear that the change didn't really bode well with her. Most of the time, she was miserable and shrouded in so much secrecy that figuring her out wasn't really an easy task. The thing is Isolde had the possibility to be a splendid main character if only she was more open with her feelings than she was. She possessed a spark to her that she never fully ignited throughout the story. I think the main problem with both these characters was that they had no personality trait that made them captivating enough to stand out. The two characters who really captured my heart were Frieze, Luca's companion, and Ishraq, Isolde Muslim friend. They were both so compelling that I wished they were the pivotal characters of the book. Frieze, with his dry humor and sarcasm, was an absolute delight. His funny attitude was what made this book readable. Ishraq, too, was a character that I grew to really love. Fiery and bad-ass, she was everything I look for in a character. I loved the strength that she latched on to. Ishraq was the complete opposite of what women were in that time. She knew how to fight and she wasn't someone who minced her words and beat around the bush. She was direct and honest. I think her blunt outspokenness and the ability to speak out her mind were why I was fond of her. 

The plot of the book was an utter chaos, according to me, because of the way it was presented. It felt like there were two parts to the book : The first part dealt with the mystery of the nunnery while the second part dealt with the appearance of a werewolf in a small village. Now, if these two story lines had any kind of connection, I would have had no complaints whatsoever. However, that wasn't the case since there was absolutely no link between them except that it still involved the same characters. Just when I thought the story was ending, I found out that I was only half-way through the book. I mean no disrespect to the author, but it was almost like she started writing the story, wrapped up the first part, realized that the book would be too short, and so added a completely different story. Due to that, even though the book was only around 250 pages long, I felt like the plot lines dragged too much. To make matters worse, the mysteries enveloping these plot lines were foreseeable and as a result, not suspenseful at all.
The world-building was quite solid, especially with the descriptions of locations. For that, I commend the author because her writing made it quite easy to vividly picture the setting of the book. Nevertheless, I felt like banging my head against the wall by the end, because the most important aspect of the book wasn't dealt with at all. The idea of The Changeling was only vaguely mentioned once or twice and the author didn't really delve into it. I was left with a bad taste in the mouth because none of my questions regarding this concept were answered. I figure that I will receive answers to most of my question in the next book, but I didn't see why the title of the book had to be Changeling if that will, in fact, be the case. Things weren't better on the romance front either. There was no palpable chemistry whatsoever between the characters and I didn't really see why they started to like each other, considering the fact I knew nothing about them. What could have been an action-packed and exciting new series was diluted into a wanna-be historical romance story that left much to be desired.

On the whole, Changeling, Philippa Gregory's YA debut, didn't really impress me. The potential that the book oozed wasn't fully explored and consequently, it ended up being dull as dishwater for me. However, since the series is still very promising, I will check out the next book.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 2/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 2/5

Actual Rating : 2.75/5