Audiobook Review – Changling

From Goodreads: On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass, when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995.

Elusive online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel, his son and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. He takes a journey through the trees of the Wentshire Forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there. He talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know where Alfie is…

Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought provoking, Changeling is an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget.

Continuing like I have with the previous novels I have opted to read this as an audiobook. It continues to be a full cast audio that really brings the Podcast style to life. The only thing that was a little jarring about this one is it contains a lot of "sound effects" which are obviously described in the novelization and they are read out as is in the audiobook version instead of transferring them into actual sound effects which made me loose a bit of immersion when compared to the previous two.

The story for this one was just as exciting and twisting an turning as the previous two. With elements of the spooky and supernatural as well as the exploration of all those connected with the case. The ending was particularly exciting. While this wasn’t my favourites of the series so far as I found this one to be a little more repetitive between the different perspectives. I really like how much insight we got into the illusive Scott King in this one with inner monologues peppering the interstitial spaces between the podcast episodes.

The writing in this whole series is just impeccable. It really does a fantastic job of capturing the emotion and setting up such realistic characters. The voice acting in the audiobooks does a phenomenal job of adding even more on the the writing, the actors truly express the emotion on the page and you really do loose yourself in the story, at points forgetting this is not a real true crime podcast. The worldbuilding is also fantastic. It really takes the reader/listener back to the 1980’s 1990’s when the crimes are set and captures the mood at the time, as well as the growth of the characters as they are interviewed in the present day.

I am loving this series and I am so happy that my buddy read group choose it as it wouldn’t have been on my radar otherwise and I would have missed out.