Changeling (Order of Darkness #1) by Philippa Gregpry. Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster imprint) 2012. 352 pgs (paperback). Young adult, historical fiction, fantasy. Gregory_Changeling

Book Summary: The year is 1453 and all signs point to it being the end of the world. Accused of heresy and expelled from his monastery, handsome seventeen-year-old Luca Vero is recruited by a mysterious stranger to record the end of times across Europe. Commanded by sealed orders, Luca is sent to map the fears of Christendom and travel to the very frontier of good and evil.

Seventeen-year-old Isolde, a Lady Abbess, is trapped in a nunnery to prevent her from claiming her rich inheritance. As the nuns in her care are driven mad by strange visions, walking in their sleep, and showing bleeding wounds, Luca is sent to investigate and driven to accuse her.

Forced to face the greatest fears of the dark ages—witchcraft, werewolves, madness—Luca and Isolde embark on a search for truth, their own destinies, and even love as they take the unknown ways to the real historical figure who defends the boundaries of Christendom and holds the secrets of the Order of Darkness.

If you’ve ever read any of Philippa Gregory’s books before, you will notice this is a little different than her normal niche writing about English or French monarchs and their queens. Instead, this is a story of two mostly ordinary people in medieval Italy. There really isn’t much I can add to the book summary above that will make you want to read it.

I found Changeling uninteresting, formulaic, and simply uninspired. Having reading Gregory’s infamous adult fiction The Other Boleyn Girl as a teenager, I found her take on teenage historical fiction to be completely off the mark. The writing is childish and seems to be “dumbed down” for her younger audience. I believe that many young adult readers enjoy reading “up” from their age group to a higher level, so this book’s “dumbed down” vocabulary and syntax was unpleasant and almost painful to read.

The characters in this book are one-dimensional and often fall flat, even in stressful or action-packed scenes. The dialogue between the presumed “adults” is juvenile and unrealistic. I think there’s supposed to be a romance between Luca and Isolde, but I’m not sure it’s truly there.

If you want to read historical fiction, read Gregory’s adult novels instead. They are better written, more well researched, and the writing portrays a love for the subject that is simply absent in Changeling.