A fun and interesting twist of a fairytale, this book cleverly combines the "bring me the broom of the wicked witch of the west"/"no place like home" quality of "The Wizard of Oz", which I adored, the "fairy-world living side-by-side with the mortal world" quality of "Gossamer" which I despised, and the "kidnapped and taken to the world of Neverland" quality of "Peter Pan" which I have yet to read, all set in a cutesy, funky, urban, modern, magical, enchanted New York City. Definitely not a classic-in-the-making, but still, it just may be unique enough to be worth the read.

First, this book is in the same world as Delia Sherman's "CATNYP" from the Datlow/Windling "The Faery Reel" anthology & "Grand Central Park" from Datlow/Windling's "Green Man". CATNYP introduces us to the protagnonist Neef & her friend Fleet; "Grand Central Park" gives us the Central Park Genius Loci (the seriously Big Bad here) & the fairy Bugle (mentioned in passing in Changeling). I liked both those stories; I loved the idea of New York Between.

Unfortunately...

Like others have stated here, I just couldn't warm up to Neef. Neef is a changeling, a human child stolen by Faery to live in New York Between, the modern day version of the Sidhe Realms, and the Faery left a substitute in the human world in Neef's place. When this story opens, we're thrown right into the Faery Realm & Neef's world right from the start -- she lives with her fairy godmother, a white rat named Astris, and Neef's being a typical human young teen: bored, wanting adventure, and tired of all the obvious secrets the adults aren't telling her.

We're never given a reason for the secrets, by the way. When Neef finally finds out that the Ruling Fairy of Central Park has laid a geas on Neef (Neef is not allowed to ever dance at the Summer Solstice, and she finds out about the geas by unwittingly breaking it), it's not only the first time Neef has ever heard about this, but no explanation is ever given for why that rule was so important.

Worse, the Central Park Genius (the ruler of the Park area of New York Between) promptly puts Neef under the equivalent of a death sentence for breaking said geas...which Neef never knew about to begin with because all the Faery folks around her won't/can't tell her, and we're STILL never given a reason why it's so important.

I mean, I get it, okay, Faery rules are arbitrary and nonsensical -- but that usually means they're just nonsensical to us humans. The Faery should have a reason for their rules beyond "just because": do they hate rudeness? Is politeness mandatory in Faery politicking? Are mortal dangerous to the Solstice? Is it needed because of certain magics? Nope, the Park Genius just laid that geas on Neef when Neef was just a baby, the day she was stolen into Faery, and geased everyone else to never tell why. No reason. Just because.

The whole "just because it's Faery" reasoning gets damn thin before the first chapter ends. By the time the Park Genius banishes Neef from Central Park for breaking a rule she didn't know about & that no one could even tell her about...couldn't Sherman think of any better explanation than "just because"?

At that point, I was wondering why Neef even bothered to want to try to lift the banishment, let alone remain in Faery. Sherman unwittingly has shown us that Faery is an abusive home, with Neef being blamed for the Faery's abuse because of "her actions" -- Neef doesn't come right out and apologize for making the Faeries abuse her & kick her out of her only home & try to kill her, but dammit, I was fully expecting her to.

And since Sherman has Neef putting up with all this & wanting to go home despite everything, with Neef's Faery abusers giving her a big welcome at the end, it's obvious that Sherman had no clue of the abusive subtext in her writing -- this despite writing for several of the Datlow/Windling anthologies that explicitly posit faery tales as survival stories for abused kids.

What's worse? At one point, Neef meets her Changeling, the Fairy made to look like Neef & left in Neef's place in the human world. Neef makes it plain that she considers Changeling to be a useless load. She only helps Changeling escape a nest of monsters because Changeling knows/shares Neef's True Name; Neef refuses to help any of the other trapped children who are literally **reaching out & begging for help**, and Neef makes it very plain that she simply does not care about them nor feel any sympathy. Not once does Neef show any sympathy for Changeling, either, despite Changling having been stolen from her home & loving parents. Neef considers Changling as a useless annoyance...until Changeling turns out to be able to provide something Neef needs in her quest.

By the way, Sherman describes Changeling's quirks and habits in detail, and makes it plain throughout the story that all the other Faeries think Changeling is useless, unfit, & the lowest of the low, implying that's why they stole Neef & left Changeling in the human world. It's very obvious that Changeling is meant to be autistic.

So. Implying that the "true" Neef isn't autistic? That autistic folks are not only inhuman changelings, but imperfect copies, unwanted in faery & considered useless...until they have something someone wants? Sherman, did you even think about what you were writing?

Again, why does Neef want to stay with these unfriendly, arbitrary, sociopathic, abusive Faeries?? The longer the story went on, the more unfair crap that kept getting piled on top of Neef for no reason beyond "it's just the way the Faery are" (yeah, and family members justify their abusers' crap with "it's just the way they are" in order to make the victims shut up)...jesus christ on his fuckin' pogo stick, I was waiting for Neef to flip off the entire Faery Court & return to our world with Changeling.

Look, a "just because" works in a short story. There's not much space to explain a lot. But in a novel, it doesn't work. In the short story CATNYP, the Faery Snowbell takes exception to Neef questioning Faery "love"; ok, fine, Snow's a prickly, proud faery who felt challenged by Neef. We get that. Then we're told "the stacks are dangerous", and we're also told and shown why! So it makes sense when the NYPL Genius tells Neef "stay out of the stacks". The other rules he gives her make similar sense: food can damage the books, disturbances interrupt other folks' use of the library.

But in "Changeling", none of the rules make sense. Neef's blind acceptance of the shit Faery puts on her makes no sense. Neef being told to "take responsibility" for something no one could tell her about, something she was actively put to sleep against her will over whenever the situation came up...and then Neef is blamed when Faery wants to kill her over the rules she wasn't allowed to be told??

Yeah, the abuse was all her fault. She was asking for it. Neef needs to apologize to the folks who want to kill her. How dare she not accept responsibility for everyone treating her like shit!

Y'know, Sherman, my parents pulled shit like this, too. I got in trouble over weird arbitrary rules that I didn't know existed until the parents were screaming in my face. I got in trouble & punished over things that should've been the adults' reponsibility to take care of, not a young child's.

That's called ABUSE, Sherman. It doesn't matter whether it's Faery or Human.

Lowered my rating by a star.

I sort-of enjoyed this, and I'm sure fans of the younger YA variety would like this. It just wasn't my cup of tea. The main characters were too young for me, hence less blood, guts and action. It was a cool idea, though.

I wasn't sure if I would like it at first, but like most fairy tale quest stories, I got swept up in the magic and adventure. I read it in less than a week. Definitely fulfilled my one requirement for a book...take me away from all of this! I really, really enjoyed it!

Neef was stolen by the fairies and is growing up in Central Park. She goes on a quest and encounters the fairy changeling who was left in her place at her former home and they work together to accomplish a series of tasks. As someone who once lived in NYC I really had fun with the idea of different Manhattan neighborhoods being separate magical kingdoms with their own fairy queens and magical logic and I found Neef and her changeling "sister" delightful companions on the journey.

Changeling is about Neef who was taken at birth to live with the supernaturals and was replaced by a fairy who doesn't believe in supernaturals anymore. Now, because of a fickle Lady Genius, Neef is a target of the Wild Hunt because she broke a spell/promise she didn't even know she had! She runs to the Curator of the Metropolitan Museum to help her with her problems and she gains back access to the park, is under the Green Lady's protection again, and the Wild Hunt aren't after her anymore in exchange for The Mermaids Mirror, a Ticket to Peter Pan with the original Tinkerbell, and the Dragons Scales. Through loopholes, quick wit, lack of genius' knowledge of the human world and help from unlikely friends, Neef flies through her quest but at what cost? Friends are great but eventually you have to go your separate ways, and it will hurt but you may as well have a great adventure!

♥♥♥

Fantasy set in New York that is in love with New York and has a quest and a non-neurotypical main character who is treated beautifully and omg I have sparkly hearts in my eyes for this book, the end.

This book is so great! Neef is a mortal who lives in New York Between, an alternate reality populated by fairies, demons, griffins, and all kinds of magical creatures from all over the world. Unfortunately, Neef's mortal curiosity gets her into trouble, and she sets off on a nearly-impossible quest, accompanied by her "copy," her fairy changeling counterpart. Read it!

This was so fun! Just pure magical, funny, whimsical, middle grade fun. 8 year old me would have been obsessed. ✨ If you’re a New Yorker you’ll probably laugh even more than I did, I’m sure I missed a lot of jokes and references.

Even so, New York is such a pop culture staple that I knew enough to appreciate the humor and creative incorporation of the city. My favorite parts were the ones in the Met and in Broadway. I also loved the cohabitation of traditional mythical creatures (such as brownies and selkies), and fictional characters (such as Shakespeare fairies or Eloise at the Plaza).

Very interesting. I've read plenty of books about the main character being a faerie changeling, but NEVER about a human one like in this book! Because of that, it was a nice change-ling to read this sepcial story. (HARHAR, GET IT? 'CHANGE' LING? ... *coughs at bad joke*)

It was pretty cool following Neef's POV throughout the story, like how she feels about being a human changeling and how she copes with the wacky world of the Fae. The story got even cooler yet when she MEETS the girl she was swapped with, and has an adventure with her. 8)

The adventure is very straight forward and easy to follow. Middle grade readers would probably enjoy this story the most.

This is a fun fast paced story that has lovable and horrible characters. This is very much a book for younger teens but I still really enjoyed it. Neff is a Changeling that has unknowingly broken a geis by attending the Summer Solstice. Sentenced to death by the wild hunt then kidnapped by a boogie man only to end up with the child left in her place she sets out on a magical quest to save herself and her faerie twin.

Neff is brave and her changeling faerie twin is super smart. Together they make a wonderful team that will have you laughing. I stayed up late to finish this book and I'm glad I did. An adorable story that I would highly recommend.

I loved the setting but was less into the main character.