The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

I really enjoyed Donohue's The Stolen Child from beginning to end. The concept of the book made it a fun read. Sort of a fairy tale for adults.

Changelings or hobgoblins live in the woods for decades until they can find a human child to change places with. They wait for the most opportune moment to kidnap the desired child and then switch places with them. The stolen child becomes a changeling and lives in the woods awaiting his eventual turn to become human again decades later with another child. The changeling who replaces the stolen child in the human world experiences "normal" life but can remember being a changeling and perhaps even recall things from his former human life before he was originally stolen. Confused yet? It is very difficult to describe this book without going on and on. The book is very well written and the character development is excellent. It alternates chapters between the changeling and the stolen child, sometimes having events intersect. Nothing incredibly earthshattering happens so don't except a huge reveal or a big bang at the end of the book. But it is worth reading and a nice break from my normal book choices.

I saw my aunt Carol this weekend and she said she has mostly been reading books that we have recommended on this blog, including The Road. She said it was very well written, but very sad and depressing. Just thought I would pass that along in case anyone is thinking of reading it. :-)