The story opens well, gaining instant sympathy from the reader for the poor little baby whom no one wants. We see bigotry in all its ugliness, as the albino child is rejected even by his mother. This part almost made me cry.
The narrative takes off as the child grows into a solitary little boy. It's exciting, it's moving, and the parts of the narrative written from the isolated child's viewpoint are very, very well done. It's not easy, as an adult, to set aside one's experience and write things the way an inexperienced and uninformed child would see them, and I thought Dales did this really well.
Later in the book, the plot thickens as the child is apparently claimed by an evil entity on some kind of alternate plane. Despite various life-changing events, the (as yet unnamed) boy clings fiercely to a decent way of life. He appears to emerge victorious at the end of the book, but there is a sense of 'unfinished business' - we do not know who the evil entity is, or with what force he will be able to prosecute his claim to the young man's soul.
I enjoyed this book immensely, and despite the fact it has vampires, finished it with great enthusiasm in a single day.
The only criticism I have is that the work is rough, and desperately needs editing. Grammatical errors and inappropriate word choices formed a constant low-level irritant. A thorough edit would be well worth the author's while; the work is certainly worth the effort.
Changeling is available at AMAZON and SMASHWORDS
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