The Terrifying Changeling: Five Thrillers Featuring Missing, Mistaken, or “Changed” Children

“There’s something about the idea of a child who is not what he or she seems that is particularly terrifying.” C. J. Tudor looks at 5 mysteries featuring changelings:

Pet Sematary

by Stephen King

4.7 stars – 4,419 reviews

Kindle price: $12.99

When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets…

Changeling (Six Stories Series Book 3)

by Matt Wesolowski

5.0 stars – 7 reviews

Kindle price: $8.99

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…

The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition

by William Peter Blatty

4.5 stars – 806 reviews

Kindle price: $7.99

Inspired by a true story of a child’s demonic possession in the 1940s, William Peter Blatty created an iconic novel that focuses on Regan, the eleven-year-old daughter of a movie actress residing in Washington, D.C. A small group of overwhelmed yet determined individuals must rescue Regan from her unspeakable fate, and the drama that ensues is gripping and unfailingly terrifying. Two years after its publication, The Exorcist was, of course, turned into a wildly popular motion picture, garnering ten Academy Award nominations…

Rosemary’s Baby: A Novel (50th Anniversary Edition)

by Ira Levin

4.4 stars – 386 reviews

Kindle price: $9.99

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a shine to them…

The Changeling: A Novel

by Victor LaValle

3.9 stars – 192 reviews

Kindle price: $10.99

When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and strange recurring dreams. Now Apollo is a father himself—and as he and his wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. At first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes…

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