Why is it called "Changeling" Sisters? Urban Fantasy Series title explained

 

*Warning, spoilers for the series*

 

The Changeling Sisters Series is an urban fantasy series that explores themes of family, multiculturalism, and spiritual balance. To escape tragedy, the Alvarez family moves to Seoul, South Korea, where they get caught up in a supernatural war between the shapeshifting Were Nation and the power-hungry Vampyre Court over control of the spirit world of Eve.

“Changeling” originated from European folklore. They were believed to be the offspring of magical folk such as elves or fairies and left in the place of human babies. The Changeling resembled the missing child through sorcery and was shunned when their behavior grew increasingly “demonic.” It was a disruptive force in the perceived “true” family. “This babe is a fake!” the mother wails. “Where has my real child gone?”

I felt the word fit the series well in the sense that feeling like a “Changeling” means negotiating one’s sense of belonging in the world. What happens when you aren’t the person your family hoped you would be? What happens when you feel that way about yourself?

The Changeling Sisters Series follows Citlalli and her younger half-sister Raina. Raina is the child of an affair between Citlalli’s mother and a mystery Korean man. The secret was not discovered until Raina’s birth, when her Asian descent became apparent. In Year of the Wolf (Book I) Raina is the object of whispers in school halls and even outright hostility from her older brother. She feels a stranger among her Chicana siblings, who innocently or knowingly use her background to gain sympathy from the public at large. Upon moving to Seoul, Raina has the looks to fit in but can’t because of her lack of knowledge about the language or culture. Feeling unwanted and rejected, Raina is overtly sensitive to the attentions of others, and ultimately feels this subservience made her prey to the Vampyre Court, who call her the “Changeling” Soul. Raina struggles with which heritage she belongs to—Alvarez, Mejía, Yong—but as the White Tiger tells her in Year of the Dragon (Book III), most only know one world in a lifetime. She can know three.

Meanwhile, Citlalli involuntarily joins the Were Nation after suffering a werewolf bite in defense of a homeless man who is later revealed to be a spy for the Vampyre Court. As the beast awakens within, she doesn’t recognize who she is becoming. In Year of the Tiger (Book II), something else awakes inside her. Its terrible power forces a realization that the beast was her all along. Citlalli must claim her failures as well as her successes to find herself, but as she asks in Year of the Rat (Book IV), how can she trust herself again when she knows she is capable of great failure?

In Year of the Dragon, we meet the other half of Raina’s heritage: the dragon-shapeshifter Yong clan, responsible for maintaining seasonal balance. Similarly, there is a perceived “perfect, true” child among the three Yong siblings—Sun Bin, Ankor, and Heesu—although everyone has a different opinion about who that is.  

The eldest, Sun Bin, feels like a disappointment to her father for liking the “wrong” gender and wonders if she should have been born a boy to match her twin brother. She recognizes that she is her father’s child but feels as rejected by her father as she does her mother—Sun thinks her interests (fine jewelry, designer clothes, flaunting her social power over others) are disappointing to her mother.  In Year of the Rat, Sun reminisces that she and her twin brother Ankor may as well have been “Changelings” as far as their mother was concerned—Umma never saw herself in them as she did Heesu. Meanwhile, their father views Heesu’s gentle personality and disinterest in material wealth as weak, and not fitting for a Celestial Dragon.

The final connection is the story behind the mysterious “Changeling” Soul that led the Dark Spirits to pursue the Alvarez family for so many years. I look forward to unveiling the mystery in the upcoming final installments of the Changeling Sisters Series, Year of the Snake (Book V) and Year of the Crow (Book VI).

The Changeling Sisters Series is available on major online retailers and in paperback on Amazon.com.

Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters IV) coming to all major online ebook retailers 12/10/21!

Mark your calendars! The Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters IV) eBook will be available for Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo readers & more on 12/10/21. 

Bingeworthy Fantasy TV Series - Netflix

IT'S OCTOBER, the month of the mysterious, the otherworldly, and the dark. I’ve compiled my top favorite fantasy shows from Netflix sure to be as addictive as Halloween candy. Check out my recommendations below and share your own!

 

Best Dystopia

3%: Dystopian societies are all the rage in YA fiction these days (Divergent, Legend, The Hunger Games). Usually a calamity has befallen the world, and the group in power has come up with some obscene scheme to handle the remaining resources. Featuring a Brazilian cast, 3% offers a fresh and enthralling take on such a future civilization. 97% of the population of “Inland” live in a slum after the world is devastated, but come their 20^th birthday, they have one chance to earn their spot on the luxurious “Offshore” paradise through a set of grueling tests known as the Process. The series opens with hundreds of hopefuls journeying up from the underbelly of the slum to a gleaming futuristic hall, where they participate in trials of character and skill to determine if they are “worthy” to join the technology affluent Offshore population. If they lose, they face living out the rest of their days in poverty.

The show nails it with creating sympathetic and compelling characters. Participants Michele (Bianca Comparato), Fernando (Michael Gomes), Rafael (Rodolfo Valente), and Joana (Vaneza Oliveira) are particularly memorable with their own motivations for competing in the Process, and even the Process’s leader, Ezequiel (João Miguel), has his own secrets. Best of all: if you hate it when television series get canceled without a definite conclusion, 3% wraps up satisfactorily after 3 seasons.

 

Best Thriller Competition You Would Never Enter

Squid Game: Since we’re on a roll with shows about disturbing contests that pit people against one another, look no further than the breakout Korean hit Squid Game. Unlike 3%, the contestants of Squid Game are no angels. They’re billions of won in debt, down on-their-luck gamblers like our lead Lee Jung Jae (Seong Gi Hun), or flat-out violent. A mysterious man approaches these downtrodden folks and offers them a chance to win riches beyond their wildest dreams—all they have to do is compete in a series of children’s games with nasty twists (namely, losing means paying with your life).

It’s Hunger Games meets The Purge, but Squid Game is wholly unique in its great care with character development, artistic expression (which is no small feat considering each games murders tons of people), and stylish overseers with very cool masks. Each scene is extremely well-shot to be candy for the eyes, and episode 6 is absolutely heartbreaking. If the majority of contestants vote to end the game, then the overseers will honor it, but time and again, they choose to continue to the next brutal level. Personally, by game three I’d be a goner! A must-watch for fans of murderous game competitions.

 

Best Fantasy 

Shadow and Bone: I adored the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, and so I was thrilled to hear of the Netflix adaptation, doubly so when Ben Barnes was cast to play the fascinating and brooding Darkling character (known in the show as General Kirigan). This series also intertwines the plot of another Bardugo offering, the Six of Crows. I’d found that book to be a bit dense, but it really works in this series with the splendid casting of Inej (Amita Suman) and the scene-stealing Jasper (Kit Young).

A long time ago, a sorcerer created the Fold, a place of darkness and monsters, which cleaved the land of Russian-inspired Ravka in half. The West seeks independence, but both sides are targets of the warmongering Fjerda, who seek to destroy Ravka’s Grisha people who can control different elements. Orphan pair Alina and Mal find themselves swept up in the struggle when Alina discovers she is the mythical Sun Summoner capable of destroying the Fold. Alina (Jessie Mei Li) struggles to come to terms with her power even as forces such as General Kirigan conspire to use her magic for their own purposes.

The plot is action-packed with never a dull moment, and the show does justice to the multiple vivid personalities that made this series a best-seller. Very excited for Season 2!

 

Diablero: For fans of Supernatural and Wynonna Earp, meet Elvis (Horacio García Rojas) and Keta (Fátima Molina)—brother and sister living in México City who were trained to be Diableros: awesomely cool demon hunters. Well, Elvis was—Keta didn’t get as much love because she was a girl, but she has picked up enough tricks to be just as dangerous as her wise-cracking, smooth-talking brother. Elvis and Keta reluctantly sign on to help Father Ramiro (Christopher von Uckermann) when a demon begins stealing children for nefarious purposes. Rounding out this adorable ass-kicking crew is Nancy (Gisselle Kuri), who can withstand demonic possession, and is quite simply the best.

Season 1 starts out a bit rough—the pacing is uneven, and it loses some of its suspense as it takes a very convoluted road to discovering the identity of the person summoning demons. However, I loved the main Scooby Doo gang and the side characters are equally fun (I love Elvis’s snarky nieces!). The stakes get raised by the end of Season 1, and Season 2 really hits the ground running and doesn’t look back. The mythology is wonderfully incorporated and the show feels darkly humorous and unique.

Based on the book El Diablo me obligó by Francisco Haghenbeck, Diablero has really found its rhythm in Season 2, and I’m so pumped for Season 3!

 

Best Scooby-Doo-Gang-Feel

Stranger Things: Speaking of loveable Brady Bunch types who will steal your heart, there’s no better smalltown group to take on a secretive government-run corporation than Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and the mysterious Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). When their friend Will disappears under strange circumstances, the kids arm up with their bicycles and set out to uncover the truth about the sinister facility in the woods. Meanwhile, Will’s mother is convinced she can communicate with her missing child via Christmas lights, and a horrifying monster from an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down begins hunting the frightened townsfolk. That’s just Season 1.

Eleven is very compelling as a child with supernatural abilities escaped from the government-run facility, and the main gang is a joy to watch. Season 2 stumbles a bit as it tries to give storylines to too many characters, but Stranger Things doesn’t run out of chilling monsters from other dimensions, and I’m interested to see what Season 4 brings.

 

Best Horror

The Haunting of Hill House: For me, the best types of horror stories are those that keep the ghosts at arm’s length—they’re there, out of the corner of your eye, or just a fleeting glimpse, but it’s terrifying enough that you can’t bear to look. The Haunting of Hill House is excellent at this. It succeeds at distracting you with the everyday troubles of the Crain family, and the ghosts are such a soft, subtle presence, that you don’t realize they’re right behind you until it’s too late. Recommended not to watch when drinking red wine over carpet.

In a truly tragic tale, we meet the grown-up Crain children, who’ve been estranged after the terrible loss that defined their childhood. The series alternates between flashbacks of their lives in the creepy mansion to present day, where something sinister continues to haunt the Crain family—and it won’t stop until they return to where it all began.

For a chilling Halloween nail-biter, you can’t ask for much better than this.

*For Religious Horror, check out Midnight Mass. Philosophy, madness, and mayhem descend on an isolated predominantly Catholic island community.

 

Best Suspense & Mystery

Lupin: Is it fantasy? No, but Gentleman Burglar Assane Diop, played brilliantly by the magnetic Omar Sy, has enough tricks up his sleeve to make you believe it’s magic. Lupin is Paris’s answer to Locke Lamora, with a dash of Ocean’s Eleven thrown in. It’s fun, it’s thrilling, and it has artistic flair, with the cat-and-mouse games between Diop and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) climbing to increasingly precarious heights.

As a child, Diop was fascinated with the stories of the legendary Gentleman Burglar Lupin, who pulled off a series of heists with his wit and mastery of disguises. In present day Paris, Diop takes on the charming thief persona to help cope with the loss of his father, who hanged himself in prison, and to uncover the true reason behind his father’s death.

Lupin moves at a breakneck pace with lots of hijinks and plot twists, but it balances them all with effortless skill. Best of all, there may be a Season 3.

 

Best Potential

Warrior Nun: It’s really a toss-up between Warrior Nun and the King-Arthur-folklore-retelling in Cursed, but I think Warrior Nun has such a fascinating premise. The title alone are two words you don’t see together, and, as promised, it’s about a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns in picturesque Spain who have mad martial arts skills. Ava Silva (Alba Baptista) is a quadriplegic orphan who endures a truly awful Sister in the orphanage. She dies, only to wake up in a morgue with a strange symbol on her back and the ability to not only walk again but mind-bending new abilities. The spirit of the Warrior Nun has chosen her—mistakenly, some of the Sisterhood feel—to lead her fellow Sisters in the age-old battle against evil.

This show, like Diablero, doesn’t really know what to do with itself at first. It has so many interesting ideas—the mythos; who is the real evil; Ava not believing in the faith or wanting anything to do with demon fighting—but it isn’t focused, and a couple episodes fall into a lull whenever Ava and the Sisters are separated. However, the nuns Shotgun Mary (Toya Turner), Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young), and Lilith (Lorena Andrea) are really well-cast, and the show has started to find its footing by the end. Very curious to see what Season 2 brings.

 

That wraps up our adventurous shows with a dark streak—next up, we’ll get more light-hearted with Comedy recommendations!