Changeling

by Kristen Reid

“Changeling is both beautiful and ferocious. She speaks for women everywhere, illuminating our shared experience of growing up in a world that wants us to fear living in our own bodies. And she shows us how one woman might scratch and claw and roar her way out of docile submission to the horrors.” — Cheyanne Leonardo, author of Sun Songs


Dancing with the dark fae of the woods—singing sorrowful songs of the sirens in the water—bursting forth from a tattered chrysalis like a rueful soul

Changeling is a collection of dark Feminist poetry that invites the souls of the crepuscular forest to cling to the solace found in womanhood— drawing a moth to a flame of turmoil, rage, and, finally, REBIRTH.

Shed your smooth, marbled skin for sharp wings ripping from your back, and fly through the moonlit pines of the words of an existence not unlike your own. Find comfort in the fellow fae of the night and break free from your glamoured societal prisons.

71 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2025

About the author

Kristen Reid lives in East Tennessee with her black cat, Lestat de Lioncourt. She received her bachelor's degree in English literature and the humanities at Tennessee Tech University in 2018 and her master's degree from Tennessee Tech University in 2022. She debuted with a folk horror collection called American Appetites and Other Stories (on B&N and Amazon) and her work has appeared in Broadswords and Blasters, Scare Street Publishing, The Sirens Call, Springer Mountain Press, The Horror Tree, BS Lit, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Iris Review, and upcoming with Kaleidoscope Magazine. When she isn't writing folk horror and weird western short stories, she's working on her dark fantasy novels about monstrous women seeking revenge. She loves reading romance novels with a hot cup of tea, but there is no way she would ever actually write a romance novel... she loves killing her characters and turning them into monsters too much for that to fly. Follow her on Twitter: @Kris10BelleReid and on Instagram: @writerkristenreid. For updates on her work and more, check out her Linktree: https://linktr.ee/kris10reid

Reviews

[Marcey Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

God I love when tiktok does me right🤌🏻
I just wanted a good, dark, eerie read and oh boy did I get that! Not just that, the complexity of the poems was phenomenal! I forgot to breathe, I bit my lip so hard I thought I was going to bleed, I hung on every. SINGLE. WORD! And could not put this down!
What a wonderful collection of feminine struggle and wrath, of rock bottom and digging your way from the rubble. You can just FEEL the authors heart beating through these words and I can’t get enough! Please. I am begging… give me MORE!!!

[Kelly Curry]

Changeling is a masterpiece of feminine voices. Showing a range of emotion, it captures the diverse feelings women bring to the table. It’s a collection of poignant messages. The book depicts dark fantastical imagery, filled deep practical stories hidden in each piece. It is full of horror, romance, and dead things that capture the imagination and your heart. I am struck by how deep the poetry goes. I keep thinking about orange socks.

[Mary Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is about many facets of womanhood: the good, the ugly, and the deadly. With that in mind, some of these poems were heartbreaking, so heed the warnings at the beginning.

I personally resonated most with Women of “Rage”, Final Girls, and Ambrosia the most.

[e.e. franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reid utilizes inspiration from many movements throughout world history—gothic (both American and British), Greek tragedy, the Italian Renaissance, and modern feminism—to create an altogether evocative collection of form-bending poetry and flash fiction that is sure to make the reader embrace the discomfort. Following the preternatural experience of her debut American Appetites, Changeling perpetuates the fine line between what is real and what is considered beyond real and transcends itself through the feminist narrative that calls out the very force that oppresses. Despite that oppression, the narrator (not necessarily the author) implores the reader to rise from the dirt and rejuvenate themselves into a stronger woman than before, a feminist baptism from the soil. Changeling dares you to keep reading.