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THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle, Canongate, £8.99, ebook £5.75

THIS book starts so strongly that you can just about forgive the middle third where the pace slumps from an engrossing boil to a take-it-or-leave-it simmer.

Second-hand bookseller Apollo Kagwa grew up pretty much fatherless, except for a recurring nightmare and a box of nostalgic junk, so when he and his wife Emma welcome their son Brian into the world, he’s determined to get things right. What he doesn’t factor in is Emma seemingly losing her mind.

LaValle’s descriptions of sleepless first-time parenthood and the stress of providing for your family have such clarity and precision, that when the narrative suddenly accelerates, it’s disconcerting how porous and unsettling the plot becomes. Apollo is thrown juggernaut-like into a surreal New York that’s spliced through with the creeping terror of what social media can leave you open to and how absurd the idea of living ‘happily-ever-after’ is if you analyse the practicalities.

Sinister and exposing, if occasionally laboured, it’ll certainly make you rethink your online presence.

A STATION ON THE PATH TO SOMEWHERE BETTER by Benjamin Wood, Scribner, £14.99, ebook £7.99

SINISTER, highly detailed and slow to build, the story sees Daniel, not yet a teenager, and his estranged dad, Francis go on a road trip. But we already know it doesn’t end well.

Told from grown-up Daniel’s perspective, we’re drip fed his musings on how it could have gone differently, and how he’s spent the intervening years obsessing over his father’s crimes. The problem is, the sheer level of detail gives the book a lethargy that’s hard to shift.

If you’re looking for a page turner, this isn’t it, but if creeping dread and anxiety enthral you, it certainly ticks those boxes.