The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff ARC review

Reading level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 352 pages

Publisher: Razorbill (September 21, 2010)

ISBN-10: 1595143378

ISBN-13: 978-1595143372

Received From: Around the World Tours

                   5 Butterflies

Product Description:

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a ReplacementÑleft in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.

My Thoughts:

Maggie Stiefvater's quote on the book covers says "a beautiful story of ugly things", and I couldn't agree more.  This book was completely creepy but not horror movie scary.  Gentry is a town scared to stand up for itself.  Children disappear and ugly things take their place, but no one says or does anything about it, until Tate refuses to except the disappearance of her little sister.  Mackie, one of "the replacements" is growing sick from all the iron in the world he lives in, he's drawn to Mayhem to find a remedy.  Mayhem is full of beautifully ugly creatures, and Mackie soon gets in over his head.

I really loved the characters in this book.  Mackie was completely naive, but while he thinks of himself as weak, he really has a great inner strength that shines through.  He was smart, funny, and brave, even when he was sick and scared.  Mackie's best friend was also a great character, he was so loyal to Mackie that it made me smile every time he showed up.  As for Tate, our female lead, normally I like girls who are smart-mouthed and generally surely, but Tate takes it a little too far.  I never really felt a connection to her because she never really lets us in. My favorite character of all though was the Morrigan.  She's innocence and wisdom all wrapped up in one package.  I adored her!

Overall, this book was creeptastic and I loved every minute of it.  Fast paced and full of suspense.  I loved all of the descriptions of the ugly creatures that live in mayhem.  I especially loved the scene where Mackie plays on stage with the other ugly people, it's electric and just a fantastic description of the power of music!  The books ending wrapped up nicely, there's not really a lot of loose ends, but like real life, it didn't really end with everything perfect and tied up in a bow.  I look forward to reading more from Brenna Yovanoff.

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Where to find Brenna Yovanoff

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