Book Review of "The Replacement" by Brenna Yovanoff

Title: The Replacement  
Author: Brenna Yovanoff

Classification: YA Fiction, Paranormal, Horror
Source: Bought

Overall Grade: 
A 
I thought...
What a creepy, wrenching, oh-so-lyrical ride!


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Summary (from Goodreads): 

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 Replacement, left 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.

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My Thoughts: 

The Replacement is a wonderfully refreshing and creepy paranormal novel! The main character, Mackie, is mostly a normal teenage boy: he gets nervous when trying to talk to girls, struggles with whether or not to tell his best friends his darkest secrets, and tries his best to fit in with everyone else. 

However, Mackie is anything but normal! He is deathly allergic to iron, blood, and cannot attend church services with his family. When Mackie starts being followed by some really really creepy people, people that seem to know that he is a replacement, he finds that he can no longer ignore the very thing that he and his family have been trying to cover up for his entire life. And as he continues to grow weaker and weaker, these strangers may be the only way for Mackie to avoid an early death. 

I loved the characters in The Replacement! Brenna Yovanoff is a very talented writer with an ability to weave lyricism into this paranormal tale, à la Maggie Stiefvater. I loved Mackie and his relationship with his friends, his family, and Tate, of course. I also enjoyed the fact that The Replacement is far from your run of the mill paranormal romance, complete with predictable endings and falsely sappy romances, because there are some points during this read that I was creeped out and scared and I still wanted to keep reading. 

I did find that Mackie's interactions with the House of Mayhem and its residents to be a bit stilted at times, where Mackie's behavior and questions were more to serve the plot than to continue on with his personal journey. But other than that, I will definitely be recommending this book to the morbid of heart, to those that don't mind a little bit of creepiness in their day, and those that want to read a lyrical young adult novel that's simply not like the rest!

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Overall Grade: 

A 

I thought...

What a creepy, wrenching, oh-so-lyrical ride!

Add to Goodreads | Order from Amazon

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