The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

A quote:

“Sometimes this was just the way the game ended. Sometimes you did your best, and it all went straight to hell anyway.”

My rating:

Summary:

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.

I picked it up because:
Gorgeous. Cover. It's probably in my top ten favorites for this year. It's chic and modern; elemental in its focus on the key aspects: the baby carriage, and the deadly tools hanging above it, a snip of a string away from disaster. I was interested in it from my first glance at the cover.

What I liked:
Behind every popular book is a strong, likeable, relatable, main character. Mackie is that character. From the very beginning of the book, Mackie filled his role with perfection, because he wasn't perfect--he was real. He made mistakes, tried to fit in, pretended to be stronger than he was, wondered why he was the way he was. He wasn't flawless, and he didn't pretend to be. He loved deeply and defended what he loved. Mackie, in my book, passed all tests with flying colors.
Mackie aside, the setting was my next big love. The Replacement is set in the quaint little town of Gentry, which has this peculiar mysterious vibe. It's bound all of inhabitants together in a web of secrets, and no one's telling any truths if they can help it.


What I didn't like:
Tate Stewart, who is Mackie's crush throughout the bulk of the story, is written to be one of those strong I-never-take-no-for-an-answer type of girls, the type that I always feel are the author's attempt to slowly mold the teen girl reader's mind about what the prime image of a strong and self-confident girl is like. That can get annoying, like when a book is over-plugging an environmental message or something like that. Also, Tate had some kind of relationship mood-swing disorder, which kept her attitude towards Mackie flipping between "I will never speak to you again" and "Let me rip our clothes off" as the wind blew.
My only other major complaint is that I felt like the paranormal aspect of the story was accepted too easily when presented to some characters. Like it is said in the summary, Mackie is allergic to iron, among other things. It would take a lot more than some certifiably insane-sounding story to make me accept an anomaly like that as fact.

Overall:

I liked it. Mackie, his comic-relief buddy, Roswell, and a good cast of supporting characters tell a good story, with paranormalcy, mystery, humor, and a cute romance. Don't miss it!

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!