The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
"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."- summary from Amazon

The Replacement wasn't what I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing. It's still a very good book, but I was expecting it to be creepier than it actually was, due to the cover, blurb and summary. It does still have a creepy atmosphere, but it just didn't scare me like I thought it might.

Anyway, the book was still really good. Yovanoff has a wonderful debut on her hands, and I know it'll do really well. Mackie is a great, really flawed character and it was interesting reading the book from his perspective, as an extreme outsider, someone who should've died but didn't and doesn't really belong in the human world. It's a fascinating character study of sorts to watch Mackie try to find his sense of belonging while sort of avoiding it at the same time. The story can be pretty introspective and quiet at times, and it was a nice change of pace.

All the other characters were really interesting to read about too, and they're all pretty fleshed out. I particularly enjoyed the character of Emma, Mackie's sister. She was always looking out for him, joking around, and loving him.

It took me a while to get into the book, but once I did, it was hard to put down, especially during the last 100 pages or so. The climax and ending were really good too and had me on the edge of my seat, turning pages as quickly as I could.

Overall, The Replacement is a great, eerie debut, though don't expect it to scare you, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Yovanoff writes next.

FTC: Snagged ARC at BEA early in the morning during a rush of the stack of books gathered around a carriage like on the cover. Link above is an Amazon Associates link; any profit goes toward funding contests.