The Replacement

The Replacement: Review

Title: The Replacement

Author: Brenna Yovanoff

Published by: Razorbill (U.S.) , Simon and Schuster (UK)

Year: 2010

Pages: 375

Where I got it from: thalia.de U.S Cover->

<-U.K. Cover

I definitely like the U.S. cover better it’s just different from all the books that have people on their covers, which are recently a lot, and therefore it stands out. Even though I like the U.K. cover, it also reminds me a lot on the cover of Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Synopsis: (from goodreads.com)

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.

Review:

Ok so first of all I love that this book is written entirely out of the PoV of a guy, which makes it special, but also the story is special.

Mackie Doyle is not human and he know’s it right from the start, but not only he knows it: his whole family knows that he isn’t their actual child. But nonetheless his “sister” Emma loves him like her own brother and he loves her back. I really adore the brother and sister relationship Emma and Mackie share and I also like the relationship between Mackie and his best buddy Roswell. But there are just some things in The Replacement that I just didn’t like and yes I’m also talking about the relationships between the characters, so let’s start with Roswell: I liked that he always tried to protect Mackie and stuck with him the whole time (yes even in bad times he was still there for Mackie) BUT when Mackie asks him to help with something really bad: don’t want to spoil it for other people so just highlight :) (grave-robbing) Roswell’s just doing it like it’s something normal, so yeah I think everybody else would’ve been like: WTH? why do you want me to do THAT? o.O (a.k.a. a normal reaction to Mackie’s request).

Next is the relationship between Mackie and Tate: well I can’t tell much about it without spoiling too much but let me tell you: They have a good chemistry but some things were just URGH! jeez Tate why are you doing that? spoilers for details: ( Like the scene where Mackie is at Tate’s house and she takes him up to her room to make out instantly and take off her clothes, well I just think that was way too fast, they’re not even really together at that point, so um yeah kinda slutty for me, but ok everyone has their own standarts :P)

Mackie and his “parents”: Their relationship seemed kinda cold to me and Mackie’s mom just made me shake my head a few times again spoilers: (jeez I swear this book just can’t be reviewed without giving away some bigger things -.- I’m sorry) ( So she knew that her child probably could be replaced by another creature so she hung iron scissors(!!!!) (explains the U.S. cover)above her child’s crib to keep the demons away. Um ok WTHeck???who hangs scissors above the crib of a baby??? Isn’t that kinda dangerous? o.O Oh and when Mackie wants to get Emma out of some trouble, in which she got to help him, his “mom” tells him it’s Emma’s own fault and he shouldn’t help her, because then it would endanger him. Wow that mom really likes her kids *sarcasm* I mean if your child is in danger you don’t act like it’s nothing -.-)

Ok enough relationship bashing and on with the story: I liked the book, I really did but still something was just missing. I liked Mackie's decisions and they made sense but in the end I was still confused about some things, they just didn’t get explained right and the end was good but a really fast one (almost too fast), while the middle of the book just kept dragging on. Some things the characters (especially the evil ones) decided to do didn’t really make sense (well some might just make sense in the mind of a crazy,mean person (like the evil one in this story))and when the Morrigan (the leader of the good “demons” (can you call them that?) tried to explain why they didn’t stop/kill the evil one (called The Lady) it didn’t make sense to me I mean I understand that they were scared but it seemed to me that they actually had more people on their side, so um yeah that just made me wonder.

But all in all I liked this book! And if you have the time you should definitely read it, I just want to tell you that it’s probably not everybody’s taste and there are some swear words in it plus the F-bomb get’s dropped (not only once!). So if you like dark tales and a new species of supernaturals (I still haven’t quite figured out what Mackie really is, so I’ll reread it someday and update you on this new species :P) go check out The Replacement, it won’t disappoint you.(Really: read it, it's definitely worth your time)

I would rate The Replacement: 3.5 out of 5