The Replacement

The Replacement
Brenna Yovanoff
September 2010
Reading Level: YA

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.

Review:

I've gotta admit: I didn't like this book very much.

The problem is that it's hard to articulate what I feel about it. The whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. I didn't particularly like Mackie, and I didn't particularly like Tate, so the characters didn't quite do it for me. I also wasn't particularly intrigued by the story. Which odd, considering I've been dying to read this since it came out.

Overall, this book just left no impression on me. The characters fell flat, the story was dull, and it was just overall an unmemorable book. I tried so hard to like it; I really did. And it was kind of interesting, and definitely unique, but it will rest next to books like The Forest of Hands and Teeth (which I also found to be dull and uninteresting) in my heart. Was it inherently bad? Not at all. Just not my cup of tea.