The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Mar. 31st, 2012 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Mackie Doyle is the Replacement. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie 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 slowly dying in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practise on his guitar or spend time with an oddly intriguing girl called 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.
16-year-old Malcolm ‘Mackie’ Doyle isn’t normal - allergic to iron, blood and consecrated ground, he’s slowly dying - everyone in the town of Gentry knows it. Mackie’s a replacement exchanged for the real Malcolm Doyle as a baby. Children go missing in Gentry every seven years – one always around Halloween - and others die while still young. But no one in Gentry talks about it. Mackie can’t even get his parents to acknowledge the truth – his sister Emma is the only person who will talk about the fact that he’s different.
Everything changes though when his classmate Tate’s younger sister gets taken. Fierce, independent and a little odd, Tate wants Mackie to help get her sister back. But doing so means that Mackie must accept who and what he is and confront the forces that hold Gentry in their thrall ...
Brenna Yovanoff’s debut YA novel is an eerie, strangely compelling and yet frustrating and difficult read, which stands out in the crowded YA fantasy market.
Mackie’s not an easy character to engage with. Brought up by his parents not to draw attention to himself, he’s finding it harder to do so as the world slowly poisons him and is someone who avoids confrontation and dealing with reality. Consequently the first third of the book is basically him refusing to talk to Tate and Emma about the truth, which was irritating. However I liked the way that he slowly reveals the wrongness around his town, which leads to a growing sense of unease for the reader. I also think that Tate’s dynamism helps to make up for his passivity – if anything I would have liked to see her work harder to press him on the points she needs to know.
The scenes where Mackie begins to deal with Gentry’s other world are haunting and disturbingly beautiful. I loved the description of the two realms – Mischief and Mayhem – and the implications of their conflict for the town and I particularly liked Morrigan, a grim and gothic little girl and the chilling, sado-masochistic Cutter.
The story’s too slow to build and too quick to resolve and Mackie’s friends exist as plot points rather than real characters. At times the story drove me nuts but the pages kept pulling me through and lingered with me for a long time afterwards. For this reason, I’ll definitely check out what Yovanoff does next.
The Verdict:
Brenna Yovanoff’s debut YA novel is an eerie, strangely compelling and yet frustrating and difficult read, which stands out in the crowded YA fantasy market. I had a number of problems with it – the main character’s difficult to engage with, the story’s slow to start and too quick to resolve and the side characters (with the exception of Tate) feel undercooked and there to serve the plot. But there is an eerie, wrongness to it, the descriptions are haunting and disturbingly beautiful and the story lingered with me after I finished it. For that reason, I think that it’s well worth checking out.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
Mackie Doyle is the Replacement. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, Mackie 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 slowly dying in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practise on his guitar or spend time with an oddly intriguing girl called 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.
16-year-old Malcolm ‘Mackie’ Doyle isn’t normal - allergic to iron, blood and consecrated ground, he’s slowly dying - everyone in the town of Gentry knows it. Mackie’s a replacement exchanged for the real Malcolm Doyle as a baby. Children go missing in Gentry every seven years – one always around Halloween - and others die while still young. But no one in Gentry talks about it. Mackie can’t even get his parents to acknowledge the truth – his sister Emma is the only person who will talk about the fact that he’s different.
Everything changes though when his classmate Tate’s younger sister gets taken. Fierce, independent and a little odd, Tate wants Mackie to help get her sister back. But doing so means that Mackie must accept who and what he is and confront the forces that hold Gentry in their thrall ...
Brenna Yovanoff’s debut YA novel is an eerie, strangely compelling and yet frustrating and difficult read, which stands out in the crowded YA fantasy market.
Mackie’s not an easy character to engage with. Brought up by his parents not to draw attention to himself, he’s finding it harder to do so as the world slowly poisons him and is someone who avoids confrontation and dealing with reality. Consequently the first third of the book is basically him refusing to talk to Tate and Emma about the truth, which was irritating. However I liked the way that he slowly reveals the wrongness around his town, which leads to a growing sense of unease for the reader. I also think that Tate’s dynamism helps to make up for his passivity – if anything I would have liked to see her work harder to press him on the points she needs to know.
The scenes where Mackie begins to deal with Gentry’s other world are haunting and disturbingly beautiful. I loved the description of the two realms – Mischief and Mayhem – and the implications of their conflict for the town and I particularly liked Morrigan, a grim and gothic little girl and the chilling, sado-masochistic Cutter.
The story’s too slow to build and too quick to resolve and Mackie’s friends exist as plot points rather than real characters. At times the story drove me nuts but the pages kept pulling me through and lingered with me for a long time afterwards. For this reason, I’ll definitely check out what Yovanoff does next.
The Verdict:
Brenna Yovanoff’s debut YA novel is an eerie, strangely compelling and yet frustrating and difficult read, which stands out in the crowded YA fantasy market. I had a number of problems with it – the main character’s difficult to engage with, the story’s slow to start and too quick to resolve and the side characters (with the exception of Tate) feel undercooked and there to serve the plot. But there is an eerie, wrongness to it, the descriptions are haunting and disturbingly beautiful and the story lingered with me after I finished it. For that reason, I think that it’s well worth checking out.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the free copy of this book.
