The Replacement

by Brenna Yovanoff

Everything can be replace. Except human love.

Mackie Doyle is not one of us.

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 so loved this book" - Lauren Kate, bestselling author of Fallen
"Eerie and beautiful" - Maggie Stiefvater, bestselling author of Shiver
"This is a dark tale that will totally change any preconceptions you have about fairies" - The Sun
 

• ISBN10: 1847388396
• ISBN13: 9781847388391
• Publish Date: 6 January 2011 (first published 1 September 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[melanchalina]

Очень давно хотела эту книгу, и все из-за потрясающей атмосферной обложки. Но по сути книг – очень, очень странная.

События происходят в маленьком, мрачном городке – Джентри. На первый взгляд город, как город. Да вот только жители города, знают настоящую правду, правду о том, что скрывается под покровом ночи. Они носят на шее кресты, прибивают к дверям железные подковы, а над кроватками детей вешают металлические обереги.

А правда заключается в том, что каждые семь лет в Джентри исчезает один маленький ребенок, и заменяют его другим, нечеловеческим существом…. И все об этом знают, но закрывают на это глаза.

Главный герой книги Мэкки, не переносит железа, вида и запаха крови. В его доме все железное держится подальше от него. Он не человек, а Подменыш, которому удалось выжить. И из-за этого он чувствует себя чужим и одиноким.

В целом история обычная и типично американская. Все закрывают на правду глаза и смиряются с происходящим. Никого не волнует чужое горе. И об этом читать было действительно странно. Ну не бывает такого, не бывает. Даже в рамках мистики надо не забывать о логике и человеческих инстинктах.

На протяжение всей книги очень отчетливо не хватало экшна и темных, мрачных событий, которые так и просит прекрасная обложка. Таких чтобы, каждая страницы вызывала дрожь и нетерпение. А по сути, имеет слабенького мальчика, который очень-очень страдает и мечется из одной стороны в другую, и все время мучается. Много недоговорок, и в итоге все мелочно и ужасно неразвито. Герои неразвиты и неракрыты, кроме того, что у всех тонкая душевная организация ничего неясно.

В общем ждала большего, а получила книгу на один раз.

Моя оценка: 2/10

[celinenyx]

The Replacement has this eerie fairy-tale feel. It's really hard to describe this book, it's different from the average young-adult novel. I'm having troubles reviewing this book (which is quite rare for me), but I'll do the best I can.

Mackie lives in Gentry with his parents and sister yet he is not their real family. He comes from a place no one talks about. He is something no one talks about. Evil lurks in Gentry, and this time it might get personal.

The setting of The Replacement reminds me of a young-adult version of Derry, the town Stephen King has created. It has the same foreboding feel to it, the same sense of evil. And even though everyone feels it, and everyone knows, they don't move to another town. They are used to the fear.

Horror is one of the hardest genres to write in. To make a story truly scary you need more than just some gore and bloodshed. You need true evil, something that sends shivers up your spine. I love how Ms Yovanoff sets the ambience. Although it really isn't that scary, I refrained from reading this book in bed. I'm very prone to nightmares, and I don't want to meet any of her monsters in my sleep.

In The Replacement it evil isn't just black and white. It has many shades of grey and the main character's perception changes throughout the story. Mackie really undergoes a transformation. From a shade of a person that only wants to disappear he turns into someone that looks problems into the eye.

To be very honest this was a strange book. At times it felt dreamlike, fairy-tale like while at other times it felt like a contemporary paranormal novel. I'm still not sure what to think about The Replacement, and I'm not sure yet whether or not I will read it again. I am curious to maybe read some of Ms Yovanoff's other works. She has an interesting voice that I would love to see more of.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

I became privy to this book, when another author that I enjoy reading recommended it to her fans, as Brenna Yovanoff is one of her friends. The way she described the premise of the book and the author herself, made me want to look into reading it. I immediately knew when I saw the cover, all bets were off. This would definitely be a book that I would enjoy.

This book easily fits into a genre that I'm no stranger to, at the moment. Actually, haven't been for years, if I'm honest. I like the main character Mackie and the fact that he wants to be nothing more than normal, which is quite the opposite of what he actually is. I also enjoy the fact that Emma, his sister loves him for who he is and not necessarily what he is, and that Roswell comes across as a very understanding and supportive friend that he can count on.

All throughout the back half half of this story, I found myself strongly associating the sacrifice of one of the town's baby with another short story I'd read years ago, The Lottery. The two stories are not exactly the same, but there is a thread of similarity there in that one sense. It's almost as if, they're sacrificing the one for the good of the many, and the towns people look the other way because they're too afraid to look at the truth.

The character's that come out of the House of Mayhem just may very well be some of the most colorful, unique, and favorite character's ever among many. From the Morrigan to the little pink girl, to the dead girls, and Carlina Carlyle it was all so interesting. The history and the mythology there, the fact that there was a whole world that lay beneath the two of Gentry in the Slag Heap.

Strange how sometimes something so ugly can come across so beautiful in ways that you couldn't begin to imagine, something that takes on a life of their own. Even the Lady and the Cutter, had their purposes. And the story seemed to re-iterate that when you give something a name, it gives that thing power - whatever it is. It's not exactly that these beings were evil and ugly, so much as they were just different and creepy and had their own agenda's and reasonings behind their actions. They were very well portrayed in everything they did or said. Nothing was without meaning.

The author's attention devoted to the imagery and detail of the story, showed in her vivid imagination, when creating The House of Mayhem and the spooky town of Gentry and all of the people and ugly things were part of what made this first published work of hers so phenomenal.

The only drawback for me as far as this book goes, was the pacing of it. For me, personally, it started off pretty slow and didn't seem to really pick up and gain momentum until about half way into the story itself. But, all of that aside, I really wanted to finish this book because I truly felt like it had potential and the back half of it just did not disappoint me. The rich storytelling and the creative imagery that she wove into it, has made me enjoy this book in ways that I hadn't imagined I would.