The Replacement

I wasn't planning on reading this book when I did, but I found myself requesting it from the library a bit on a whim. As it turns out it was rather serendipitous. The Replacement takes place the week of Halloween in a small town plagued with damp, overcast weather for weeks, maybe even months on end. This month has one of the worst Octobers I've seen and to top it off we had a damn hurricane. At least Gentry came out of it with fewer downed trees.

Brenna Yovanoff is my new best friend. Her writing has a beautiful rhythm to it, it really does read like poetry, I would love to hear it spoken aloud. She very quickly establishes the ghostly atmosphere of Gentry, but not through overwrought descriptions. Yovanoff is intriguingly economical with her words. A lot of imagination is left in what she leaves out, which I thought was clever, and suited the teen voice very well.

Mackie Doyle is a very real protagonist, which is interesting because he's not a real person, and I don't just mean in the sense that he is a fictional character. He's not human, but he's playing the role of one, because what else can he do? Up among the people of Gentry nearly everything he touches is poisonous to him, and down below he is missing all the things that are most important to him. As the story begins, Mackie is flickering in and out of his own life, barely able to function at school, and sleeping through most of his days, and that is the breaking point, along with the death of his classmate, Tate's, sister that jump starts the action in this book.

I think I'm slightly fascinated by that concept of fake people, holes in families that are filled in with artificial life. Mackie is defined by how self-conscious he is about the fact that he does not belong, even though no one will say it out loud. That's one of the things that gives the atmosphere of this book, this knowing but not saying. When the people of Gentry refuse to speak of what's clearly going on in their town, the folklore, the superstition germinates in their collective consciousness, and becomes more powerful. It becomes magic.

I love how sincere this book is. The characters are much more raw than they are in most young adult books. They are not always brave, and they don't always do the right thing and if they do they may not do it for the right reasons. But they are true to themselves and they are true to each other. The love between Mackie and his sister Emma is beautiful, and the budding relationship between Mackie and Tate is both crude and sweet at the same time, which I think is how teen romances should be treated more often. And Mackie's friends are wonderful, they're unique and individual as well incredibly faithful and strong.

I will admit The Replacement did not quite stick the landing. Not a lot of books do, even the great ones, so I'm not too miffed about it. I had a feeling about what was coming - there is a theme of sacrifice and intent, and we all know where those roads lead - but it ended up being a little vague. Basically, good form but there was a little bit of a wobble. Nonetheless it was very satisfying, touching, exciting and creepy all at once. I am very much looking forward to reading more Yovanoff.

The Replacement wasn't a frightening read (nor did I think it would be) but if you were the characters in their situation or even just a visitor to the town of Gentry, and you didn't know what makes this town tick you would know there was something off and you would quickly get into your car or whatever transport you used to get there and quickly leave and look back to make sure that nothing was following you. Because although The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff wasn't the kind of story that filled me with dread or made me cold with apprehension it was certainly the kind of read that made me stay up in the middle of the night to read it and pick up first thing in the morning. It was the kind of book that as you read it the rest of the world kind of goes still and quiet, it fades away into the background as if you are at home, at night, all alone and there is nothing else going on except the wind blowing through the trees. Case end point The Replacement was a creepily descriptive, atmospheric book.

In the town of Gentry everyone knows the town's secret but no one talks about it because to say it out loud would make the truth too horrible to bear and honestly the truth is a horrible, terrible thing. So everyone goes about their day as if everything is normal and when a little girl dies it's treated as a tragedy by everyone except the girl's older sister Tate because Tate knows what was buried as her sister wasn't her sister at all, it wasn't even human. And Tate has found someone she thinks could help her, our main lead Mackie Doyle but Mackie has his own issues - he's dyeing – iron, steel, the smell of blood - the very world is making him sicker by the day and he can no longer play normal because acting like everybody else means he won't last another day unless he makes a deal.

Brenna Yovanoff does such a wonderful job of stringing words together and turning them into sounds, sights and emotions. Before this book I had never come across an author who could actually make me truly hear music I was reading and because of her darkly beautiful, poignant style I was completely immersed in the world of The Replacement.

All of the characters were both unique and interesting and although our main character's one hope is to be mundanely normal many of the people in The Replacement aren't really normal at all except for maybe his best friend. From devoted Emma and fearless Tate, to the wacky inventive twins Drew and Danny and the otherworldly Janice and The Morrigan The Replacement is filled with a whole host of characters who although aren't too likeable, definitely fascinate and stand-out from the crowd.

If you want a book that's different from the typical YA, filled with beautiful descriptive writing and an eerie engrossing atmosphere then pick up The Replacement, you won't be disappointed.

I was surprised to encounter a male main character written in first person point of view from a female author. I admit I was a little worried that Mackie would not live up to being male enough for the story, but Yovanoff did a wonderful job.
The story is eerie and graceful, sending the reader on a journey through a town that isn't as simple as it first appears. I loved the attention to detail and well crafted metaphors. Any story surrounding the fey incorporates how iron harms them, but Yovanoff went so far as to explain how the iron in human blood can harm the fey and the downfall of being a teenage fey in a world of steel body piercings and jewelry.
I am looking forward to reading more by this author.