The Replacement

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.