The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Synopsis (from Amazon):
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. Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.

My Thoughts:

LOVED.  ‘Nuff said.  =D 

This one only took me about a day and a half to read.  I kept picking it back up every time I put it down because I needed to KNOW where that paragraph was headed. LOL.  I liked it so much, in fact, I made the BFF take it home and read it.  She, too, read it in like a day and a half.  And gave it back with a big smile on ‘er face. So, yea… she liked it too.  =D

Loved the cover.  It’s awesome.  I totally bought this one just based on the cover art. ha!

LOVED the underworld is named Mayhem.  I swear I giggled every time I saw it because I kept picturing this guy…whose character’s name is Mayhem.

Why, yes.  I do watch entirely too much tv.  LOL!!! Anyway, what was I saying…

Loved the premise.  The idea that we could be REPLACED as babies is CRAZY and awesome.  It really plays on the fact that EVERYONE at some point in their lives have felt like they just don’t FIT IN.

Loved the characters! YAY!  Mackie is SO sweet, so… vulnerable. *sigh*  LUV’D.  I loved that his bff, Roz, was just THERE for him.  No matter what, no matter how crazy, no questions just “what do you need me to do”.  That, my friends, is what bein a BFF is all about.  The whole you can’t bail me out because you’re sittin in the cell right beside, thing. B.F. F.  I loved that Tate was fearless. I loved Emma and how much she loved Mackie.  And mostly, I love the Morrigan!  How awesomely freaky is a knee high tattooed ballerina fairy with sharp teeth and black eyes! YIKES Ms Brenna, scared ‘a you!  LOL!!!

I loved that the Morrigan is technically, a bad guy.  But we end up rooting for her when it counts!  LOL  The lesser of two evils I guess. 

I loved THE CUTTER!  What a flippin’ freaktoid!  Holy CRICKETS!  Just reading about him gave me the willies like the TALL MAN does in Phantasm!  Ho-Ly CRICKETS!

What didn’t I like? Well, I cant say without it being a spoiler, I think.  There was some stuff mentioned that never really got fleshed out.  I’m kind of hoping it was on purpose so there can be a sequel!!! 

Tell ya what.  I’ll put it here in WHITE text so if you want to read it, then you just HIGHLIGHT OVER it with your mouse. (right cick and drag), k?

<-POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW->

When Roz and Mackie are talking there is a whole conversation about how EVERY family in Gentry has had someone to be “replaced”.  Every family EXCEPT Roz’s.  But the book never goes into detail, and never tells us WHY.  Just makes it sound like its an important point, but then never elaborates on it. 

<-END SPOILER->

So, I’m hoping like there will be a book two.  To clear that up.  Otherwise I feel like its a big gaping HOLE in the story!  Like my bowl of cornflakes, with no bananas.  Come on, I NEED my bananas!  lol.

So, yep.  There’s my thoughts.  Guess what?  I say: READ IT!!!!!!!!!! 

NOTE TO PARENTS:
Just wanted to mention there are some pretty heavy cuss words in this book. GD (which is a no-no even for me as an adult). the f*bomb, which I can tolerate for me, but I think if my kid were reading this book – I’d want to know that was in there.  So though it was written for teens – I think OLDER teens, maybe.  Kind of a shame, really.  The story is fantastic and eerie and I think middle-grade readers would love it but the language makes me feel like I shouldn’t be recommending it to EVERYONE. Kwim?  It’s not even a LOT of cussing, only a few times. BUT they are the BIG ones…