- I am a sucker for creepy covers.
- Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton
- The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Summary from GoodReads:
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.
My Review:
One of the worst things a cover can do to me is make my expectations soar so high that I get afraid to pick up the book.
I’ve been in love with the cover for The Replacement ever since I saw it in my email, delivered via Shelf Awareness. And then, one day, I got an irresistible offer from Barnes and Noble and found myself coming home with it.
I’ve waited a few days to digest the book before writing my review on it, because I think I was being unfair in my initial dislike of most of it. And again, I think it was a result of me expecting just too much. For being what it is, a Young Adult novel, it was sufficiently creepy and unnerving to merit the cover and I did enjoy reading it (especially the latter half). I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting, I just think I was expecting something different – as can happen at times when you build something up in your mind.
So now a few days have passed. Here’s my thoughts on it all (finally!). I loved Mackie Doyle. I really loved his sister, Emma. I think Emma stole the show in many ways. For a debut novel, The Replacement has a lot of strengths. I found the description of Gentry to be eerie and the lore behind the “Replacements” to be really fascinating. Some of the best scenes in the book take place Underground and those scenes alone made the book worth reading.
Now, I understand that it is fairly common knowledge that steel and iron is harmful to Fae – but what I had a difficult time with was how easily everything was explained away (and not, for example, why it wasn’t painful for Mackie to be around cars?) and how easily everyone accepted his existence and strange behaviors. I felt as if I was missing part of the history of Gentry, that maybe a few chapters had been left off the beginning of the story. Also – for being a YA book, this had a lot of profanity and a few fairly sexual scenes. I’m not used to seeing much of that in YA books so it came as a bit of a surprise to me.
Aside from those issues though, I did enjoy the overall story and commend Brenna Yovanoff for putting out a YA title that’s out of the ordinary and a refreshing change from a barrage of other paranormal creatures.
Check out these review(s):
