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A review by zoe_e_w
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
4.0
Well first, let me get my one of my two quibbling complaints out of the way about The Replacement: I hated the blurb the more I read of the book. It isn't even remotely accurate, and I wouldn't have left this on my TBR pile for so long if the blurb had been more honest about what a creepy and refreshing story I'd find inside.
Malcolm "Mackie" Doyle is a a replacement, a sickly fae child left behind as part of a bargain for the healthy child who is stolen and sacrificed by The Lady. Make no mistakes about this being a cheerful story. Mackie is a sick kid with an allergy to iron and steel, so just about everything in the human world is killing him. But his church going family works hard to protect him, and his pastor father works hard to hide his replacement child from the prying eyes of the neighbors.
The thing I love about this story right off the bat is, EVERYONE in town is aware of the monsters already, even if they don't have proper names for them. It's just that everyone has agreed to accept the bloody terms of the deal with the monsters. They know these thing kill kids every seven years, but the town prospers if they let it happen. So they let it happen. So, don't make up your mind that the humans are the good guys in this story, because there are no good guys. Even Mackie isn't perfect. Which I suppose is what makes him easier to love. He doesn't have the right answers, and he's not witty or a natural leader. You wouldn't expect that, given the way he's been raised anyway. It would be out of character in a terrible way.
Before I go on, I noted two scenes that either shows Mackie has a death wish, or the writer didn't think too hard about Mackie's choice of sustenance. In any case, he consumes cold breakfast cereal from the box like it's no big deal. Uh, well most boxed cereals are vitamin-fortified, including a full daily dose of iron. So if the taint of the metal from metal cans was too dangerous for him to eat canned food, his habit of snarfing iron-packed kiddie cereal over potatoes didn't seem like a bright idea. I tend not to think it's a death wish because Mackie's allergic reaction to iron were violent and sudden, yet eating the cereal didn't even make him queasy. So I'm calling this one as a legit mistake in the story. It's not quite a deal breaker, but it is going to cost the book half a star.
Then again, during a party, Mackie demonstrates that he MAY have a death wish when he pulls a typical guy stunt. He's paired up with a hot girl, the girl he's been watching since first grade, like. And he knows she has a pierced tongue, and that kissing her could be deadly for someone like him. But he still kisses her, and yep, her steel tongue piercing almost kills him. But being fair, put in the same position, I'm not sure I'd have acted differently. Kissing the girl wasn't so much about kissing her, it was about finally doing something normal after years of being sick and afraid. Problems is, in trying to act normal, Mackie has to confront the reality that he's not, and that scares him.
And why is Mackie afraid? Because his whole life, his parents have both told him to never talk about himself, or the townspeople will kill him. Yet, everyone of Mackie's friends pretty much knows what he is already. Mackie doesn't know that, and he's too paranoid to ask. Why? Because his parents said the same thing over and over for his whole life: "The truth will kill you." So that's a LOT of programming to overcome, and that Mackie does at the pace he does is great.
What really makes Mackie shine is his self-awareness of being a monster. He doesn't know what happened to the real Malcolm Doyle, but he wants to know. He wants to understand why this deal keeps being made, and why everyone just accepts living with the lie. And the more Mackie pushes for the truth, the more it comes out in creepy, ugly spurts, like rotting blood spurting from a swollen corpse by a scalpel. This is a story with monsters, zombie girls, blood sacrifices, with terrible deals made with ancient fae forces, and with human adults who look the other way to stay happy with their lot in life. At the heart of this rotten town is someone finally so mad about the injustices of it all that they inspire Mackie to be brave, even if he's really afraid of the whole world.
The last time I reviewed a YA book, I hated it, and someone said, "Well, maybe you just don't like YA." No, it was more fair that I don't like Post-Apoc, and the book already had to recover from a huge debt for being PA. It never did. This book is the kind of fantasy YA work that allows me to say "See, I like some of YA just fine!" But I don't just like this book. I love it.
And what I love most about this story is that the characters feel real despite the fantastic surroundings. It's not just Mackie, but his sister Emma, his mother and father, his friends. Even the mean girl, Alice has more screen time and understanding than I've seen from other YA writers. Aside from the cereal thing and minor quibbles with the world-building ideas shaping the fae "gods" around human whims, there's no one and nothing in this story that didn't leave me feeling charged up and tense. It's a creepy tale from start to finish, and the monsters stay scary to the last fight. And Mackie is a great teen, not a snarky stereotype, but a frightened dying kid who just wants to do the right thing for once in his rotten life. In the process, he sorts out that maybe if he pushes a little, it doesn't have to be a rotten life, and he doesn't have to die.
He's also incredibly self-aware, and his desire to help his neighbor Tate outshines his love and respect for his parents, and for his fears, also instilled by the same parents who claim to love him. He has to overcome the training they falsely tried to program into him and become his own person. And after some stumbles and falls, the kid delivers with a big gory slide for the finish plate.
Can I gush any more about this book? Not without taking a break to breathe. I give The Replacement 4.5 stars. I woulda given 5 but the cereal thing really bugged me. Mackie reacted to iron poisoning instantly, so boxed cereal really shouldn't have been on his list of acceptable foods. But setting aside that one tiny, TEENSY quibble, I am ready to declare Brenna Yovanoff a new literary hero, right up there in skills with John A. Lindqvist and yes, even Stephen King. This is an awesome book, and I'm glad I gave it a chance despite the iffy blurb.
Malcolm "Mackie" Doyle is a a replacement, a sickly fae child left behind as part of a bargain for the healthy child who is stolen and sacrificed by The Lady. Make no mistakes about this being a cheerful story. Mackie is a sick kid with an allergy to iron and steel, so just about everything in the human world is killing him. But his church going family works hard to protect him, and his pastor father works hard to hide his replacement child from the prying eyes of the neighbors.
The thing I love about this story right off the bat is, EVERYONE in town is aware of the monsters already, even if they don't have proper names for them. It's just that everyone has agreed to accept the bloody terms of the deal with the monsters. They know these thing kill kids every seven years, but the town prospers if they let it happen. So they let it happen. So, don't make up your mind that the humans are the good guys in this story, because there are no good guys. Even Mackie isn't perfect. Which I suppose is what makes him easier to love. He doesn't have the right answers, and he's not witty or a natural leader. You wouldn't expect that, given the way he's been raised anyway. It would be out of character in a terrible way.
Before I go on, I noted two scenes that either shows Mackie has a death wish, or the writer didn't think too hard about Mackie's choice of sustenance. In any case, he consumes cold breakfast cereal from the box like it's no big deal. Uh, well most boxed cereals are vitamin-fortified, including a full daily dose of iron. So if the taint of the metal from metal cans was too dangerous for him to eat canned food, his habit of snarfing iron-packed kiddie cereal over potatoes didn't seem like a bright idea. I tend not to think it's a death wish because Mackie's allergic reaction to iron were violent and sudden, yet eating the cereal didn't even make him queasy. So I'm calling this one as a legit mistake in the story. It's not quite a deal breaker, but it is going to cost the book half a star.
Then again, during a party, Mackie demonstrates that he MAY have a death wish when he pulls a typical guy stunt. He's paired up with a hot girl, the girl he's been watching since first grade, like. And he knows she has a pierced tongue, and that kissing her could be deadly for someone like him. But he still kisses her, and yep, her steel tongue piercing almost kills him. But being fair, put in the same position, I'm not sure I'd have acted differently. Kissing the girl wasn't so much about kissing her, it was about finally doing something normal after years of being sick and afraid. Problems is, in trying to act normal, Mackie has to confront the reality that he's not, and that scares him.
And why is Mackie afraid? Because his whole life, his parents have both told him to never talk about himself, or the townspeople will kill him. Yet, everyone of Mackie's friends pretty much knows what he is already. Mackie doesn't know that, and he's too paranoid to ask. Why? Because his parents said the same thing over and over for his whole life: "The truth will kill you." So that's a LOT of programming to overcome, and that Mackie does at the pace he does is great.
What really makes Mackie shine is his self-awareness of being a monster. He doesn't know what happened to the real Malcolm Doyle, but he wants to know. He wants to understand why this deal keeps being made, and why everyone just accepts living with the lie. And the more Mackie pushes for the truth, the more it comes out in creepy, ugly spurts, like rotting blood spurting from a swollen corpse by a scalpel. This is a story with monsters, zombie girls, blood sacrifices, with terrible deals made with ancient fae forces, and with human adults who look the other way to stay happy with their lot in life. At the heart of this rotten town is someone finally so mad about the injustices of it all that they inspire Mackie to be brave, even if he's really afraid of the whole world.
The last time I reviewed a YA book, I hated it, and someone said, "Well, maybe you just don't like YA." No, it was more fair that I don't like Post-Apoc, and the book already had to recover from a huge debt for being PA. It never did. This book is the kind of fantasy YA work that allows me to say "See, I like some of YA just fine!" But I don't just like this book. I love it.
And what I love most about this story is that the characters feel real despite the fantastic surroundings. It's not just Mackie, but his sister Emma, his mother and father, his friends. Even the mean girl, Alice has more screen time and understanding than I've seen from other YA writers. Aside from the cereal thing and minor quibbles with the world-building ideas shaping the fae "gods" around human whims, there's no one and nothing in this story that didn't leave me feeling charged up and tense. It's a creepy tale from start to finish, and the monsters stay scary to the last fight. And Mackie is a great teen, not a snarky stereotype, but a frightened dying kid who just wants to do the right thing for once in his rotten life. In the process, he sorts out that maybe if he pushes a little, it doesn't have to be a rotten life, and he doesn't have to die.
He's also incredibly self-aware, and his desire to help his neighbor Tate outshines his love and respect for his parents, and for his fears, also instilled by the same parents who claim to love him. He has to overcome the training they falsely tried to program into him and become his own person. And after some stumbles and falls, the kid delivers with a big gory slide for the finish plate.
Can I gush any more about this book? Not without taking a break to breathe. I give The Replacement 4.5 stars. I woulda given 5 but the cereal thing really bugged me. Mackie reacted to iron poisoning instantly, so boxed cereal really shouldn't have been on his list of acceptable foods. But setting aside that one tiny, TEENSY quibble, I am ready to declare Brenna Yovanoff a new literary hero, right up there in skills with John A. Lindqvist and yes, even Stephen King. This is an awesome book, and I'm glad I gave it a chance despite the iffy blurb.