The Replacement
by Brenna Yovanoff
3.57 of 5 stars
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.
The premise of this book is awesome. Gentry, a small town with kids disappearing. A weird protagonist who's placed into a crib as a replacement (hence the title of this book) for another boy, who is allergic to iron, blood, and consecrated ground. He's clearly not human, but he doesn't know exactly what he is, and now another kid has disappeared, and this time he can't ignore this vanishing children phenomenon anymore. The whole concept of replacement, or changling, is putting fairy children in place of human children so that the parents are not suspicious. The young fairies die quickly in the human world, leading the parents to believe their own kids died (of course they do, but in another way). The main character Mackie is a replacement who did not die but grows up in a human family. Sounds intriguing, no?
Character:
Mackie, the protagonist, starts out as a teenager who'd give anything to be normal. He knows he'll never fit in and is just hanging there. He's frail and frequently nauseous when near iron or blood. He doesn't want to help Tate, the sister of the vanished child, but she insists on getting him involved. Finally he confronts his people who, though never explicitly written out, are fairies. Not just some tooth-stealing, whimsical little folks, but quite terrifying, grotesque creatures. I love Yovanoff's description of these fairies because I can almost picture them in their rotting, gross beauty. Which is apparently a thing.
Back to Mackie. About halfway through the book, he's suddenly determined to stop this trend of fairies taking children when he learns they take them for their blood. He comes up with a rescue plan to spirit Tate's sister away from the fairy queen. When all fails, he sacrifices himself as a replacement for the young girl, allowing the fairy to take his blood instead. I'm quite happy to see him grow a backbone in the end, as he was just so not-my-problem before.
Emma
Oh, where do I even start. Emma is Mackie's sister, although not by blood, seeing Mackie is the replacement of her biological brother. Nevertheless, Emma loves Mackie as a real brother and takes care of him all his life. She even seeks the fairies for a potion that can make Mackie well. Here's an excerpt from the book:
My whole life, Emma had just been there. Cutting my hair with the aluminum kindergarten scissors just so I didn’t have to go to the barbershop downtown, with its metal countertops and its stainless steel shears. Making me breakfast, making sure I ate and went out with my friends and did my homework. Making sure nothing bad happened. I wanted to hug her and say that everything was much better than she believed. It was just so strange that she couldn’t see.
“Emma—” I got a tight feeling in my throat and started again. “Emma, Mom didn’t make me like this. Keep me alive this long… You did.”
“Emma—” I got a tight feeling in my throat and started again. “Emma, Mom didn’t make me like this. Keep me alive this long… You did.”
I think one of the best things about this book is its relationships between characters. So real and moving.
Roswell
Roswell is Mackie's friend since childhood and is the one to take him home when he gets sick. He's always known Mackie's different, but he still sticks with him and remains loyal to him all the way. Even when Mackie believes himself a monster, Roswell reminds him of his humanity and points out how human he is. That's friendship for ya.
Tate, the sister of the missing child, is also pretty interesting. She's tough and convinced the dead "sister" they buried is not her real sister, which is right. She sees right away Mackie is different and the key to finding her sister, and she tries everything to provoke him into helping her. Tough female character--YES! She even got into fights and confronts a monster with a crowbar, just so you know.
The Morrigan
This is a fairy who's the head of the "House of Mayhem" and who Mackie works for (for a time). She's portrayed as a small child with sharp narrow teeth and kind of scary sweet. Think creepy beautiful. She runs the Startlight, which is a pub where her fairies play concerts onstage. The adulation they receive supports her house and everyone in it. She believes in music and love more than blood. In the story she's the good guy, as opposed to her sister, the Lady, who wants blood and worship. She also rescued Mackie's mother from her sister a long time ago, which I think is brave and sweet. The Morrigan is not a good person per se, but she's definitely one of the good fairies.
The Lady
She is the ultimate antagonist of the story. She rules the "House of Mystery" and relishes in blood sacrifice and the fear she can strike in people's hearts. The Lady was once great and terrifying, and warriors offer themselves as sacrifices. She yearns after that time of greatness but can never experience that glory again. She says in one place, “I am terror. I draw strength from their fears…I eat their devotion and their abasement.”
Apart from the horror elements, this book also explores humanity. The fairies live off children's blood sacrifice, and in turn they bring prosperity to the town. They do not think they're evil; they're benefiting the town. What's truly disturbing is the indifference of the town. Children die so frequently and parents do not even question the reason. There's clearly a pattern here, but everyone just looks away and pretend nothing happens. Because of this attitude, evil like the Lady can thrive and do whatever they want. Social injustice in the real world happens like this. We do not see the pain, the suffering of people because we just want to believe everything is perfect. That's no way of living.
This book is exquisitely written, with ample amounts of horror, creepiness, and emotions. If you like urban fantasy, horror, and mystery with a bit of relationships thrown in, you gotta try The Replacement. It's definitely an exciting book that keeps things rolling.
