The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff | Review

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The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Published by Razorbill on September 1, 2011
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
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Brenna Yovanoff's eerily beautiful New York Times bestselling debut, now in paperback!

Mackie Doyle is The Replacement—left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. He has been raised among us. But he is not one of us. Now, he must face the dark creatures of the slag heaps from which he came and find his rightful place—in our world or theirs.

(Last Updated On: May 17, 2022)

Welcome to The Replacement book review! Throughout this post, you’ll hear my honest thoughts on The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff.

First of all, the cover of Brenna Yovanoff books are always amazing. I think that the cover of The Replacement is creepy, but it definitely represents the story.

The Replacement Synopsis

We follow Mackie as he struggles to live in the human world in this novel. He can’t touch iron or smell metal. When those things happen, he gets dizzy and possibly blacks out. When Mackie was younger, he was put in a crib in place of a real child.

The only people that know about this are his parents and his sister. His friend can tell, too, just since they’ve known each other for a long while. The strange thing is, the Replacements usually die… Mackie didn’t!

After a child is taken from a crib and the Replacement dies, Tate asks Mackie for help. Tate’s little sister, Natalie, was stolen, and she knows that the child that died was not her sister; it couldn’t be. Mackie refuses to help. He mustn’t let anyone know what he truly is.

After finding an underground mystical place where people like him live, he finds that the Morrigan (the lady in charge) has a sister, Lady. Lady is evil, and she steals kids to sacrifice on All Soul’s Day. She believes this is just how it has to be in the little town of Gentry.

Together, Mackie and Tate must try to get Natalie back.

Brenna Yovanoff’s Characters in The Replacement

Mackie was the mysterious guy at school who hung out with the popular guy. Girls secretly liked him, but I don’t think he really knew. I believe that Mackie wanted to be normal and not have to worry about staying away from metals. No one besides himself ever had dizzying feelings from being near metals.

Tate wanted help, and for some reason, she knew that Mackie wasn’t normal, that he was a Replacement. Throughout the whole story, she kept trying to get to the bottom of the case for her missing sister. I felt like she really cared for Mackie the whole time, but he didn’t notice until close to the end!

Closing Thoughts

The Replacement was a great creepy tale that was unique. I really liked the whole concept of Replacements. Most of the citizens in Gentry didn’t even care when children died anymore because of how often they did.

I would definitely suggest this novel, especially around Halloween. I also enjoyed how it was a stand-alone novel instead of being part of a series. Everything seems to be in a series nowadays.

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