The Replacement

The Replacement

      by Brenna Yovanoff

 

Changelings.

I have always thought it fascinating that the fairy folk would steal children and replace them with their own, so this book was right up my alley.

I finished reading this one last night at 11:47 PM. It's the story of 16 year-old Mackie Doyle and his search for who he really is, his place in the world, love and just wanting be a normal teenager.

I loved Mackie. His personality developed nicely through the book and his best friend Roswell is the kind of best friend I think everyone needs. I loved that this book was written from the male point of view. You don't find a lot of YA novels with that POV and it was really kind of refreshing.

It reminded me a little bit of Tithe by Holly Black that I read last year. I mostly liked that one, but the language took it down several notches... Where as The Replacement was much better, only a slight use of the "f" word, not enough to bother me, and if I had kids I'm sure they hear it more in a day at school than the three or four time it appears in this book. so I'd let my kid read this.

This is the first novel by Brenna Yovanoff. The book was recommended to me by Maggie Stiefvater, author of Shiver and Linger, who is one of Ms. Yavanoff's critique partners and they are both members of the Merry Sisters of Fate website. (Where one of three people post a new short story on Monday. They're fun to read.) So yes, I read this book because another author told me too, and I'm glad I did.  There were several editorial/grammatical errors, but not enough that I couldn't work out what the sentences were trying to get at. Brenna Yovanoff has room to grow from here. I hope this isn't the first of a trilogy (but it probably is) I don't want to get hooked on another series I have to wait for.