The Replacement

By: Brenna Yovanoff

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Mackie 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 16 years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us. He just wants to play bass guitar and find out more about an oddly intriguing girl named 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.

©2010 Brenna Yovanoff (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Unsettling villains and intriguing moral ambivalence make this effort shockingly original and…breathtaking.” ( Booklist)

"A fast-paced, dark delicacy." ( Kirkus)

Undecided

I felt this story had a solid premise but as others have commented about, it dragged and was slow in several parts. Overall I felt the background story, the characters, had a really good basis. But that too much of the book was 'filler' that could have been used to give the characters more than their two dimensional feel. Alot of the language felt odd for teenagers to use. Alot of the reactions were under or over exaggerated, especially for Tate. She either has a really good theory of what's going on in the town and is angry over it or totally oblivious when proof is presented to her, it felt silly. It was also very confusing what sort of relationship Macky and Tate really had throughout the book, which was frustrating. I didn't know if I should like her or be wary that she was just using him. It wasn't consistent. Macky's personality was timid and frail at one point and then BAM! heroic and a confident jock the next, then back to being an uncertain outcast teenager again. There was an attempt at character growth but it came in jolts which didn't fit the slow pace of the the rest of the book.
Like I said, I felt this was a great start, very interesting premise, and I didn't hate it. But it felt more like a rough draft then a final revision of a story.
Having said all that I would still love to see a continuation or another attempt at the story, because I do think the premise is a very interesting one, and deserves more attention.

Very Dark but Interesting

Initially I thought it wasn't going to be that great but perhaps an hour in it started to get interesting and I couldn't stop. It does get a bit of a drag listening to the main character moan a lot about all the things that's wrong with him but the strange bond he has with the town and his weird people is intriguing. I like his assortment of friends as they're odd in their own ways too which fits his character quite well. The visual descriptions are great and I will be rereading it again just to enjoy those descriptions again.

Great!

The story is great, and I just couldn't stop listening until the end. The plot is interesting and so are the dark creatures from the underground of Gentry. The concept of changeling was pretty well explored by Brenna Yovanoff and I could almost feel the creepy atmosphere.

Kevin T. Collins is one of the best narrators out there and did a fantastic job.

Good but lacking

The story was interesting but the male protagonist was lacking. I felt underwhelmed and wished I could skip his tantrums. The "Sisters" were MUCH more interesting and their dialogue was dark, spooky, and edgy. I'm still going to read her next novel because she has a great understanding of the dark and edgy world.

Excellent !

Keeps you interested all the way through. The Narrator made you believe he was Malcolm. The story left me feeling good about the world.