Review: The Replacement

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Replacement is a story about changelings, the idea that sometimes fairy creatures steal away human children from their cribs and replace them with their own castoff children. This book updates the idea and brings it to the modern town of Gentry, where we follow a changeling, and the undoing of his world around him.

This young adult novel manages to include paranormal themes while also touching upon mature subjects and remaining true to the thought processes of teenagers. While I thought some characters were underdeveloped, the world of Gentry and its underworld were nicely fleshed-out, with an intriguing backstory. I enjoyed the way "old world" mythology became modern, although at times it felt the author was trying to be too cool and edgy, particularly in some scenes set at a club.

The mood of the story is really handled well. You can feel the funk/depression/fog the main character is in, and it suffuses the pages with its own kind of melancholy. Reading this really is like entering Mackie Doyle's brain, with its concerns about girls at school coexisting with worries about the dark fairy underground he finds himself flirting with. It's good stuff.

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