The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

A quote:

“Sometimes this was just the way the game ended. Sometimes you did your best, and it all went straight to hell anyway.”

My rating:

Summary:

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.

I picked it up because:
Gorgeous. Cover. It's probably in my top ten favorites for this year. It's chic and modern; elemental in its focus on the key aspects: the baby carriage, and the deadly tools hanging above it, a snip of a string away from disaster. I was interested in it from my first glance at the cover.

What I liked:
Behind every popular book is a strong, likeable, relatable, main character. Mackie is that character. From the very beginning of the book, Mackie filled his role with perfection, because he wasn't perfect--he was real. He made mistakes, tried to fit in, pretended to be stronger than he was, wondered why he was the way he was. He wasn't flawless, and he didn't pretend to be. He loved deeply and defended what he loved. Mackie, in my book, passed all tests with flying colors.
Mackie aside, the setting was my next big love. The Replacement is set in the quaint little town of Gentry, which has this peculiar mysterious vibe. It's bound all of inhabitants together in a web of secrets, and no one's telling any truths if they can help it.


What I didn't like:
Tate Stewart, who is Mackie's crush throughout the bulk of the story, is written to be one of those strong I-never-take-no-for-an-answer type of girls, the type that I always feel are the author's attempt to slowly mold the teen girl reader's mind about what the prime image of a strong and self-confident girl is like. That can get annoying, like when a book is over-plugging an environmental message or something like that. Also, Tate had some kind of relationship mood-swing disorder, which kept her attitude towards Mackie flipping between "I will never speak to you again" and "Let me rip our clothes off" as the wind blew.
My only other major complaint is that I felt like the paranormal aspect of the story was accepted too easily when presented to some characters. Like it is said in the summary, Mackie is allergic to iron, among other things. It would take a lot more than some certifiably insane-sounding story to make me accept an anomaly like that as fact.

Overall:

I liked it. Mackie, his comic-relief buddy, Roswell, and a good cast of supporting characters tell a good story, with paranormalcy, mystery, humor, and a cute romance. Don't miss it!

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

A quote:

“Just like there's always time for pain, there's always time for healing.”

My rating:

Summary:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

I picked it up because:

The summary had me completely hooked. A school shoot-out by one of its students: I'd never read a book with anything even close to this premise before, even though it's something that comes up in the news and everyday life. A book like this can really open people's eyes to something that's become just part of the world, and I think it's great of Jennifer Brown to explore a topic like this.


What I liked:
The perspective. Having the book written from the perspective of the shooter's girlfriend, Valerie, made it much more personal than if it had been from just a kid from the school's perspective, because Valerie doesn't automatically think of Nick as the villain like everyone else. She has good memories of who she thought he really was and her perspective allows you to see her struggle to fit the two people together to find the real Nick Levil.


What I didn't like:
The book skips around in time, letting you see Valerie as she works her way through life as she starts back her senior year, but also excerpts from the past: memories of she and Nick, of the actual day of the shooting, and her recovery in the days afterward. While I appreciated the tidbits of the past, they were a little distracting from the main plot and I found myself double-checking a lot to make sure I knew what part of her life I was reading about. I would've liked to see more of Nick and Valerie's relationship, of how they were close and how they interacted with each other, because I found Nick's character to be likeable, and as the antagonist of the novel, I wished I could've known him better.
My main dislike would mostly be the pacing of the book. While I was intrigued by the plot enough to keep reading, I found myself getting bored. The writing, and I hate to say this, was bland at times, and if it hadn't been for my interest of how it would end, I might not have finished it.

Overall:

If you're as intrigued by the plot as I was, read it, and maybe you'll get more out of it than me. If you need something that's going to entertain you from the first to last page, you might want to look elsewhere.

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!

The First Blog Post (:

Welcome to This Girl Reads.

What is it, you ask?
It's my book blog, for me to review the YA books I read. (Any books I read, really.)

Who am I?
A girl. Someone who loves reading. The owner of a bookcase full of books. A long-time book blog reader who's ready to try it out herself.

That's about all you need to know for now; I'll add more info as I think of it.

You ready? Here goes.

-This Girl Reads