The Replacement

The book that I read for my independent reading assignment was The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. This book was written for a teenage audience; the themes presented are something that teenagers can relate to. This book is about fairies, but as you can infer from the cover, they are not the sugary and kind ones. The protagonist of this book is a high school boy named Mackie Doyle. He lives a seemingly ordinary life in the modern day town of Gentry. That is, until you dig deeper. Mackie is a changeling, a fairy child who was exchanged for a human one. He can't stand the smell and presence of blood or iron near him. He can't step on consecrated ground, which is a bit of a problem because his father is a minister. But his biggest hardship is trying to fit in and seem like a normal high school boy. If the townspeople notice that he is different, they might beat and lynch him like they did to the last changeling during the Great Depression. His world is rocked when a little girl disappears from the town and comes back....changed. The Replacement is about Mackie's journey in discovering the other part of himself and the dangerous fey world beneath Gentry. This book is sort of like a dark modern day fairytale. There's wicked fairies and dangerous tasks, and of course, the timeless fight of good against evil. This may not be the best book ever, but it's definately worth a try.