My Thoughts: The Replacement (Brenna Yovanoff)

Click here for the Goodreads summary.
Cover: Creepy. Haunting. Original. I dig it.

 My Thoughts: I found the basic premise of this book very intriguing. A boy who is deathly allergic to iron and blood, trying to survive in a world where he doesn't belong.  I read some positive reviews for this book and the quote from Maggie Stiefvater on the front cover (who is one of my favorite authors)  was enough to make me borrow it from the library.
 It took me a good while to really get into this book. Maybe it was because every time I was reading it was either in a car or around people when they were talking or on the beach where there were a lot of distractions. But I found myself constantly putting it down.

I identified with the main character Mackie somewhat, his feelings of isolation, loneliness, outcast, not belonging anywhere. But I didn't fully make that reader-main character connection that I am always looking for.  I didn't really understand the whole Tate-Mackie relationship. It was very awkward and disjointed for me. I found myself really liking the supporting character of Roswell, the idea of having a completely loyal friend who never lets you down or questions your actions, just accepts you as you are is quite a foreign concept to me.
As far as the writing, even though I found myself confused at parts, there were some very hauntingly beautiful passages, and descriptions. I marked like 15 quotes that really stuck with me.  The ending was okay, a bit predictable, but satisfying.

Favorite Quotes:  "I wanted to kiss her and not in the pure, longing way you want to kiss someone. I wanted it the way you sometimes want to jump into very cold water, even though you know it won't feel good. I wanted to go numb. To see what it felt like to be someone else."

"It was the sound of being outside, of being alien. It was the pulse that ran under everything and never let you forget that you were strange, that the world hurt just to touch. Feelings too complicated to ever say in words, but they spilled out of the amplifiers, seeping into the air, and filling up the room."

"...when you love someone, sometimes it means that they strip you down, peel you open, and you have to let them and not worry about how much it's going to hurt."

Bottom Line: Good book, with passages that spoke to my soul.  3.5/5