20 Nov 2018

Review: The Replacement (The Replacement #1)

'' It's been one year since I met Merrick. Six months since I knew I could not live without him. Three months since we started to run. Three days since they caught me. ''

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Angelica was willing to do almost anything for Merrick, until they were caught. Her punishment for breaking Lymerian law is unthinkable, but at least she will live. In fact, she might live forever. This YA Sci-fi novel is the first in a series by debut author Bianca Sierra-Luebke.

The Lymerians have been living in secret on Earth for centuries. Angelica is their newest replacement, taken to ensure the survival of this long-lived race and to discourage falling in love with a human. Yet Angelica is not like the previous replacements. Even her Architect is unusual. Clara, commander of the Slayers and deadliest of the Lymerians, is chosen. When she steps forward, their fates are sealed. The Laws of Liturgy are binding. As Clara and two Guards descend into the dungeons with Angelica, the entire race wonders what kind of Lymerian will return when the transition is complete.

Full of deception, heartache, and despair, this dark novel is for readers that love a great twist. Bit by bit the story unfolds, changing everything you thought you knew the page before.

You have to read until the very last sentence to get the idea of what the book is about. So buckle up, be patient, and bring snacks.
Angelica fell in love with a Lymerian, an Alien to the humans living on Earth. Merrick and she tried to run away from the Lymerian government but failed, leading to Angelica's imprisonment. And that's what happens to be the main event of the first 98 per cent of the book; Angelica sitting in a cell, adjusting to her new life controlled by Lymerians.

To be honest, I really wanted to quit reading this book. Several times, I was putting it down and just promising myself no more. Still, something kept drawing me back. Something in the way of ''there has to be something more than just her sitting in a cell.'' Well, don't let me keep you in anticipation any longer. There wasn't anything else. But the estimate of reading time in the bottom left corner of my eReader just kept dwindling down and it felt too much like giving up if I quit when there was just over an hour left in the book.

The Replacement is full of new names. You can't advance a page without a strange name of a place or a character dropped. At first, it wasn't so bad, you expect the terminology is going to be explained in a few minutes. When that didn't happen, you get a bit frustrated when you have no clue what the characters' are talking about or if the term is relevant for the conversation or not. If it's just an expression or maybe a rank in the military, the former being nice-to-know information and the latter need-to-know. Because, why would they talk about the said person the way they're talking.

The thing that bothered me a lot was the lack of emotion in the book. I know, most of the Lymerians are not supposed to show or feel emotion because of their position in the society, but it also took a lot out of the book. The emotionlessness is explained rather well in the book and it is revisited and explained periodically, but in the scenes that the characters' are allowed to show some emotion, the message didn't reach me. Most of the time it was because of the writing. I was told that the characters felt something, not shown it.

The ending, though. My heart ran a thousand miles an hour. The excitement for what's to come. How's it going to end. Secrets were unveiled and a few questions answered. The ending was worth the wait. Worth the confusion and frustration. Still, I am left with many question marks in my notebook about the terminology since there was no glossary explaining things, about the decisions the characters made. And mostly, about the future; why the book ended in such a cliff-hanger when I felt there should've been at least one more chapter explaining the current last one.

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