Synopses & Reviews
The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.
For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.
With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.
Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.
Review
Praise for
Paper Valentine:
“Against a grisly backdrop, Yovanoff gives keen insight into friendship, sisterhood, and the stresses involved in being a teenaged girl, in a painful but satisfying story that shows off the authors gifts for writing dark contemporary fantasy.”—Publishers Weekly
“Unexpected and thrilling. . . . This is taut sleuthing, a supernatural ghost story, and a coming-of-age novel; its horrific and shrouded in death but also poetic and life-affirming. These remarkable juxtapositions will haunt readers long after theyve put the book down.”—Horn Book
“Engrossing.”—School Library Journal
“Yovanoffs patent-pending blend of weak-kneed ennui and crackling nastiness [turns] pages faster than ever. Thrills, romance, gore—whats not to like?”—Booklist
“The terror builds palpably over the course of a long, hot summer and breaks with a surprising payoff.” -NPR
Review
Praise for Brenna Yovanoff:
The Space Between
“This confident tale contains moments of beauty, terror, and significant wisdom.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Largely unsentimental, this is a breath of fresh (or fetid?) air for the genre."—Booklist
“Painfully romantic and richly imagined, this offering solidifies Yovanoffs status as an author to watch.”—BCCB
"Eloquent and imaginative."—School Library Journal
“A dreamy, atmospheric take on Judeo-Christian mythology that prioritizes character.” —Kirkus
Review
The Replacement
“Yovanoffs unsettling villains and intruiging moral ambivalence make this effort shockingly original and frequently breathtaking.”—Booklist, starred review
“A devastating look at familial love, sacrifice, and loneliness. Yovanoffs spare but haunting prose creates an atmosphere shrouded in gloom and secrecy.”—BCCB, starred review
“Well-developed characters, a fascinating Fairy Court, an exciting story line, wicked cover art . . . this book has the makings of a success.”—Publishers Weekly
"A fast-paced, dark delicacy."—Kirkus
"I loved this eerie and beautiful story of ugly things. It should be read aloud after dark, at a whisper."—Maggie Stiefvater, New York Times bestselling author of Shiver and Linger
"I so loved this book. Mackie Doyle is one of the sweetest, strangest, most magnetic heroes I've read in a long time. He charmed me and his story kept me up at night."—Lauren Kate, New York Times bestselling author of Fallen
Review
An NPR Best Book of 2013
Review
Awards and Nominations:
An NPR Best Book of 2013
A Boston Globe Best Young Adult Book of 2013
Review
An
NPR Best Book of 2013
A Boston Globe Best Book for Young Adults of 2013
A YALSA Best Book for Young Readers of 2014
A 2014 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers
A 2014 Booklist Pick for Best Fiction for Young Readers
Synopsis
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.
Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.
About the Author
Brenna Yovanoff was raised in a barn, a tent, and a tepee, and was homeschooled until high school. She spent her formative years in Arkansas, in a town heavily populated by snakes, where sometimes they would drop turkeys out of the sky. When she was five, she moved to Colorado, where it snows on a regular basis but never snows turkeys. Her short fiction has appeared in Chiaroscuro and Strange Horizons. She holds an MFA in fiction from Colorado State University and is the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between. She currently lives in Denver with her husband. Visit her online at www.brennayovanoff.com.