Mackie Doyle is not an average teenager. Even living in the small town of Gentry, he is not of this world. Doyle comes from a place filled with death, disease, and darkness. A world where its occupants are the living dead and it’s all ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a replacement for the human baby boy that was taken sixteen years ago. Because of his fatal allergies to blood and iron, Mackie is slowly dying, while trying to live as a human. If he is ever going to survive the human world, he will first have to take on the underground world known as The House of Mayhem, and work for their undead princess.
Mackie becomes strangely drawn to the outcast girl, Tate Stewart, after being confronted by her, about her missing sister, Natalie. Even though Mackie may know more about Tate’s sister than he leads on, he is far from telling her anything. Tate is definitely not an approachable person, always putting on a cold face whenever anyone comes near her. Although Tate comes off as hating Mackie, he can’t help but want to be close to her.
It’s the month of October, and everyone has brought out the jack o’ lanterns and costumes. Attending Halloween parties with best friend Roswell, Mackie realizes that some of the girl’s costumes may not be as unreal as they seem. People all around the small town of Gentry don’t seem to realize that the undead are living among them, and are involved in their everyday lives. Even the local band, which Mackie joins, is a part of his ‘real’ world. As time goes on, he will have to learn to accept his new life, and the ugly creatures in it.
There is a secret about the small town of Gentry that not many people know about. Every seven years, a small child is taken from its crib and is replaced with an undead child. Sometimes these undead children die, sometimes they grow up, but Mackie seems to realize he’s been one of the rare children that have grown up. With the never-ending love from his sister Emma, Mackie finds it in himself to try and save the town of Gentry from a terrible tragedy. He may need help from a few people along the way, but Mackie is willing to risk whatever it takes to get the town he’s always known as his home, back to normal.
Brenna Yovanoff does a brilliant job with the character of Mackie Doyle. The detail of his thoughts and feelings, are so in depth and clear, you will feel as though you are in his shoes experiencing what he is. The setting of the story, takes place in October around Halloween. Yovanoff goes into great detail to tie in a frightening and ghostly feel to the story that goes with the Halloween spirit.
This is a book to be read in the dark near Halloween, when all the ghost and goblins are running about. Yovanoff has an exciting way of drawing in her readers and making them feel as if they are in this frightening story about the small town of Gentry, the undead world of Mayhem, and the abnormal teenage boy caught in the middle. I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy scary stories that will leave you wondering what hides in the dark when you go to sleep.