Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (Paranormalcy #1)

Tittle: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Published: August 31, 2010 by Harper Teen
Source: Bought this book
Grade rate:  A

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

My Review

I loved this book!  It seemed to me to rise above the wave of paranormal books that seem to have invaded the YA scene lately. I found Evie to have a fresh voice and different outlook of life and of the paranormal.

Evie was a different kind of protagonist.  She was raised in an unusual way, and her life was full of adventure, danger, and secrecy; and lacking in normalcy and void of close relationships of any kind.  Don’t get me wrong, she was in no way mistreated, and she got away with a lot mischief and rule-bending, but she deservedly wished for a ‘normal’ life.  Since the story is told from Evie’s point of view, you get to know her fairly well.  She is very funny and uses irony as a shield.  She is a pink and rhinestone loving girly girl in search of love, family and a sense of belonging.

Other characters were Lend, Raquel and Reth.  I like Lend, especially since he believed in Evie, not matter what and that is always an admirable trait in a guy, right? (Not sure I could fall in love with someone that weird though.)  Raquel tried to be a mother figure for Evie, but didn’t quite hit the mark although she did care for her.  Reth I didn’t like one bit.  He is manipulative, sneaky, and just plain bad.  The characters as a whole were well developed.

The plot was easy to follow, well paced, and original.  I found ‘Paranormalcy’ very easy to read and fast paced.  One thing I’m not too crazy about is all the open questions that were left at the end.  Not exactly a cliffhanger, but so many open issues that make ‘Supernaturally’ a must read (lucky for me it just came out!)

If you like paranormal you should give ‘Paranormalcy’ a try, it’s definitely worth it.

About the cover:  I like the cover, the dark background makes it look much more mysterious than it really is, but it makes the model stand out more. ‘Evie’ is wearing pink (what else?) in a shiny fabric and seem to be in movement (like she always is.)