Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Paranormalcy

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: HarperTeen

Series: Paranormalcy #1

Pages: 335

Genre: Paranormal

Release Date: August 31, 2010

How Received: Won

Summary: 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 Thoughts:

My. Bleeping. Goodness. Those three words were pretty much all I could think of while I was reading. It was that good. I had been apprehensive about listening to all of the hype around Paranormalcy, and I’m mad that I waited until now to read it.

Paranormalcy has such a unique take on paranormals. There are paranormal beings that follow the general “guidelines” that we all know – vampires that drink blood, werewolves that become wolves during the full moon – but Kiersten makes them her own. Each paranormal has the ability to glamour themselves to humans, and each species had little distinctions that made them unique to “normal” paranormal mythology.

Evie was honestly one of the most enjoyable characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. She reminded me a bit of Sophie from Hex Hall and Rose from Vampire Academy mashed together. She’s witty, she’s snarky, she has attitude, and she carries around a badass pink taser. But she’s also extremely sheltered, innocent, lonely, and has insecurities. There are so many dimensions to Evie’s personality that I think I could keep writing a few more paragraphs just about her. She’s so dynamic and extremely vibrant. In a huge, “underground” paranormal world, Evie is definitely not normal and yearns to be normal. Evie was such a teenager: it was almost endearing to listen to her caring more about her favorite TV show and wearing pink clothing than tagging paranormals.

I freaking loved Lend. It was hard to not love Lend. He reminded me of your typical paranormal-next-door. At the beginning, he carries a lot of intrigue because we don’t know who this person is. We don’t know his powers or what he does. But as the story progresses, little bits and pieces of Lend come peeking through his “mask” as Evie and him become closer together. And that was probably the best part about Paranormalcy: Evie and Lend get to know each other before they even come close to being in a relationship. Whenever Lend got nervous around Evie, I would squeal like a little girl. It was so cute.

The pacing was great. I ended up finishing this book in a little under 5 hours (with distractions) – I was that hooked! The plot was so unique. Humans that try to control paranormals by “tagging” them? A girl who can see through the paranormals’ glamour? Mass-murders from a seemingly unknown source? Combine that altogether, along with kick ass characters, and you have a great story, which is exactly what Paranormalcy was. Paranormalcy only touches the edges of the world Kiersten has developed – there is a lot more to the world and I really wanted to find out more about it.

Just trust me when I say this: Paranormalcy is bleeping awesome!

Cover Musings: Uhm. Gorgeous. I love that the cover is an example of what Evie wears to the prom. I didn’t realize it until the end, but still.. very pretty. <3

Memorable Quotes:

“If you fail to report within the next twelve hours, you will be terminated. If you attack any humans, you will be terminated. If you attempt to remove the tracking device, you will be terminated. We look forward to working with you.”

I always thought that last line was a nice touch. (pg. 4)

“You’re IPCA?” one of the vamps asked. The others were shifting nervously in place.

“Yes. I’m going to have to ask you to line up for tagging.” I waited for them to start laughing. (pg. 52)

“You aren’t going to kill us?” the speaker asked, giving me a suspicious look.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Seriously, did I look like some sort of psycho assassin? Maybe it was the pink sneakers. Or the heart earrings? (pg. 52)

“You’ll come back, right?”

“Sure. You’re the coolest person here.” He started to smile, so I shook my head, putting on a mock-serious face. “Don’t be flattered—most of your competition is undead.” (pg. 92)

I sighed heavily. “Gosh, now I don’t even feel like watching another episode of Easton Heights.”

Lend put his arm around me and patted my shoulder. “At least there’s one good thing to come of all this, then.” (pg 126)

“We’ll talk about it later, okay? I’ve got a date to get ready for.”

“It’s gonna take you three hours to get ready?”

“I don’t know. My date’s pretty freaking hot—I’d better look good.”

He laughed, letting go of me and climbing off the bed. “Yeah, mine too. Maybe I should change?” He shimmered, switching to blond hair and blue eyes. “What do you think? Does this face make me look fat?” (pg. 267)

We sat down and Lend put his arm around me. Every single jaw at the table dropped.

“Man,” John said, shaking his head. “All this time I was pretty sure you were gay.”

I batted my eyes innocently. “I’m sorry, John. Are you disappointed?” Everyone laughed, and John grinned.

“Maybe a little,” he answered, scooting into Lend’s free side to cuddle up. (pg. 271-272)

“Lend!” I burst through his door. He looked up, surprised. Still in basketball shorts and a plain T-shirt, he was lying on his stomach on the bed, sketching. I stopped and frowned. “Aren’t you going to get ready?”

He laughed. “Remove clothes, put on tux. Should take all of two minutes. You look hot though.” (pg. 299)

Overall Thoughts/Final Comments: I haven’t been so pleased with a novel in a while, which is why Paranormalcy was such a great read. I was so engaged in the book that I whizzed through it within a few hours. Evie was a strong, sassy female lead, while Lend was more mellow and laid-back. Their personalities contrasted well with each other, and their developing romance was such a pleasure to experience. The plot was unique (and coming from a huge paranormal genre for books, that’s saying a lot!) and interesting and... Just. Gah. This book was so addicting. I highly, highly recommend it!

Rating: 5/5


**This review was submitted in the 2010 Debut Author Challenge!