Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Paranormalcy
by Kiersten White
Release Date: August 31, 2010
2010 Harper Teen
Hardcover Edition; 352 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-198584-3
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Local Library

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, 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
I absolutely loved this book.  I deliberately stayed away from any reviews on this as I knew I was going to read it, but I couldn't help but see some of the fantastic comments anyways on some of the blogs.  As a result, I had some high expectations going into this book, expectations that were absolutely met.  There was enough suspense, romance, thrills, excitement, and twists to keep me interested from beginning to end.

Evie is a wonderful character and I adored her.  She was funny, courageous, interesting, and sensitive, and I loved how she flouted the rules, but still felt guilty about doing that.  She was completely addicted to this television show called Easton Heights, as it was the only connection she had to the outside world, and she was always comparing those she met and those things she did to the show, something I found hilarious and touching at the same time.  She often acts like a normal teenager, even going so far as to name her pink weapons, although the job she does is so very far from normal.  A routine bag and tag of a vampire almost gets Evie killed one night, and event that makes her realize that her world is much larger than she thought and makes her question concepts and ideas she once took for granted.  I really enjoyed watching Evie grow and develop throughout the novel, learning the concepts with her as she copes with an outside world she is totally unprepared to deal with. 

The other characters in the novel, particularly Lend and Reth whom I really enjoyed, were original and very quirky, giving the novel a very delightful feel.  I like how all of the paranormals were incorporated into Evie's daily life and how they meshed into the real world.  And I really liked how even Evie was scared of some of them, like the hags.  Learning about Lend's family was really enjoyable, and I would have loved to have learned more about his mother as she sounds so interesting.

The plot itself was fantastic and pretty much had everything in it you would want: amazing friendships, budding romance that made me take a few trips down memory lane to my own high school days, loving families (I enjoyed the give and take relationship Evie had with Raquel, her substitute mom, as she tried to deal with her feelings for her), great character development, amazing new world, and the faeries...love them too.  And Lend, what can I say about him except that I wished I had one when I was a teenager.  Sigh!!! 

Verdict
Paranormalcy was completely enjoyable, and very appropriate for any age group.  I really couldn't find anything wrong with this novel other than the fact that I found it a bit too young adult, and the characters were more than a little perfect.  I really enjoyed Reth because he was a little dangerous and I seem to be attracted to the dark and dangerous ones more or maybe I just like my characters with that little dark edge to them, while Evie and Lend just seem 'good'.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a lighter young adult fantasy read.