Book Review: Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1) by Kiersten White

(Source)

Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1)
by Kiersten White

Release: August 31, 2010
Author Info: Website
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult

"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." (Source)

From the first page we are thrown into this world of paranormals, a place where Evie, the only personal able to see through their 'glamour' (their fake exterior appearance) and see what they really are. Making it easy for her to tell who is and who isn't human. Evie travels around looking for to then put trackers tags on them, "bagging and tagging" as they call it.
Everything about the world felt rushed, greater detail into anything was rarely given. As a reader, are simply meant to go with the flow. The Paranormalcy world it's self is interesting. However through the entire book more questions are raised then answered; little light into the workings and understanding of all it contains, as Evie doesn't know much or cares to.

Evie is.. a girly-girl that tries to have a tough feel to her, I personally didn't buy or enjoy it. In short, she is pretty much what I hate seeing in a heroine. She is constantly impulsive, fairly childish, always single-minded, and by far the most annoying thing, she doesn't learn! She's so naive to the world around her and doesn't bother to educate herself. Only to then feel stupid when she doesn't know something that's common knowledge. She knows close to nothing about paranormals and solely relying on being able to see through them.
She only does what she wants and thinks little of how it effects anything else. That said, she is a very lonely isolated person. Spending most of her life by herself and with very little human interaction. She knows nothing beyond the walls of The Agency. There is some understanding with how her life has been.

Every time she dealt with a Faerie I wanted to tear my hair out. I assume that was to enforce the tricky and mischievous traits they are so commonly known for. She never took her time, never tried to actually figure them out. She merely passed them off as doing what they what (which they do) and going with the mindset you couldn't stop them even if she wanted (which she probably couldn't). But she never tried to listen to them or to figure out the riddles they spoke in.
Everything she did around them was fuel by the single-minded "must get out of this current situation" thoughts in mind, which generally only made things much worse.

I will say there are romance elements to the book, which I for one always enjoy. The romance it's self bothers me a little. My concerns are the same as Evie's, that the romance is because of convenience. Which might be true. When you are locked up, cut off from the everyone else in the world, you grow fonder of those who are there.
Although there are some seriously strong factors in favour of the relationship, but I can't say much more.

While I might sound as if I'm giving this movie a negative review, I do believe it could have been better. I do take into account, this is only the beginning. I feel that with Evie's first brush of being thrown out of her comfort zone she will wise up, real quick.


As a whole, I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book. It's very, iffy. I didn't like it but I didn't hate.
After everything said, I do plan on reading the next book the series.

Recommend: If you enjoy young adult, paranormal, romance, and a little cheesiness.

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