Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

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.

Review:

Paranormalcy was absolutely amazing! First of all, Evie was fabulous. I love sarcastic, strong characters. I also love girls who are really girly but kick major butt, because it's just so entertaining. Who doesn't love a girl that has a Taser--and isn't afraid to use it? I'm sure all of us girls wish we could take out some vampires with our bare hands. (Trust me, if I could have any weapon, I'd most certainly want a pink Taser covered in rhinestones.) She has such a great personality, and her voice itself was so strong that she felt very real. When I met Kiersten today, she compared Evie's voice to someone walking up to you and hitting you in the face with a bat--which, truly, hits it right on the dot. The way she views life is, also, so refreshing. She really is the personification of a true three-dimensional character. Evie has definitely become one of my favorite characters--ever.

Lend was absolutely amazing, too. I fell in love with him right alongside Evie. His paranormal power--the ability to change his appearance--was very creative, and made you sort of feel bad for him; I wonder how sick you'd get of nobody ever really seeing the real you. He was so great to Evie, and had a great sense of humor, too. Kiersten did a fantastic job at building their relationship; everything happened at just the right pace.

The physical world of the story was also amazing; Kiersten certainly has a way with words. Evie's offhand way of describing anything--she was, at times, brutally honest--helped set the scene and mood for the entire novel. This also helped getting you grounded in the story; it helped create the perfect fictional dream, and sucked you into the world of Evie and IPCA. Kiersten also was fabulous at making you second guess yourself; you never really knew who you could trust, and that was something I haven't seen in a while in YA fiction books. The cover is, also, gorgeous.

Lish--a mermaid, and Evie's best friend--was also another excellent character. She didn't speak English, so a computer translated everything she said--and replaced every curse word with "bleep", a hilarious habit that Evie picked up as well. I actually really liked majority of the supporting characters in the story, which is surprising for me (Even in Sophie Jordan's fabulous novel, Firelight, I had issues with a few secondary characters--such as Jacinda's irritating twin sister). Even the evil characters, such as the faerie Reth, had strong personalities and were like able in their own ways.

Overall, this book was fantastic--the best paranormal fiction novel I've read in a while, up there with Firelight (Sophie Jordan) for creativity, and way up there for everything else.

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