Author: Kiersten White
Format: paperback
Pages: 320
Genre: Urban fantasy, young adult
Published: 6th January 2011 (Harper Collins UK)
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.
Since she was a young child, Evie has lived in The Center, base of the IPCA, who she has also worked for, using her ability to see through paranormal glamours. Evie's life is okay, if a little boring sometimes - there's no one else her age at the The Center and her only real friend is mermaid, Allisha. Then an unknown paranormal shows up, a shape-shifter of sorts - no one really knows what he is. Evie starts to get to know him, Lend, and discovers that maybe the IPCA isn't what she thought it was. Throw in an evil girl who looks somewhat like Evie and you have an exciting plot on your hands.
When I first started reading Paranormalcy I was expecting something quite different to what I got. I thought it was going to be dark and mostly serious. I was expecting a traumatised, sorrowful protagonist. What I got was funny, witty dialogue with a kick-ass heroine who loves wearing pink and names her weapons things like Tasey. I don't know where I got the original impression from but I'm certainly glad to have got the opposite.
Evie was a great character to get to know. All she wanted was to be a normal teenager, to go to high school, have her own locker and learn to drive. However she'd as good as accepted that this wasn't going to be so she was making the most of what she did have. Evie had a good balance of not being too peppy or too whiney and although in some ways she seemed a little innocent for her age, that felt right for a character who'd grown up without the influence of other kids/teens.
A fun read which in some places was reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I'm looking forward to the sequel, Supernaturally, when it comes out later this year.
