Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Title: Paranormalcy	Loved it	Graded
Author: Kiersten White
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: HarperTeen
Elements: Polygamy, romance
Series: Book 1 of the Paranormalcy trilogy

Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, 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 Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

I first heard of Paranormalcy somewhere in 2009/early 2010 because of the deal announcement made on the trilogy. Plots about teenagers who work for corporations that fight evil and/or capture things that go bump in the night always make me feel thrilled and kick-ass girly inside.

White balances the funny, spine-tingling and romantic moments with aptitude. I'm actually surprised, because while there are a lot of books with those three elements, there's none that actually manages to make me laugh one moment and literally tuck the covers around myself the next moment. And at the next, giggle at how cute the scenes are.

Take the opening:

"Wait--did you--You just yawned!" The vampire's arms, raised over his head in the classic Dracula pose, dropped to his sides. He pulled his exaggerated white fangs back behind his lips. "What, imminent death isn't exciting enoaugh for you?"

"Oh, stop pouting. But, really, the widow's peak? The pale skin? The black cape? Where did you even get that thing, a costume store?"

He raised himself to his full height and glared icily down at me. "I'm going to suck the life from your pretty white neck."

I sighed. I hate the vamp jobs. They think they're so suave. It's not enough for them to slaughter and eat you like a zombie would. No, they want it to be all sexy, too. And, trust me: vampires? Not. Sexy. I mean, sure, their glamours can be pretty hot, but the dry-as-bone corpse bodies shimmering underneath? Nothing attractive there. Not that anyone else can see them, though.

He hissed. Just as he reached for my neck, I tased him. I was there to bag and tag, not to kill. Besides, if I had to carry separate weapons for every paranormal I took out, I'd be dragging around a full luggage set. Tasers are a one-size-fits-all paranormal butt-kicking option. Mine's pink with rhinestones. Tasey and I have had a lot of good times together.

The vamp twitched on the ground, unconscious. He looked kind of pathetic now; I almost felt bad for him. Imagine your grandpa. Now imagine your grandpa minus fifty pounds plus two hundred years. That's who I'd just electrified.

That's an example of the funny.

You might think that it's a spoof of the whole paranormal genre. Let me assure you that it's not. There's no vampire bashing; instead, there's an appreciation and acknowledgement of the things that we are thinking but not applying when reading or watching those fabulous vampire novels.

In fact, there aren't a lot of vampires in PARANORMALCY. It is really refreshing to read about new creatures and venture out into new territory rather than focusing more on the existing mythical and fantastical creatures.

I suppose what I like most of all about PARANORMALCY is that the faeries etc are governed by the IPCA. They have rules that they have to confine to, and it works pretty well. What impresses me is that everyone is included. Fairies, werewolves, vampires, nymphs and so on. All of them have a place here in the human world. We're not swept away to a land where everything happens, and the human world is clueless. Everything happens in our backyard. And yeah, the human world is still clueless.

Now, the characters. So many amazing characters. Let's talk about the narrator, Evie. Evie is the epitome of a girly girl. She is also the epitome of a kickass heroine in the making. Why not now, you ask? Because Evie is still young. It's not that she's not mature, in fact she's probably more mature than some of us when we were at that age, because of her situation. She's already working at such a young age. In addition to schoolwork, whatever she wants, she earns using her own pay.

But catching scary things is not a life. And that's what Evie wants, a normal life according to the television and her favourite drama, 'Easton Heights'.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that she's inexperienced. But that's not what I'm going for. She's... not world-weary. She knows there's more to life than what she's experiencing, and she wants to try that life that she's heard about so much, that seems so wonderful and exciting. She wants to learn, discover and experience new things.

She has so much potential, and that's why I'm caling her a kickass heroine in the making. God, now I feel old and jaded. Evie is just positive and upbeat, that it's really hard to dislike her. So nice to read from such a character's point of view.

While I enjoyed the other characters (Lish, Lend, Raquel, Reth) my favourite has to be IPCA. Yeah, yeah, it's a building/ organisation but it has high tech and scientific stuff that makes the nerd in me freak out in glee and makes me want to run about the place unsupervised. I would love to see more of how IPCA works.

I think I'll stop here. So many other things I want to write about, but that would mean giving too much away. I think I hit some of the points that I wanted to convey, so... yeah. Read it! Tell me what you thought.

I'm not even that anxious waiting for SUPERNATURALLY. Pssh, anxious, me? Nawww, I still have many more rereads of PARANORMALCY to go, and that'll keep me satisfied while waiting for Book 2.

More Reth please?