Paranormalcy

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.

So, funny story.  This is one of the first books that I actually caught the hype for.  It was many many months ago, long before I'd joined Goodreads or the book blogging world as a whole.  But I was a member of Inkpop, a writing site run by HarperCollins.  And they have these lovely little ads on the sidebar.  These lovely little ads that never go away.

I saw the Paranormalcy trailer on my sidebar and thought, Hmm. Cute trailer. Doesn't tell me much, but cute.  I was intrigued.

Then I saw the same trailer again. And again. And again. For months on end. Every time I refreshed the page. Anything that had once seemed cute was now a source of blind rage.  I scoffed at HarperCollins and their silly trends, shoving this ungracefully into the "YA PNR I will never read category."

But at some point--and I'm not even quite sure how this happened, to be honest--I stumbled across Kiersten's blog.  It was right as she was doing her first vlogs, and I watched every single one of them.  They were great. She was great.  She was hilarious and quirky and adorable and just plain fun.  I followed her blog.  I read her posts.  I read her Tweets.  And her sheer awesomeness quickly melted the icy hate that HarperCollins's over-advertising had left me.  She became one of my favorite authors before I had even read her books. Still is, and probably will be for a very long time.

So, despite my original bias, I really wanted to like this one.  I wanted it to be as kick-ass as its author.  And I'd say it delivered.

What really sets this book apart, even more than its original concept, is the fact that it's . . . adorable. Yes. You read that right. Adorable.  You're not used to the words "adorable" and "YA paranormal literature" being even distantly related.  Neither was I. Although, in fairness, despite what the title and blurb may imply, this is far more of an urban fantasy than a paranormal.  It was an urban fantasy full of vampires and werewolves and faeries and hags and . . . cuteness.

With a main character like Evie, it's so easy to be led down the typical path.  Badass.  Snarky.  Tough.  Gorgeous.  She fights paranormal creatures, right?  Of course she must be a snarky bitch!

But no.  Evie is anything but.  Evie is a sixteen-year-old girl who's never had a family, who's never been to school or had friends.  She's a girl who's fascinated by lockers and cars and high school dramas and is infatuated with anything pink.  She gets unreasonably excited about silly things.  She has a heart. She's lonely and insecure.  She's curious and eager and rash.  She's not perfect.  

I love her.

She made this book for me.  Yes, there were other things I liked--the plot wasn't like anything I'd read before, she captured the immorality of fae to the T, her characterization as a whole was pretty spot-on--but in the end, Evie and her sweet, chatty narrative were what made me fall in love with this. They were also what made this such a quick read.

The one downside about the chattiness of this narration is that I wasn't as sold on some of the more serious or emotional moments.  There were some scenes that I think should've tugged at the heartstrings or had me clutching the book, wide-eyed with fear, and that never happened.  While this was a very quick and fun read, it didn't hold a huge amount of emotional depth.

Honestly, though? That's okay.  I've been reading a lot of heavy books lately, and it's kind of refreshing to read something that doesn't always take itself seriously.  It was cute, funny, and entirely new, and I can't wait to begin Supernaturally.


4 stars.