Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy

By Kiersten White

Harper Teen, 2010. 335 pages. Urban fantasy.

ISBN: 9780061985843

Reading/Interest Level: Ages 12+

Curriculum ties: N/A

Booktalk Ideas: Appearances can be deceiving: Describe Evie’s ability and the life she lives up to meeting the attractive Lend.

Challenge Issues: Violence

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

Though sixteen-year-old Evie works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA) by tracking down dangerous creatures, she’s really just a normal girl who likes to shop and watch TV. When she starts to crush on a captured shape-shifter, she realizes there might be more going on at IPCA than she realized.

Plot Summary:

As much as she tries to be a normal teenager, Evie is actually quite unique. Her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend a faerie, and she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA) “bagging and tagging” paranormals that are misbehaving, aided by her ability to see through paranormal glamours.

When there’s a break-in at IPCA and the extremely hot shape-shifter, Lend, is captured Evie can’t help but want a peek. She sneaks down to talk with him and finds that he’s not very scary, and actually very hot. She quickly starts to fall for him, and when she learns what he was investigating, she starts to do the same thing, only to discover that there might be a mass faerie conspiracy putting everyone at risk. Evie’s special power gives her a distinct advantage when it comes to capturing paranormals, but this conspiracy might actually deal with her too.

Critical Evaluation:

I absolutely loved the characterization in this book, and I think that’s due in large part to how witty Kiersten White is. Evie is a girl that can certainly that can stand on her own two feet and hates playing the damsel in distress. Often characters with personalities as strong as Evie’s are made a bit more masculine and tomboyish, but Evie is an absolute girly girl. She loves her bedazzled pink taser, “Tasey,” and loves just watching TV and shopping online. She is extremely relatable for any teen girl apart from the whole paranormal hunter thing. She’s the kind of person you’d want to be friends with.

Another character that really stands out to me is Lend. When we’re introduced to him he’s the bad guy, but along with Evie we quickly start to fall for him because he really does seem like a good natured guy, and not nearly as bad as IPCA suspects. Lend is well developed with driving motives and also acts like a clever, teenage guy. His wit matches with Evie’s perfectly, and watching the two interact is hilarious and makes the reader love them both even more.

About the Author:

Kiersten White is a bestselling author of paranormal young adult fiction. Her Paranormalcy urban fantasy series includes her debut novel, Paranormalcy, along with Supernaturally and the final book in the series, Endlessly. She also writes short stories, one of which appears in Corsets and Clockwork, an anthology of 13 steampunk romance tales, and another of which, Tangle, appeared under the name Kiersten Brazier in the speculative fiction journal Leading Edge.

Paranormalcy attracted strong advance reviews and was chosen as a Young Adult Library Services Association Teen Top Ten winner. It may also become a motion picture, as Adler Pictures and Reverie Entertainment have optioned the film rights to the novel. Both Paranormalcy and Supernaturally made The New York Times best seller list, and White herself was named a 2010 Publishers Weekly Flying Start author.

While her career as a published novelist began only a short time ago, White has a variety of projects in the works. After Endlessly completes the Paranormalcy trilogy, her new thriller series Mind Games is slated for February 2013. She is also working on Isadora, an upcoming novel about a modern teenager whose parents are Egyptian gods.

Born and raised in Utah, White studied English at Brigham Young University. She now lives in San Diego with her husband and children. From there, in addition to writing fiction and raising her family, she maintains an active blog and Twitter presence.

-from EpicReads.com author page-

Justification of Selection:

Paranormal romances are extremely popular, particularly among teen girls and this one stands out because it’s such a fun and entertaining read. The author uses a lot of wit and humor to keep the entertained, along with the enthralling story.