Book Review: Paranormalcy

By Kiersten White

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.

Why I read it: This is one of the books I won from HarperCollins. I picked it partially because I had chatted with the author on inkpop and also because I read the first chapter at indigo and it was hilarious. I’m not a paranormal fan, but I had heard this book made fun of the paranormal genre.

What I liked: Like I thought, this book does make fun of the paranormal genre a bit. Vampires aren’t sparkly or scary, they’re just really pathetic. No sexy werewolves here!

The plot was fairly good. At some point it could have moved a little faster with less time spent on Evie’s desire to go to Prom, but it did keep me reading eagerly, so it’s not too slow.

Evie’s character was really well developed with lots of little details that made her feel like a real person. While her love of pink may get on some reader’s nerves, I thought it was cute.

What I disliked: This book was more of a paranormal book than I thought it was going to be, somehow. If you’re dead set against paranormal stuff, you won’t like this book. On the other hand, if you like stuff with vampires and just want a fresh take on it, this Paranormalcy is great. I just felt it got a little bit weird towards the end.

From a Christian Perspective: As I just mentioned, this book is definitely paranormal, and the vampires aren’t evil or anything. There are tons of paranormal creatures in this book, faeries, shapeshifters, mermaids, and the main character is something strange herself. There was something at the end to do with soul-stealing which I thought was a little weird.

However, there is little or no swearing and no sexual content (unless you count kissing). The main character does think about sleeping with her boyfriend but she doesn’t because she knows that it’s not good for a relationship to sleep together too soon. Hardly a strong abstinence message, but it’s there.

To buy or not to buy: I already own this book and I don’t regret winning it, but I think that if I actually had to pay full price I wouldn’t have bought it. Paranormal fans, however, will love this book.