Paranormalcy by Kiersten White {Book Review}

I have my few favourite genres and I’ve kept to them over the years.

I mean, if you’ve already got it good, why change it?

If I do try a book from a genre I’m not that big on reading, I’m usually quite careful about what I choose. Little did I know that I’d be reading more fantasy books in a few months that I have in years! While thrillers are my go-to books, they aren’t exactly the type of books you want as your escape from reality because most thrillers don’t contain happy plots.

When it comes to fantasy and paranormal books, it’s a whole different story because you want to explore the world building and introductions to different species.

My mom bought me this book, and I have the second book in the series too, Supernaturally. I enjoyed Paranormalcy a lot more than I thought I would. I wanted to keep an open mind about the fact that it’s a young adult book and my views on ideas might clash with the book’s ideas. Never happened!

The Paranormalcy series is a young adult urban fantasy series by American author Kiersten White.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

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Plot:

Evie likes to think of herself as a normal teenager. Except she’s not.

She’s an officer of the International Paranormal Containment Agency, a secret group that deals with managing paranormal creatures that break the law. She’s also the only one able to detect paranormals disguised as human beings.

Someone, or something, starts killing off paranormals. There’s no trace, and no obvious motive. Then there’s a break-in at the Agency, and even more questions are raised.

Evie knows she is being sheltered, but she can’t protect herself if she’s not informed and she’s not the only one that needs protecting. There’s a killer on the loose, Evie needs to deal with an old love interest, a possible new one and a link connecting her to what is happening in the paranormal world.

Thoughts:

I loved the book’s easy and steady pace. I didn’t even feel the amount of pages because it was a breeze reading it.

The book has a beautiful cover but I’m not sure how it comes together with the story.

I’ll admit, I found Evie to be annoying at times, and I had to keep reminding myself that she was a 16 year old living in a world where she is lonely and isolated from humans and not exactly living a life amongst her own. Once you’ve got that part securely in your mind, her behaviour and personality characteristics make more sense. The amount of information eventually dumped about her explains a lot more and no one in those circumstances would be acting rationally.

Her backstory is interesting when revealed if ever so slightly predictable, especially with all the emphasis placed on her way of life and longings. There are enough clues throughout the book to let you put two and two together.

Lend was an interesting character; awesome and witty, and I found that I liked him a lot more as a character than Evie. The mystery around his origins was well written and the build up to the reveal was good, giving just enough information along the way to keep the suspense high. His origins are pretty cool and the thing with his mother was mind-blowing.

Reth, the complete opposite of Lend, was another character to keep an eye on. You first observe him as a love-sick puppy struggling to get over a break-up who actually turns out to be this psychotic and dangerous being. He’s easily misunderstood with the way he handles himself throughout the book.

I’m not a fan of love triangles, which is a very sure young adult book trope, but this one wasn’t overbearing and thanks to Reth’s weird obsession for a very non-weird reason, the love triangle was dramatically good.

The faerie story and their behaviours, and explanation of their powers was one of my favourite parts of the book.

The villain wasn’t all that scary. What she did was scary but as a character she lacked the scare factor she needed.

Overview:

I loved the world building in the book, and learning about all the different types of paranormal creatures, especially how they were disguised within the human world.

There’s some good humour throughout the book that’s enough for a couple of chuckles along the way.

I’m a little worried about what to expect in the next book’s plot because all the main character’s past and present stories have been told, so what can be expected next.