Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Book Details
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Hardcover, 352 Pages
2010, HarperTeen
ISBN: 0061985848

Synopsis
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.

Review
I like Paranormalcy for all the normal reasons - great characters, a fantastic plot based on an interesting, original premise and a good mix of action versus dialogue. The thing that pushed that like into absolute love was the complete unexpectedness of the entire novel. Every time you thought you might have the slightest clue where things were going, it twisted in a different and even better direction.

In a book like Paranormalcy, where the reader is constantly asking questions, an author has to ensure the readers are interested enough to not just want, but need, to know the answers. What is Evie? What is Lend? What is Reth doing to Evie? Who and what is the villain? And why are they killing paranormal creatures? What is the agency really up to? The questions just keep coming. It could have been a disaster.

Kiersten White takes all these separate threads and weaves them together in a remarkable way. You care about the characters. You despise Reth. You feel Evie's heartbreak, loneliness and fear. You need to know what's going on with both the plot here, the grander scheme of the agency, and paranormals in general.

Paranormalcy kept me utterly enthralled. I could not walk away from this story. White has created something absolutely wonderful here and I can't wait to see what comes next.

Rating

Links
Kiersten White's
Website
Twitter

13 comments :

  1. Great review and I so totally agree! This book blew me away. Now we have to wait for the next one....*sigh*.

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  2. Great review...and have the book...from a neighbor who said what Jessica said...yum!

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  3. This cover always grabs my eye. I'm glad to see the book lives up to it.

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  4. I'm really looking forward to reading this book, and I feel so assured now that you have given it such a high rating. Can't wait to see what you mean about weaving all the elements together!

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  5. I have my eye on this book. Now I feel like it's a must have! Thanks for the great review.

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  6. Utterly enthralled - wow! That's high praise! This really sounds amazing! Thanks for the review!

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  7. I just ordered this one. With your high praise I really can't wait to read it now! :)

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  8. My blog title is meaning more and more lately. This is another book that I own and cannot find the time to read. I really hope next week turns out to be a better reading week.

    Super glad to hear you loved this and it makes me even more excited to read it!

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  9. Great review! I haven't read this one yet but I can hardly wait to get my hands on it!

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  10. @Jessica - At least there's going to be a next one. I was so excited when I found out!

    @Kittie Howard - Yay! Hope you love it as much as I did.

    @carolsnotebook - I's so pretty! That's actually why I picked it up to begin with :)

    @Missie - It really is amazing. So much going on, but written in such a way that there's never any confusion and nothing gets forgotten in the end.

    @Beth Ciotta - Thank you!

    @Alyssa Kirk - Hope you love it!

    @brizmus - Yep. Sometimes a book is so wonderful I can't help but throw the big, gushy words around :)

    @A Buckeye Girl Reads - Yay!

    @Tara SG - I know exactly what you mean, although one extra hour probably isn't enough anymore. I need something like 12 extra hours to even try to keep up with the books coming out, never mind my poor neglected shelf.

    @Jamie - Thanks!

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  11. This sounds excellent and just my kind of read. Thanks for thereview as I've not seen this one around.

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  12. @Rhinoa - You're welcome! I think you'll be seeing a lot more about Paranormalcy around the book blogs soon!

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