Paranormalcy - Kiersten White

Title: Paranormalcy
Author: Kiersten White
Pages: 335
Genre: Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: 9/1/2010
Rating: ****

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.

I can say that Paranormalcy ended up being different than what I expected - in a very good way! Anything that started out with something like this:

He pulled his exaggerated white fangs back behind his lips. "What, imminent death isn't exciting enough for you?"
"Oh, stop pouting. But, really, the widow's peak? The pale skin? The black cape? Where did you even get that thing, a costume store?"

is bound to be entertaining. It honestly hooked me from the start.

I wasn't sure how much I would end up liking Evie at first - she is a big girly girl and usually I'm kind of eh on the super girly thing, but I ended up really liking her character. She's quite the comedic heroine.

When we meet Evie, she is working for IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Committee), where she catches and tags paranormals in order to ensure the safety of humans. Her best friend is Lisha, a mermaid living in a tank at the Center and she also has a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend, Reth, who is a faerie. Overall, as odd as her job and friends are, she is pretty comfortable with her life until paranormals start dying mysteriously.

Soon, after discovering that paranormals were being murdered, she meets Lend - different from any paranormal she has met. Lend was a fantastic character! He was a genuinely nice person paranormal. He really helped Evie find out more about who she was throughout the story.

Another that kept me reading was the mystery of who was behind the killings. One moment I would think I might be on the trail of the truth, when I would be given a new piece of information and then would be thrown off again. There was much to unravel - who was behind the killings? What did the prophecy mean? What were the motives? Of course, there was a lot to learn about Evie too!

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Even with all the mystery, it was an easy, fun read, and it leaves me wanting to read the next in the series, Supernaturally.