Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

August 2010, HarperCollins
335, Hardcover

Personal copy
YA Paranormal
Content: mild flirting, some moderate violence, one crazy possessive fairy guy

Summary from HarperCollins:

All Evie wants is to be normal ... instead, she′s stuck at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising death and destruction to the paranormal world.

Evie′s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, despite the fact that she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA), she can see through paranormals′ glamours, her best friend is a mermaid, and her ex-boyfriend is a lunatic-and a faerie.

In a world where paranormals are monitored and controlled, Evie has at least been able to take comfort in the fact that she′s human...Until she finds out she′s not. With everything she believes called into question, Evie′s drawn to the newest IPCA prisoner, a shapeshifter named Lend. Unfortunately their friendship and flirting is complicated by the information he carries: a faerie prophecy of death and destruction that seems to revolve around Evie herself.

So much for normal.

Amy's thoughts:
Um, wow, you guys! Paranormalcy is EVERYTHING young adult paranormal should be, and much, much more. This is Kiersten White's debut novel, and I have to say, I'm bleeping impressed. (In joke. Read the book.)

Paranormalcy is told in first person point of view with Evie (short for Evelyn) as the narrator. Evie is a typical teenager - except for the fact that she has no idea who her parents were, has never talked to another teenager, bag-and-tags stray vamps and weres for a living - and, oh yeah, has an obsession with lockers. Because, you know, she never went to school. So she never had a locker. And lockers are just the epitome of coolness. And normalcy. And normalcy's a good thing, right?

Right...

People, Evie is awesome. She's teen without being stereo-teen, she's intelligent without being adult, she makes mistakes that are sometimes dumb but are always logical at the time, and she totally, utterly seduces you into the story (to borrow a word from Aprilynne Pike, who blurbed the book ;)).

But this story is more than just its stellar cast of real, three-dimensional characters. Told in a simple, straightfoward, linear structure with essentially no subplots, the plot itself is anything but; every time you think you've got something figured out - well, you pretty much haven't :D Faerie law, inter-species relationships and a strange, unsettling warmth all ensure that what you think you know isn't what you know at all, and everything you think is safe is not.

Fantastic romantic leads, incredibly empathetic villains (ultimately), and one of the strongest voices I've read all year combine to make this one of my tied-top-three picks of the year. Way to debut, Kiersten!

Final conclusion:
This is seriously the most impressive debut novel I have read to date. Read. This. Book! READ IT!

For more about Kiersten and her amazing book, visit her website. Also, if you head to the HarperCollins US division site, you can browse inside Paranormalcy ;)