Paranormal has been the name of the game (for me) for a while now. If a book boast ghost, faeries, shape-shifters or vampires in any way (even if abstractly) chances are I’m sold; so when I found out a few months ago that HarperTeen was releasing a book called “Paranormalcy” I was just the slightest bit excited. (Ok… that’s not exactly true, I pulled a muscle while doing a happy jig) Here was a book that combined several of the things I loved, (a girl that thinks she’s human (duh) evil not human boyfriend, and a government conspiracy to tag the furry) it was almost inevitable that I would read it and love it. Problem is… I only LIKED it.
Evie is what teen girls are made of… pink, overly dramatic TV melodramas, and stints in paranormal containment. Ok, so maybe not exactly average teenage girls, but close enough, or at least it appears that way to her (faerie ex-boyfriend excluded.) Being the only person to see through “paranormals” glamour she is scooped up, and shipped off to the International Paranormal Containment Agency to try her hand at tag and bag, but when her friends (or the creatures she so lovingly put under lockdown) start showing up dead and glowing, something has to be done. Can Evie save her adopted family from a fate long ago prophesized? What is a level 7 exactly, and what will happen to Waterboy if Evie can’t control her nature?
There was a great deal of paranormal in this novel, but unfortunately not enough. For a book that started off “on a vampire stake out” the turn to “full blown romance” with only glimpses (here and there) of the unknown was a little disheartening. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the angst, and yes…having a boy that can morph into the cutest boy on TV (uh hum… Sam Worthington) is very appealing, but if you are gonna throw out words like prophecy and destruction I expect exactly that. The scenes that were developed for suspense were well written, and the action sequences in the 3rd act of the story were wonderful, but overall it felt like something was missing. I feel as though I learned more about the characters on “White’s” made up TV show “Easten Heights” than I did about Evie or her friends, and to be honest… the repetitiveness kind of turned me off. The story (as a whole) however was an interesting one, and in the end emphasized 2 important messages: 1. You control you’re own future, and 2. Follow your heart. Both of which are inspiring to teen readers.
If you are looking for the next big thing I don’t think this is it, but if you are looking for a great love story with an interesting twist, this one will hit the spot.
Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: If you love them let them go, otherwise you may get a wicked case of indigestion and that’s just no fun.
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[Rating:3.5/5]
