Paranormalcy by Kiersten WhiteMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had wavered on whether to read this book for awhile. I usually have trouble with books of associations that fight paranormals, or groups like the IPCA. Especially when teenagers work for them. I know, I can accept the paranormal creatures as realistic, but not an organization having teens work for them? I'm weird I guess. :-) But this book is one of the nominees for our state middle school book award, the Truman award. And since last year I helped read for Gateway instead of Truman, I hadn't read it yet, and have decided I need to try to read as many of the books I can. Plus, I checked it out from my school library at the beginning of the summer.
Well, I finally picked it up, since I need to return it to the library for the kids to read during the school year. And it was a good book. I enjoyed the story, and the characters. The humor was good, and I liked the re-imagining of some of the paranormal creatures. People always make fun of the vampires sparkling in the Twilight books. But really, anyone who reads paranormal/supernatural type books, almost every author makes "their" monster different in some way, a way that fits their story usually. And depending on the story, and the writing, and all that, I sometimes really enjoy the differences, it makes things less predictable in that regard when you read the stories. In this book, I like the Faeries new/different characteristics.
Once I started reading I was definitely pulled in, and kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading. So it was definitely a good book. And at some point I do intend to read on in the series.
In this story our main character is Evie, she lives and works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, or IPCA. The reason they have her working for them is that she can see when something or someone is a paranormal creature, she can "see" behind their glamours to the creature behind. But she's never had a normal teenage life. She doesn't know who her parents were, and she does live at the center, and takes classes there, etc. Her best friend is a mermaid. And the mermaid must talk through a language translator for people to understand her. One thing I really liked in the book, is that the computer censors the bad language when the mermaid uses it, so we pretty much only get to hear the word "bleep" or "bleeping" when there is cursing in the book because Evie has that as an inside joke. I kind of like that for a YA book. It's not glossing over the fact that teens do use bad language, but it's also nice not to have to always read it. I know, sometimes I'm a little bit of a square I guess.
One day a shape shifter shows up at the Agency, only whatever kind of creature he is, well, no one knows. But Evie can see underneath, and what she sees is cute. His name is Lend, and Evie sneaks around to see him and get to know him, and soon realizes the Agency might need his help to solve the rash of paranormal creatures being killed. You see, the IPCA doesn't kill them, they bag them and tag them. :-) That's why they are called a "containment" agency. But through Lend, Evie will earn of another way to deal with paranormals, and she will have to decide if the way she's always known is right, or if she needs to move on with her life and thinking.
Have you read it? What did you think?
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