Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Published Date: August 31st, 2010
Finished Date: August 27th, 2011
Publishers: HarperTEEN
Format: Hardback
Pages: 335
Series: Paranormalcy book 1

Blurb from Goodreads: 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------

My Review: This review would be a short one. Why? Because this supposedly "so famous and well-written it's gonna be turned into a movie" book, left me utterly and downright disappointed.

You see, main girl loves pink. Nothing wrong there, but she worships the color and has everything of her things pink. Seriously, what? Pink dress, pink boots, pink taser (yes, pink TASER which she uses to stun the paranormals she's supposed to bag-and-tag. In short, to apprehend them) - I'm not done yet - and pink knife pommel/handle. She squealed and hugged her teacher when he made her a knife with a pink handle. After which she went to prom in a pink, floor-length satin dress (did I remember this right? Oh right, I was only semi-conscious at this point), where she added on another glittery layer of sparkles on her shoulder. Lol, excessive much?

Bad point number two: She thinks a lot. Now let me explain to you the horrifying implications of this one seemingly innocent trait of our dear female protagonist. This story was written in the first person POV. And she is that first person. And she thinks a lot. And now, how many pages were there in this book again? Right, 300 odd. 300 hundred odd pages of her thinking. In chronological sequence and order through the book:

-I am good at what I do. (which is fighting) Oh yeah, I'm good. (Y'know why? Because the "villains" in this book are pansy-asses. Take the first vamp that was intro-ed in the book. All he knew was to bare his fangs and act sexy to scare off victims. Ooh, scary.)

-Then, I love pink. I like main guy holding my hand.X10.

-Why am being so self-centred? I should do more for the world. Yeah, by going to the woman who has been acting as your mom for practically your whole life when she is obviously so busy managing a whole portion of this international organization that she doesnt even need eyeliners in her make-up kit anymore, and arguing with her and then telling her you're not her daughter, you're her employee when you lose the argument. Then when main girl was told that she was grounded, she got angry but went to her room anyway. FYI, only parents would ground their children. Imagine going to work one day and your boss tells you you're grounded. Wow, that must be awkward. Aaand that was sure un-self-centred.

Bad point number three: The storyline's kind of..........lame... For lack of a better word, but it gets the message across. So, main girl is not wholly human. She was made by this group of paranormals but they lost her somewhere, somehow. Yeah, cause she was so un-important that they didn't spend centuries on creating her. Then, girly-girl protagonist fell in love with a fey who, at first, didn't recognize main girl because her eyes were so unique, he missed them. Wow, really? Ok that was a little too sarcastic, but, really? Her eyes are one-of-a-kind, dude, and your people are the ones who made her! Yeah, you didn't recognize her.

After that, she got wind of the prophecy which centres on her from a teenage guy who tried to break into IPCA (the International Paranormal Containment Agency. The agency that main girl works for) alone. He busted into an international organization's building ALONE without giving anyone a head's up, because he overheard this banshee telling his dad about the prophecy. Mm hmm, because every teenagers nowadays are suicidal.

This review is supposed to be short..So I'll just name one good point and I'll wrap it up.

There was humor in there. Lol, it got hilarious at some points, I'll give that credit.

Example: ["I" would be the main girl talking and here, main guy starts the conversation about what main girl thinks is cool. Apparently, she thinks that ordinary school lockers are uber awesome.]

"..yes, I have a driver’s license.”

I leaned back against the wall, sighing. “Man, that must be so cool.”

“It ranks right up there with lockers. In fact, sometimes I put my license inside my locker, and it’s so cool I worry that the whole thing might explode with the sheer coolness of it all.”

I smacked him on the shoulder. Again."

Yep. I don't know if it would be as funny for people who haven't read the book, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Lol. Ok to wrap things up, this book didn't quite do it for me. After getting to the THE END, I felt...nothing. So emotionally barren. Which is not right, cause after reading a book (or should I say, MOST good books) I'll usually have this whole barrage or myriad of feelings bombarding me that I'll stone and sit there thinking about what I've just read. This one didn't.

When I start a series, I'd usually follow thru but this time after reading both this book and the synopsis of the next book, SUPERNATURALLY, I think I'll pass. But I do still want to congratulate White for getting the movie deal. It sure is a major step-up in her career. Cheers!

PS. Woops, not a short review after all.:X
PPS. Sorry it got kind of bitchy at the start. Just pouring out my resentment at another book that I would've rather not picked up.

My Rating: