Pink Bullets - The Shins

Paranormalcy
Paranormalcy, Book 1

Author: Kiersten White
Genre: young adult, fantasy
Pages: 335

Brief Summary:
Evie grew up in foster care until the day she cut through a graveyard and was approached by a vampire. Unlike most people, the vampire looked like a corpse to her, not like a handsome man, so she screamed her head off (not literally). Turns out that Evie is the only person on the world who can see through glamours, making her very valuable. She goes to work (not that she has much choice) for the IPCA, responsible for tagging and maintaining control of paranormals all over the world. Evie desperately wishes she could attend high school and do normal things, but is happy enough living vicariously through her favorite teen drama, Easton Heights. When a new kind of paranormal, a cute, shape-shifting boy, appears, Evie starts thinking long and hard about everything she is missing. Add a mysterious serial killer of paranormals, an obsessed fairy stalker, the prom and some scary truths about the IPCA and Evie has a lot on her plate.

Review:
Paranormalcy successfully walks a fine line between lameness and humor. The book certainly is following on the tail of all of the other paranormal fiction being written now. White does not add anything new particularly, but does do some interesting things with the conventions she chooses to use. Evie, as a heroine, is not particularly impressive. She can protect herself to some degree, she is a little above average intelligence-wise and she is hugely innocent. In essence, she does seem like a real girl. She loves everything in the color pink, like her taser (Tasey) and her knife (no pink bullets, but she would have used them if she had a gun). While I found this absurd, I found it to be so in an entirely believable way.

While romance is a big part of Paranormalcy, it will probably disappoint some teen readers for its lack of sexual activity. The characters keep it PG, even in their thoughts, except for a couple of weak innuendos. The innocence of the characters is actually refreshing after having read so many teen books about seriously sexually active teenagers. While that may be true to life too, not all teens are that quick out of the starting gate. One of the scenes that sold me on White's portrayal of a teen girl was when the couple has their first kiss (the first kiss for both of them). The moment is awkward and sweet. When it's over, Evie keeps remembering the kiss, causing the "giddiness [to] set in anew." (No page number because I read this on my Kindle.) This perfectly captures a girl's thoughts in such a moment.

No, Paranormalcy is not a paragon of literature, even when limited to young adult titles, but it is a fun read. It is amusing and better written than many. For a fun, quick, humorous read, Paranormalcy is well-worth the time.

"I was just bony hands as cold as a winter pole
You held a warm stone out new flowing blood to hold"