Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

There’s a scene in Vampire’s Suck (yes, my husband and saw it with a group of friends and exited the cinema a few hours later with a few less braincells). Vampire’s Suck’s version of Mike Newton from Twilight approached the Bella character upon meeting her, threw an arm around her shoulder and said, “Wow, you look pretty frigid and boring! Wanna go to prom?”

Despite the stupidity of this movie they managed to encapsulate, in one brilliant sentence, the biggest problem I’ve had with the YA paranormal novels of late. Particularly Fallen, Hugh Hush, Evermore, Halo, and the countless others like it that I haven’t managed to torture myself with. The female main characters are BORING. What’s more, they’re written in the roles of heroines and tragically couldn’t act less heroic.

Unless those bitches were hiding their sheballs somewhere I couldn’t see. (Yes, most women totally have sheballs.)

Except for Chris Crocker…

See?

Evie is such a refreshing departure. She’s funny and, here’s something new, FUN. From her crazy antics and funny obsessions to even the most simple of phrases that come from her mouth.

Now, I’ll briefly explain about the Mary Sue test. Most authors and people in general are familiar with this term. It basically means the Main Character, if she is a Mary Sue, is basically an author self-insert.

Otherwise known as Luce, Nora, Ever, Bethany, Clary, Tessa and the biggest Mary Sue ever – Anita Blake.

Though imagining yourself doing various and weird sexual acts with Jean “I stole my leather pants from a hooker and now she wants them back” Claude is just a little weird.

Unfortunately Evie ticks quite a few boxes on the Mary Sue test:

Evie is remarkably beautiful.

Evie carries an unusual weapon, wears a strange piece of jewelry, or otherwise displays a unique possession on her person.

Evie is notably witty, always ready with a sharp comeback or clever remark. Alternatively, she is fascinatingly stern and close-mouthed.

She is a natty dresser, always in fashion, or not in fashion but so well as to make the fashionable pale in comparison.

There’s an unusual story centering around Evie’s birth or infancy.

She was adopted, raised by people other than her parents, or for some reason has no biological parents.

There are prophecies about Evie.

Evie has psychic abilities, exceptional strength, magical powers, can heal with a touch, or has any other skill, talent, or power that we would consider superhuman.

More Than one special power.

Practically no one else in the story has similar powers.

But you know, she never feels like a Mary Sue. I guess her cute yearning for cars, high school, lockers, television and all the other little quirks to her personality give her a rounded character.

I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between Evie and Lend. Not only did they have some witty and fun banter. There’s also that rare feeling that I have when I read novels, that these two could actually make it. I’m serious in that I could actually see these two getting married and the whole happily ever after too. They really make a lovely couple.
Unlike some people…

Anita and Jean Claude know how to have a good time together… no really!

The plot and pacing move nicely throughout the story and whilst it was easy to guess who the bad guy was and what the eventual outcome would be, it didn’t annoy me like it has in other novels. Can I help it if I’m, like, practically a genius or something?
No, no I can’t!

So over all this novel was a breath of fresh air. I completely enjoyed it and I absolutely can’t wait to read the sequel! I highly recommend it to most people, except for anyone named Bob and I think that out of most of the other YA paranormal lit out there, this one is definitely the best.