Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Paranormalcy, by Kiersten White

One in a spate of paranormal-themed YA books, this one held my interest more than many of the others I've read lately.  Evie is a teen who has been fostered with the International Paranormal Containment Agency since she was 8 years old, working for them during that time as the only person able to see through any glamour from any paranormal.  It's not breaking new ground in terms of content or teen angst, but it does have some nice "surprises".  Evie discovers her friends at the IPCA categorize her as a paranormal, unknown species, and learns that what she has been brought up to believe is right, that paranormals should be tagged and contained, either in housing units or via ankle bracelets, might not be the only options, let alone the right option for keeping "normals" safe from some dangerous paranormals.  There is the obligatory romance angle, although this has the unwanted "romance" at the hands of an amoral fey, as well as the first love angle with a paranormal whose type is unknown to the IPCA.  One of the unique aspects is what kind of paranormal Evie is - she is actually a fey construct, an Empty One, and the subject of two prophecies, one about her and one about her "sister", Vivian.  The Empty Ones have to fill themselves with the souls of others, for some reason, and the fairies think that the Empty Ones will release them from bondage to the IPCA, which knows their true names and can thus control some of them.

It's a bit muddled as to why Evie and her sister suck souls and what they do with them and why the fairies think that soul sucking ability will release them, especially when fairies have souls that can be sucked, too.  It's pretty obvious from the ending (with Vivian in a coma, the fairy baddish guy threatening to be back when Evie needed more souls and everything very up in the air with the IPCA and Evie's attitude towards them) that there will be a sequel, and according to the author's website, the 2nd book in the series, Supernaturally is coming out in Fall 2011, with the third book in the series coming out in Fall 2012.

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