I'll admit that my first attraction to PARANORMALCY had nothing to do with the plot-line, the characters, or the raving reviews I'd read at various online book sites I sporadically frequent online. No, my first attraction to PARANORMALCY was the beautifully eerie cover art -- the ethereal blonde blank-faced teenager staring into the great unknown (in a beautiful pink gown, of course, above the gorgeous pink font of the author's name). And, actually, when I picked up PARANORMALCY to finally dive it (over a year too late, I see!), I had no idea whatsoever what the book was about -- except that it was another teen story with some kind of supernatural flavor, again. 
 But, I think Kiersten White lets her story stand out a bit from the rest, primarily through her use of humor and wit. While the story does get a teeny bit dark and a tiny bit deep, the main drive of the story is the spunky, biting voice of teenage heroine Evie, a girl trying to find her identity and purpose all-the-while learning that she may or may not actually be paranormal herself. 
 Evie works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (called IPAC throughout the novel), where her job is to seek out paranormal beings and mark them with ankle bracelets that suppress whatever behaviors wreak havoc on the general population. For example, vampires wear bracelets filled with holy water, equipped with special sensors set to inject the skin if the body temperature rises (after consumption of human blood). The paranormal entities are given jobs within the IPAC, and humanity is given protection from a great number of horrors they thought existed only in fiction. 
 Evie knows very little about herself, except that she was orphaned at a young age and she was chosen for work in the IPAC due to her uncanny ability to see beyond the glamors of the paranomals. Vampires, hags, mermaids, werewolves, and faeries all seek to mesh themselves into society, after all, and most of humanity see only that image the paranomals have intentionally projected to the world at large. Evie, though, is able to see beneath it all -- to the rotting corpses, the undead faces, and the evil intentions -- but she never, until now, stopped to wonder how she alone has obtained such an outstanding talent.... 
 Until one day when the IPAC encounters a mysterious shape-shifter, unlike anything Evie has ever encountered in her work with the paranormals. Soon afterwards, the paranormals start dying, without explanation, and Evie begins to wonder if her uncanny abilities may somehow be involved. Then, an exboyfriend (and paranormal, of course) suggests that Evie may be a player in a dangerous faerie prophecy that may put all of the paranormals in immediate danger.... 
 While the first three-quarters of the novel had me flipping pages, dying to take a peak at the secrets ahead, I must admit that the last chunk went a bit slower for me. I loved Evie's wit and charm and I was interested in the untangling of events that transpired throughout the story, but the pacing felt a bit off in places and I honestly got a bit bogged down with some of the faerie nonsense involved. Maybe I just don't have a thing for faeries yet -- I admit, I haven't really encountered them much in my YA fiction thus far. 
 I felt like the author was really trying to establish a love triangle here as well, but it didn't quite work for me. On the one hand, we have a faerie who may or may not be evil, and a shape-shifter who, well, may or may not be evil. It felt all too familiar and even a bit boring at times. But, again, I think Evie really made the novel work, despite its flawed, because she just felt like a well-written character. It was clear the author really KNEW Evie when she imagined this story, which made her feel real, even if she was depicted as a goofy, shallow girl in places. 
 I actually did enjoy Paranormalcy and I do think it stands out from the slew of supernatural teen fiction precisely BECAUSE of it's humor and wit. Sure, there are vampires and hags and trolls galore, but there's nothing TOO dark or TOO deep here. At the end of the day, Evie is really more interested in soap operas, prom, and all things pink than in anything paranormal, and the reader feels a bit of a kindred spirit there, I think. 
 Since I waited so long to read this one, book two (SUPERNATURALLY) is already out. I'm sure I'll review that one soon, so keep an eye out for that!