Me on Paranormalcy

Title: Paranormalcy
Author: Kiersten White
Release Date: August 31, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 335 (Hardcover)

Part of my Christmas Re-reading list.

There's no other way I can describe this book without using the word adorable. Evie's cute, fun, bubbly, says what she's thinking, knows that she wants, yells when you piss her off (Reth is such a jerk), but she just wants to be normal. Sort of. She wants the normal that is TV teen dramas like her wonderful Easton Heights. It was one of the funny parts. I remember watching TV shows like that and imagining that's what high school was like. *sigh* Good times.

Kiersten White's created a weird world where paranormal creatures (vampires, werewolves, faeries, mermaids, hags, trolls, other spirits and the like) are all hunted to keep track of. It's an authoritarian deal that teens are bound to rebel against, as well as people who aren't big fans of enforced authority, imprisonment, and the like. Plus it was like chick lit mixed with paranormal stuff, which is pretty good. Sure, there was kissing (yay) but it was fun and not all dark and sad and dangerous. Well, maybe some danger. ;)

I really liked Evie. She's fun, cute, and carries a pink taser. How can you not like her? How many of us wouldn't want their own taser? She was different than other paranormal YA characters, a little lost in terms of the real world, but she'd been kept locked away from the world. It had a way of making you pissed off and just a little rebellious once you get glimpses of what's really going on. And Lish. My favourite bleeping mermaid.

And of course Evie has guys to fight over her, even if one's nice and one's an obsessed nutbar. I'm pro-Lend and anti-Reth. Reth just seemed a bit too creepy, like a stalker ex-boyfriend. Lend was new and different and interesting, and the fact that he lives in the real world and goes to real high school and has a real locker. An actual real locker. Oh, bleep. ;)

I wondered how the little twists and cliffhangers were going to be pulled off. Sometimes I wasn't sure what would happen next, what was really going on, what Evie really was with her ability to see through glamours, why Lend looked all watery, why Reth was acting so strange. White pulled it off, I never really saw some parts coming, like what Evie really was.

And so I'm waiting for book 2, Supernaturally, and I can only hope that it's just as good as the first one. :) I bleeping loved it. :)

Me on My Re-reading Christmas

I love books. Duh. ;) If I read it once, it was okay. If I read it more than once, I freaking loved it. When I first read Lili St. Crow's Strange Angels and Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush, I read them again once I was finished (not at the same time).

Since my library books are due back soon, I'm planning to hide out over the Christmas break and do some re-reading. Which might be almost all of the YA books I've bought this past year.

It's been such an amazing reading year. So many good books. As of this posting, I've read 113 books in 2010. That's a lot. I'm surprised it's more than 100.

So, why am I re-reading instead of reading for the first time? Because I bought so many pretty and wonderful books this year and I want to read them again. I want to find those worlds again, re-learn the secrets and surprises, meet the characters again but this time suffer as they slowly trek their way through the book when I already know the ending.

Re-reading is like meeting up with friends after not seeing them for a year: you remember the good times and the bad, you realize bits about them you totally forgot. Sure, there's no catching up and learning new things, but that's what sequels are for. ;)

Here's my re-reading list:

Hush, Hush & Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick 
Strange Angels, Betrayals, & Jealousy by Lili.St. Crow
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting 
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce 
Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
Sea by Heidi R. Kling
13 to Life by Shannon Delany
A Year in Europe: Three Novels by Rachel Hawthorne

I wonder if you're asking, "Do I have to do this as well??" You don't, but if you don't have review deadlines or stacks and stacks of books to read for the first time, I would give it a shot. I'm doing this because at the moment I have no new books to read (well, except for Insight and Matched). Besides, I really liked these books and I want the chance to read them again with no pressure.

Of course, I might review some every so often. ;)

Happy Christmas reading, people. :)