Book Review: Supernaturally

Supernaturally (Paranormalcy #2)

By: Kiersten White

Published by HarperTeen

Release Date: July 26, 2011

Genre: YA paranormal

336 pages

Buy it on Amazon, IndieBound

 or Barnes and Noble
Source: I own it


Read my review of book #1, Paranormalcy.



My thoughts: 

The grass is always greener, right? Evie learns the truth of this statement in Supernaturally, the sequel to Paranormalcy. In this volume, Evie gets to experience "real life" as she always wished. 

This book starts out exploring Evie's trials in gym class. I personally find this hilarious for two reasons: One, Evie is no slouch when it comes to physical capability, and Two, gym class wrecked my high school gpa, but enough personal disclosure.

Evie does her best to leave the IPCA behind and start life anew. If only it was that simple. Raquel does her best to tiptoe the tightwire between what is best for Evie and what is required of her by the IPCA Since Evie is firmly against travel-by-faerie by the end of book 1, and new solution is employed: Jack. In the words of Raquel, Jack is a remarkable boy. In the words of Evie, he is a little weasel. Either way, Jack is a lot of fun to get to know.

Evie doesn't get to see a lot of Lend in this volume (*pout*), mainly because he is off at college. Then Evie does some stupid stuff to alienate him. Oh yeah, and the author needs him out of the way so we can meet Jack. Thankfully, Jack is not presented in a way that creates a love triangle- that dynamic would have killed the series for me.

As for the technical elements of the book, Kiersten White gets it right. The characters are well written, the story arc is well-shaped and moves along smoothly, the pacing of events is spot on. I'd happily point to White's writing style and say, "this is how it should be done."  I'll willingly admit that this series is one of my new favorites. 

The one thing I wished for was a little more of a nice, neat wrap up to the story. Lucky girl that I am, I happened to have the third book waiting right here, so I was able to pick it up immediately. If I'd had to wait, I think the lack of closure would have been a little frustrating. And so it generally goes in YA series.

As I said in my Paranormalcy review, if you haven't read these yet, get your hands on them. They truly are as good as you've been hearing. And since the third book will be released in about a month, you won't have much of a wait for the next volume.

Summary from GoodReads:

Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.