Several weeks ago I compared two books that were very similar in premise but very different in execution. One was Life as We Knew it, a YA apocalyptic novel about a teenage girl and her family hiding in their home as natural disasters dramatically change the world around them. The other was In a Perfect World, in which a 30-something woman and her family hiding in her home as an epidemic dramatically changes the world around them.  The premises are extremely similar, yet the books are surprisingly different in tone and style. Both are enjoyable, and the fact that they’re similar doesn’t diminish either.

So, after having written about that, it was with great delight that I stumbled upon two more books with similar premises, but with extremely different executions.

The first is Paranormalcy, a YA paranormal romance by Kiersten White. The story follows Evie, a sixteen-year-old girl who works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA). Evie has the remarkable ability to see through other paranormals’ glamours: instead of seeing a suave and seductive vampire, she can see the shriveled, skeletal undead creature underneath. Since she’s seemingly the only person on earth with this power, Evie is a highly-prized and powerful monster hunter. She can pick paranormals (vampires, werewolves, hags, etc) out of a crowd easily, and ambush them.

My favorite part of this book, hands-down, is the voice. The first-person narrative is irreverent, sarcastic, and sassy–but also vulnerable and self-conscious. Evie, despite her job, is still a teenage girl. (Her taser is pink, and she names it Tasey.)

The other book is Monster Hunter International, by Larry Correia.  The premise is similar: there’s an international agency tasked with capturing and killing paranormal monsters (including many of the same ones Evie fights: werewolves, vampires, etc), and the main character is a star member of the team.

The difference is that Monster Hunter International is written by a gun nut, for gun nuts. (Larry told me that while he may not be a bestseller in New York, he’s a bestseller in Baghdad.) The main character, Owen, is a former professional (underworld) fighter, a gun aficionado, and he manages to kill a werewolf with his bare hands in the first chapter. Rather than the IPCA’s attempts at capture and containment (in Paranormalcy), Monster Hunter International is more inclined toward machine guns and flame throwers.

Evie’s taser is named Tasey. Owen’s automatic shotgun is named Abomination.

And both books are phenomenally fun. I’m not sure which one I liked more–I loved them both.  It just goes to show–once again–that two authors can take similar ideas and create two entirely different (and fantastic) stories.