Summary (book jacket):
Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It’s a gift.
And a curse.
When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case- but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother, who has supernatural gifts of his own, becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most.
What I expected: I loved the cover, and the prospect of a story with psychics, which is an under-explored aspect in most YA novels, was enough to make me order it ASAP at the library.
Story
Like I said above, the psychic aspect of Clarity appealed to me, although I’ve never actually had my palm read or whatever. And a murder mystery on top of that? Awesome.
The murder mystery was actually really, really good. I was misled until the very end, but it disappointed me a little that I figured out who the murderer was a little before Clare did, although obviously I didn’t know the motive behind the murder until it was explained. And that motive was simultaneously disgusting and ingenious.
Characters
I liked the MC Clare a lot. She was unpredictable- you’d never know what she’d do, especially when it came to the two guys vying for her affections. Speaking of the two guys…
I liked Justin (the ex-boyfriend) more than the detective’s son Gabriel, even though what Justin did was unforgivable and all that. It’s just that Justin seemed a lot truer to Clare than Gabriel ever would. Justin was the good boy; Gabriel was the bad boy. They were both hot, obviously. But yeah, despite his being a lying jerk, I like Justin better.
I am TIRED of love triangles, people. It’s in so many novels- Mortal Instruments, Clockwork Angel, Twilight, Paranormalcy, etc- so naturally I was expecting to hate this aspect of Clarity. But in reality (maybe because this is a contemporary novel and therefore normal people liking normal people) this particular love triangle wasn’t all that bad. I even took sides.
Lastly, Perry, Clare’s brother- I know he’s a total player and everything, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. He just seemed like such a sweet (and cute) person… I guess that’s his charm, huh?
Parting Thoughts: I loved the cover, I loved the title, and overall I loved Clarity. It was a great book. I really liked it, and I recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction who don’t mind a little psychic touch to it. Go, Kim Harrington! And there are hints of a sequel… lots of unanswered questions at the end. I’m looking forward to reading more from Kim Harrington for sure. And her acknowledgements just make you glow inside because you’re a book blogger.
Rating: 4.5/5. The only major detractor was my finding out the murderer a while before Clare did. Still, I really liked Clarity.
