Clarity (Clarity, #1) by Kim Harrington, Book Review

When you can see things others can't, where do you look for the truth? This paranormal murder mystery will have teens reading on the edge of their seats.

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?

Title: Clarity
Author: Kim Harrington
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Pages: 242
Release Date: March 1, 2011
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Clare Fern, a member of a family of psychics, helps the mayor and skeptical detective solve a murder in a Cape Cod town during the height of tourist season—with her brother as a prime suspect.

The cover initially drew me to this book and I felt as if it were something along the lines of a psychic murder mystery. After further investigation, I discovered that I was correct and knew that this would be a book I'd be interested in, so when I got the chance to review it, I was pretty anxious to read it.

I finished Clarity in three days, and it was a very light, fun easy-to-digest book with a lot of witty dialogue and I was kept guessing up until the very end, which is one of the traits I look for in a book. The ending was predictable, but not. Harrington wrote Clarity in a way where you knew what was going on, but you didn't. She always managed to lead you one way and throw you a curve ball at the very last moment with a cliffhanger at the end of almost every chapter, which was probably why I tore through this book so quickly--I had to know what happened next!

The setting, Cape Cod, was beautiful and the imagery was great. I enjoyed seeing how Harrington portrayed the life of a psychic teenage girl living in a small New England tourist town with a gift for psychometry. I love studying psychic phenomena, and Harrington made many psychic terms and phrases easy to understand for people who haven't ever really researched psychic abilities before, and I liked that, but I hope she goes more in depth with the sequel, Perception (Clarity, #2), expected for release on March 1, 2012.

All in all, Clarity was a fun, light, easy read with great characters and a snarky heroine who stands up for herself--which was something I really enjoyed, because you guys know how much I love strong, independent female characters--which I've probably said a thousand times, and I'll say it a thousand more.

Up next: Sweep Vol. 1 by Cate Tiernan
-Casey