Book Review: Clarity

Title: Clarity (Clarity #1)
Author: Kim Harrington
Publisher: Point (imprint of Scholastic Inc.), 2011
Page total: 242 pages
First read: March 17th, 2011
Genre(s): Young Adult; Paranormal; Romance


Synopsis: Clarity "Clare" Fern is a psychic. She touches objects other people have touched and sometimes she gets a vision about them. Her brother, Periwinkle "Perry", is a medium - he can contact dead people. Her mother can read minds.
Normally, they use their abilities to entertain tourists and earn money by doing readings for them. But when a girl -a tourist- is found murdered, Clare's ex-boyfriend (read: a cheating jerk who still wants them to get together and who's also the mayor's son) wants her to help the investigation. Together with Gabriel, the new detective's son, they try to track the killer.

Clarity was a fun read. It was sometimes creepy and a total page-turner but all in all, just reading the book put me in a better mood. I also finished it in 3 hours flat, which might be a new record!
Anyway, the story. I admit, I suck at guessing who might be the potential killer but this time, I definitely didn't see that coming until the very end. Clare, Justin and Gabriel were ending up in dead ends, too, so I don't really feel bad about it. Truth be told, the paranormal aspect wasn't as cool as I'd imagined. I mean, it's cool and somehow something... lacked.
There were few things that gave me the lacking feeling. First, the major characters. I didn't get Clarity sometimes. I wonder what kind of person she really is? Impulsive? Vulnerable? Smart-ass? All three? Also, her feelings towards Justin and Gabriel were confusing even to herself so I think the readers naturally get swept away. Oh, Justin. I don't know what to make of him. At first I thought he was a jerk. I mean, he cheated on her. Hello? But, somehow, he was a sweet guy and he still wasn't over the breakup. The story was told from Clare's PoV, so I still don't know what he likes about Clare... I wish I could get into his head. Same with Gabriel - interesting character, and certainly sexy, but I wish I could have seen more sides of him. Kind of under-developed. Maybe the author wants to save that for the second book?
Oh, and Clare's mom is the coolest mom ever! You know, you can't really have any secrets if your mother can read your thoughts...
I have a very neutral feelings towards the characters. I neither loved them nor hated them. That's not necessarily a good thing... but not a bad thing either. Sometimes I read a book and even after finishing it, I can't stop thinking about the story and/or characters... But with Clarity, everything wrapped up nicely, which is why I don't know if I want to read the sequel - actually, I'd rather let the characters be.

All in all, a good story, okay characters and funny lines!