Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Perception by Kim Harrington



So I loved the first one (my last review). And I’m not going to lie; the two biggest appeals for me starting book 2 so fast were the cover and the promise of some juicy love triangle resolution.  I really am hopeless when it comes to a pretty YA cover. And thankfully, in this case, my cover love paid off because the book was just so good! And yes, the love triangle was so good too!
I love when YA books take place in summer time (like the first one), but I also love getting to see the characters in other environments as well. So, what I’m saying is I had a lot of fun watching Clare in school too. So, the book really takes place right after the first one finishes. Clare still has an adorable ex-boyfriend who wants her back, and the new guy in town (aka: the detective’s son: Gabriel) head over heels for her. She’s also not a social pariah any more because she sort of developed a celebrity status of sorts after finding the murderer out in book 1.
She still gets picked on (by her two least favorite people), but the popular crowd keeps hanging around her, inviting her to parties, and asking to see her psychic powers in action. Clare hates crowds, parties, and being the center of attention, so she takes her new celebrity status with caution. She learns a thing or two about the popular crowd, and she finds out she’s right not to trust all of them. She also makes a good friend with a girl who lives really close to her.
The buzz around school though goes from the gossip of last summer to the missing girl of the new year. And when the missing girl’s mother comes in to Clare’s home for a family reading, it becomes clear to Clare that her ability is meant for greater things than just helping her mother make a living. She agrees to go to the woman’s house to touch objects in the missing girl’s room and try to get a sense for if she in fact ran away herself or if, as the mother says, something bad happened to her.
Meanwhile, Clare is getting presents, notes, and packages from a secret admirer that is rubbing her the wrong way. When it becomes clear it’s not from either boy in the triangle, Clare becomes worried. The secret admirer achieves stalker status when he starts sending Clare pictures of her. And while Clare is dealing with school drama, family drama, and boy drama, as well as trying to find a missing girl, she’s also being stalked.
I think I may have liked this one even more than the first one! I loved how Clare was seriously considering her boy options. She didn’t just know which one to choose and I thought this was more realistic than other YA love triangles. She really thought about not just how much she was attracted to them but how much they got along as friends and how much they understood each other.
I also loved Clare’s refusal to stay away from the missing person/murder case. I understand why she kept some of the stalker stuff to herself because she didn’t want to freak her mother out any more than she already was. But, still, the only thing that kind of bothered me was that I feel like she could have shared the stalker things with either of her boys way earlier.
There’s dances, bonfires, unstable brothers, more boys added to the triangle (possibly), murder, kidnapping, revelations, and conclusions. And despite the wonderful ending, (finally, a YA girl picks the boy I’m hoping for!), I kind of feel like there are a few loose ends and I would love to see more in this series. Clare has become one of my favorite YA main characters. I just love how strong she is! I give this a 10/10.

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