My Clarity

by M Clarke

[inlibrisveritas]

My Clarity was one of those ‘take a chance’ purchases for me. I’d attended Mary Ting (M.Clarke’s) facebook release party and my curiosity was piqued, so I went to amazon and read the sample…then it ran out, and I was left wanting more. That first chapter was enough to make me like Alex and feel for her, so I bit the bullet and bought it.

My Clarity takes the normal (somewhat overused) new college experience and makes it into a ‘real’ experience. We’re not given the same story of a girl in college finding love and having a ton of sex, school be damned. Instead we’re given Alex, a college freshman, who is still trying to get a handle on the grief left by her father’s passing and who gets little bit more than she bargained for when she goes to meet her new roommate. She has a good head on her shoulders and she values actual relationships as opposed the sex filled shells of relationships I’m so used to seeing in this age range. Elijah is a bit rough around the edges, but he has a huge heart. I really loved the friendship these two developed, in fact I liked all of the friendships that Alex gains…which is rare for me. Normally I always hate one or more of the friends in NA books, but not this one! They were all supportive of each other and their friendships felt real.

I thought the writing in My Clarity was excellent, including the song lyrics that she wrote. If you didn’t know you can actually listen to the song or buy it on Amazon: Here. It’s not my normal type of music, but I thought it was a really awesome idea to have an actual song to go with the lyrics. Song lyrics in books are one of my biggest peeves in books because unless it’s a song I know I’m forced to try and make up a melody, so normally I just skip it. I will admit that the writing style is probably not for everyone. It is done in two POV’s and the voices are more ‘real’ than other books, because let’s be honest sometimes books feel a tad scripted. I dare you to go say lines from books like The Fault In Our Stars to someone, if you some how manage to make it sound natural you have a talent and you need to exploit it. But I digress, My Clarity has that inner voice thing down without becoming irritating or childish.

My Clarity is one of those books that make me excited to read, and I definitely want to read more from Mary Ting.