Perception

by Kim Harrington

[layawaydragon]

I received this from...somewhere but no longer have a record of it, there's no email or notes. :( I unfortunately didn’t realize it was a series and haven’t read the first book, Clarity.

I can’t know for sure, obviously, how different this review would be if I had read the first book. I probably wouldn't have read Perception at all.

Maybe the love triangle resolution wouldn't be so obvious. Maybe the big decision based on a crush/prospective relationship wouldn't be so stupid.

But I don't think it would really help. It'd give background and the character arcs but the important details are included. It's formulaic enough to figure it out without the details.

The Good:
+Obviously others enjoy it.

The Bad & The Other:
-formulaic
-standard tropes
-flat characters
-Claire= special snowflake virgin purity
-couldn’t become engaged,
-bland and felt like I'd read it before (but I hadn't)

Perception follows Claire after helping solve a big case during the summer and suddenly becoming popular. She’s stuck in a love triangle between the new detective’s son and her cheating ex-boyfriend. She’s, of course, a virgin. It’s special and important.



I’m all for people making their own choices but it’s seems overabundant in YA and comes with purity baggage. I also think it’s a cheating way for authors to get around “the problem of sex” and reality.

Personal peeves aside, I couldn’t get involved in the story. It was just a quick couple hours read that I didn’t care for. I felt déjà vu the whole way through.



It’s formulaic with the standard tropes and flat characters. The mystery was anything but mysterious. It's the same old, same old.

Mean popular girls. Boy dichotomy. (Though at least Claire grows at the end.) Mallory is the only other girl that doesn't completely suck (Why?!?!) and she gets shafted almost the entire book. I like Mallory with her take-charge change but feel horrible about how she's used.


If this kind of main character or story you want/like, it’s worth a shot.



There’s another book, Hanging By A Thread by Sophia Littlefield with this same attributes and while I didn’t click because of the fashion, I’d recommend it higher than Perception.

For psychometry and myths, there’s the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep or for another psychic family an overarching legend plot there’s The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater of course.