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Review: The Claires by C. L. Gaber

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,
The Claires by C L Gaber

The Claires (An Ascenders Novel)
C. L. Gaber
Big Picture Media, Inc
Published January 14, 2020

Amazon | Goodreads

About The Claires

Four beautiful girls. Quadruplets. They are not identical.
But each is named Claire.
Claire V is Clairvoyant—clear seeing with visions of the future.
Claire S is Clairsentient—clear feeling as she embraces another’s pain.
Claire A is Clairaudient—clear hearing to tap into the spirit world.
Claire C is Claircognizant—clear knowing with 100% accuracy.

Born in 1911, they first died together in 1928 at age seventeen. Two months later, they were reborn. And reborn. THE CLAIRES only live to seventeen and then they’re violently murdered. Somewhere in the world, a woman finds out she’s pregnant with quads. The Claires return to a new family as they try to break a curse that guarantees they die young.

It’s current-day Los Angeles, and once again, their seventeenth birthday is looming. Can they save themselves, clean up the streets in the name of penance, and crash their own prom?

The Claires is the first novel spin-off of the best-selling Ascenders Book Saga. Also available in paperback starting on January 14, 2020.

My Review

The thing that really drew me to this story was the idea that it’s about four sisters who are all under a curse that they’re trying to break before they turn 17 and are destined to die. It’s got great stakes and I’m a huge fan of sisterhood stories.

The writing style is a little unusual. Reading it, I felt sometimes like I was looking through a camera that kept refocusing and refocusing, zooming in and out so that I felt yanked around a little bit trying to follow what was happening. There’s an element of that that I liked– it created kind of a unique sort of conversational voice. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was taken down a notch or two.

I also felt like all of the sisters’ characters were basically the same. They have these super advanced powers and have basically lived for 200 years, so they kind of come off as superior and arrogant. Like normal mortals just aren’t worth their time, really. I could see how living so long would definitely make someone feel jaded– about high school especially! ha!– but sometimes it kept me from really investing in the characters.

Around the three-quarters mark, it seemed like the girls softened a little bit. I liked that. Their brother also has chapters and sections from his point-of-view, and I thought he was a lot more of a sympathetic character, but I didn’t really see how his story fit in with the girls.

I thought the way the book was formatted was really interesting, too. It’s broken into sections and each section has chapters and scenes in it, usually from one character’s point-of-view. Sometimes it changed narrators in the middle of a section though, which was a little confusing, since it felt out of sync with the rest of the book.

I kind of also got hung up on the fact that in a scene set in 1925, one of the girls gets excited about reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s latest book, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. I was confused because THE GRAPES OF WRATH is written by John Steinbeck and didn’t come out until 1939. I’m guessing the author meant THE GREAT GATSBY, which is by Fitzgerald and came out in 1925? It’s not a big thing, but it did seem really odd.

Anyway, on the whole, I think I was looking for a book experience more like Blue and her mother and their housemates in THE RAVEN BOYS with that close female bond and otherworldly adventure. While THE CLAIRES is a very different kind of story, it’s got that gritty dark feel to it that might appeal to fans of HOUSE OF NIGHT series by Kristin Cast and P. C. Cast.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. One of the sisters is in love with another girl.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used regularly throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some brief but graphic descriptions of sex. Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between girl and ghosts. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Lots of descriptions of predicting the future or knowing things through psychic means. Some descriptions of rituals once thought to bind witches. Descriptions of witches using power to harm others.

Violent Content
Several scenes show or reference graphic murders.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE CLAIRES in exchange for my honest review.

Unboxing: The Claires by C. L. Gaber

News and Fun, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

For the first time ever, I’m going to do an unboxing post! I kind of wish I’d thought to do this with my OwlCrate boxes when I got them before, but I didn’t, though maybe in the future, I’ll give that a go.

I received this box from Wunderkind PR near the end of March, and I feel really badly that I’m only now getting to post the unboxing. Between adjusting to online/distance learning with my older daughter and adjusting to staying at home 24/7 with a toddler, plus juggling work and blogging and sewing cotton masks with my family, it’s been a busy, hectic, and stressful month.

Which makes me even more grateful to have something fun and creative as a little breath of fresh air right now! So… on to the unboxing of The Claires by C. L. Gaber.

Unboxing The Claires

Here’s the box, and what it looked like inside when I opened it.

All the items inside the box were wrapped in purple tissue paper. I like the rich colors of the box and paper together. The book is kind of neutral, so the contrast of the strong colors and the book created a really cool look, I thought.

The first thing I opened is probably my favorite thing in the box. It’s a small “witches’ bottle”. The idea is that you write down your fears, put them in the bottle, cork it up and they disappear.

It’s a lovely idea, right? I think I need a bigger bottle? Is there a 2020 Super-Size option?? Haha.

The next thing in the box was a small Booklovers’ soy candle from Frostbeard Studio. It’s Old Forest scent, with rosewood, fig, dirt, and spices. I can definitely smell the rosewood. The candle smells really fresh and clean. And the outside of the jar has pictures of books on it! It’s super cute.

Then of course there’s the book. I’d been thinking a lot about books about sisters when I heard about this book, so I kind of had to check it out, even though paranormal and particularly psychic-type stories aren’t my usual go-to. I’m definitely into sister stories, though.

About The Claires by C. L. Gaber

Amazon | Goodreads

Four beautiful girls. Quadruplets. They are not identical.
But each is named Claire.
Claire V is Clairvoyant—clear seeing with visions of the future.
Claire S is Clairsentient—clear feeling as she embraces another’s pain.
Claire A is Clairaudient—clear hearing to tap into the spirit world.
Claire C is Claircognizant—clear knowing with 100% accuracy.

Born in 1911, they first died together in 1928 at age seventeen. Two months later, they were reborn. And reborn. THE CLAIRES only live to seventeen and then they’re violently murdered. Somewhere in the world, a woman finds out she’s pregnant with quads. The Claires return to a new family as they try to break a curse that guarantees they die young.

It’s current-day Los Angeles, and once again, their seventeenth birthday is looming. Can they save themselves, clean up the streets in the name of penance, and crash their own prom?

The Claires is the first novel spin-off of the best-selling Ascenders Book Saga.

Note: The Amazon link is an affiliate link.

Quiz: Do You Have a “Clair” Ability?

Another thing from the box was a quiz to see if you have a “Clair” ability. The quiz marks me as a possible “clairsentient”, or someone with off the charts empathy. So I’ll have to see whether I identify most with the sister with this particular ability as I read the book.

Altogether this was a really fun and creative box! It definitely made me feel like I have an inside view into the story world without having opened the book yet. I’m excited to read it and to get to know the sisters and see if they are able to break their curse.