Clarissa

I leapt at the chance to support Karl Drinkwater's newest Lost Solace story on Kickstarter and am delighted to be able to say that I think Clarissa is now my favourite of the three Lost Tales of Solace companion novellas. It's not an easy task for an adult author to convincingly write from a child's point of view, but I felt Drinkwater captured Clarissa's personality perfectly. Having already read the brilliant full length novel Chasing Solace, which takes place later in this world's timeline, I was fascinated to effectively jump back to the beginning of that story here knowing, up to a point, what the outcome of Clarissa's abduction will be.

I can imagine that spending a significant amount of real-world time with Clarissa could be exhausting. She's smart and determined, and an outspoken chatterbox. However, as the protagonist of her own adventure, she's a wonderful character to travel with. I loved drawing conclusions to fill in the gaps around information that her ten-year-old mind doesn't have, and was thoroughly entertained by the way she views each of the adults around her. I really hope I get to meet up with Clarissa again!