Review: "Sweet Clarity" by Rhiannon Richardson

Sweet Clarity by Rhiannon Richardson
Published April 2026 via Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
★★★★

The summer before senior year, Clarity went off to Christian summer camp and fell in love. It didn't end all that well—but that's not this story. This is the what happens after.

I never went to summer camp as a kid. My sister, older by one year, went to Christian summer camp (I assume it was cheap) and came back mildly indoctrinated,* so that was the end of summer camp for our family. And I think Clarity's experience is part of why my parents made that decision: Because when Clarity is different from the other campers, that difference is not celebrated but shamed.

"Girl goes to summer camp" is not a new story; neither is "girl goes to summer camp and falls in love" or for that matter "girl goes to summer camp and falls in love with another girl". But the story after that story feels much newer: Clarity finds herself back on her home turf, but with many of her classmates and other teenagers at her church (not to mention the woman who runs Sunday school) knowing that she's not straight, and she's terrified of how her parents might react if they find out, and she doesn't know how—or whether—to continue the relationship she started over the summer.

Some of Clarity's decisions in pursuit of staying in the closet are...not great. It's good for storytelling purposes, of course, and realistic that a teenager wouldn't always think things through (I'm not complaining), but towards the end of the book I think she's apologizing for the wrong reasons—apologizing for asking someone to keep her secret rather than apologizing for actively using someone, for example.

But it's a really nice twist on something classic, with a solid set of secondary characters (Clarity's parents are great, and the Sunday school teacher plays an unexpected role). A satisfying addition to the genre.

*The mild indoctrination did not last, and she still remembers being scandalized by saying grace...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.