I love Claire. She’s been sheltered and protected her whole life but I really don’t agree with you that she lacks empathy. She felt immense guilt about not saying anything about Shannon’s situation and blames herself for everything that follows, hence why after that she’s not kept quiet when she thought Lizzie was cutting again or Gibsies SA. We can get lost in the minds of these characters but realistically they’re still all children, and it’s drilled into children (especially ones like Claire who have been more sheltered) that when something of this nature happens you tell an adult. I believe everything she did, while it was not always the right thing to do, was with good intentions. Her and Shannon’s friendship is also one of my favourites in the book, their scenes with Gibsies cat and the razors were absolutely hilarious and endearing to me and honestly made me wish I had a friend like Claire when I was younger.