Review Detail

What a roller coaster! From the opening pages, Touch is an adrenaline-packed thrill ride, with twists and turns certain to keep you guessing!

Dez is exactly the type of heroine I love to read about! She's strong and independent and tough-as-nails, unwilling to back down from anyone or anything in the face of what she knows is right. She experiences gut-wrenchingly painful moments where we get to see a softer side, one where she's afraid to be hurt by allowing string to become attached. I did find that there were a few decisions she made that left me scratching my head, as she seemed to believe something too quickly, or make (what I thought was) the worst decision possible. But feeling like her father wished she hadn't been born, and having her heart recently-ish broken by her first love, it's easy to see why she laughs in the face of danger, and does the exact opposite of whatever her father asks - including running away with Kale.

I adored Kale. His fascination with trivial objects and the joy he got from seemingly mundane experiences was so endearing, it was impossible not to fall in love with him. His innocence makes his tender moments that much sweeter and his moments of anger all that more frightening. His impact on Dez was immediate, and her reactions to someone as unique and intriguing as Kale were believable because of it. His ignorance of social customs and everyday trivialities that we take for granted had me laughing out loud in several spots. I kind of wish we had gotten to see more of Kale, as there were big chunks of plot without him in it, and I would have loved to hear more about his life in Denazen and what kind of torture he underwent.

Denazen Corporation is twisted and sick and scared me to death; if a new "race" were to be born with special abilities, it's not far-fetched to believe that a government organization would be willing to sacrifice their freedom for the "protection of society". I loved that the Sixes who were slightly more pliable were raised/taught to believe that they were like superheroes, fighting for the common good; this just added another layer of credibility to the world that Accardo was building. If I wanted to control people with powers, what better way to do it then to convince them that what they were doing wasn't evil?

I did find that towards the end the pacing became too scattered and too quick. I got confused during the big stand-off between Denazen and the Sixes as to which Sixes belonged to which team, and I had to re-read the last part a couple of times to get everything straight. I also felt like several clues were dropped towards the end, but they either weren't capitalized on, or weren't mentioned again which left me wondering why they had been mentioned at all. For the most part though, I was able to overlook these faults because I did enjoy the rest of what Touch has to offer so much.