Touch by Claire North

 

This has to be one of the more unusual books I’ve read recently (and I read John Dies at the End). I pretty much had to dispense with my usual way of consuming a story. There would be no easily dissected plot or character development. Much as the Inkheart series is series of books about books, Touch is a book about characters or more to the point people.

Don’t misunderstand me, there are definitely characters and character development within the story. The unusual part is, Kepler, the main character. The way Claire North handled Kepler’s atypical existence gave the character much more depth than many main characters show in a story. Many others weave in and out of the story in a way that highlights Kepler’s uniqueness.

The majority of this story takes place in Europe, both eastern and western. Its settings and situations are often stark and gritty. It reminded me of many stories about those areas during the cold war. The author does an excellent job of presenting these scenes even if they aren’t beautiful inspiring vistas seen in some books. It seems obvious that author chose these places to invoke a feeling of struggle or hopelessness as a symbol of the human condition.  If so, it works well especially those times it is contrasted with scenes from the West.

The story itself does require some close following. There is a significant amount of the story told in flashback. It’s handled well by enticing the reader to want to know about these events and then showing rather than telling their stories.

I’ve done my best to extoll the virtues of this story and still be spoiler free. I hope I’ve succeeded in intriguing many of you enough to give it a try yourself. I love a good story with a good twist. In that, this story met and exceeded my expectations. It’s not an action/adventure but, some of the violence is graphic enough to earn this one an R rating from me.



[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0QcEJr3TKk&w=294&h=176]

Posted by Tynga at 02:00

 Claire North, Fiction, ghost, Hachette, paranorma, Paranormal, Purchased, Review  1 Person left their mark

Hey, I'm Tynga! Montreal-based mom of two and lifelong book lover. I started this blog in 2009 reviewing PNR and UF, and over the years my shelves expanded into Romantasy, Dark Romance, and Dark Rom-Com. This blog is the archive. These days, my bookish life lives mostly on TikTok. I also create reading journals through Tynga Publishing — designed by a reader, for readers.

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