Review for Touch by Jus Accardo

A Fast Pace Read with New and Different Characters
3.75 Stars. I really liked how this book started out; it pulled me in and introduced me to a main character that was really different from most other characters I’ve been reading about in YA fiction. Dez is a strong lead and she breaks the mold of the typical YA heroine. Actually she’s pretty much the opposite of the typical YA heroine. She’s not meek or weak, she’s not bookish and she’s not this inexperienced virgin. Dez is a bad girl, she drinks and takes risks. She skateboards and does everything in her power to piss off her father. She makes bad choices, but she’s just as heartfelt and real of a character as any other I’ve read.

I also enjoyed that the male lead was also different from the typical attractive, snarky, confidant guy I’ve read in every other book. Don’t get me wrong I still love characters like that, but Kale was interesting because he was so different. Kale is the opposite of the tyical experienced, crass male lead. Kale is innocent and naieve. He knows little of Dez’s world as he’s grown up sheltered behind the walls of an organization called Denazen. The author really flipped the typical gender roles around in this book and did so in a way I appreciated.

Touch reminded me of a movie I once saw called “Push”. It’s about people who have developed special abilities, each differing from person to person – similar to X-Men, and about this organization that wants to capture them and use them for their own purposes. It was an interesting story; though I did have a few hang ups with certain parts of the plot.

I think this book would have benefitted from having another fifty to a hundred pages or so. It didn’t feel short, but there were places where things felt a little rushed. For example I liked all the action at the beginning of the book. In fact I love how it starts, but I wanted the time Kale and Dez spent in her house to last a little longer. I wished they had had a little more time to talk before Dez’s dad showed up. Also I wish that we had been shown a little more of Kale’s personality. He’s really innocent and while I liked how sweet he could be, sometimes his naivety made him seem a little too simple or even slow. I guess I just wanted to see him grow a little more; I wanted a little more insight into his head.

Another thing I had a problem with was that I didn’t really understand why Dez’s dad was as cold as he was. I wished this had been explained better. And, while I liked the little love triangle between Dez, Kale and Alex, I only bought Alex’s betrayl of Dez up until he stabbed Kale, then I didn’t understand him anymore. If he was trying to make a deal to get with Dez because he thought she still had feelings for him, totally screwing her over was no way to win her heart, and after he knew she didn’t feel the same I just didn’t believe that he was that desperate or that stupid to continue on.

Overall this was interesting and I enjoyed that the characters were so different than the one’s I’d been reading about lately. I really wanted to give it four stars, but a few little bumps in the plot brought this one down for me. Still I think it was a worthwhile read.