When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.
Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.
Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.
A secret Kale will kill to protect.
Before I get into the book, I want to talk about the cover of Touch. It is the one thing that I remember most about this book before its debut. Just look at it. How could you not want to pick it up? And the picture doesn’t do it justice. On screen or in dim lighting the cover alone is beautiful, but up close in bright light, the boys’ (Kale) eyes jump off the page at you.
Cover aside, this book is amazing! I’m a huge nerd when it comes to things like super heroes or characters with special abilities (think Heroes). The characters with “powers” in this book are known as Sixes. They are people with a genetic abnormality on their sixth chromosome. An abnormality that is different in each Six. Things like telekinesis, power over the elements, lethal touch, ability to mimic objects. The list goes on.
The first Six we are introduce to is Kale. Dez (who hates being called Deznee) runs into Kale late at night in the woods while leaving a party near her house. The first thing he does, ask to borrow her shoes. Weird, right? That’s Kale. Dez quickly learns something isn’t right with Kale and her world begins to spiral out of control from there.
One of the best things about this book is the unforgettable characters. Dez is the kind of girl who jumps first and asks questions later. And Kale. Sweet, naive Kale. Being locked away in Denazen might have kept him from a lot of things, but it never kept him from feeling. The boy has a heart of gold.
I can’t say much more about Touch in fear of giving away a few plots. This book is full of twists and turns that you’ll want to read for yourself. The writing is fast paced and the descriptions executed in a way that you can just imagine the world these kids are living in. A must read for sure.
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