A Touch Mortal Review

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

I was really unsure about what rating I would give this book and, even now, I'm not sure if I went too high. In the end I gave it a 3 because A Touch Mortal had its fair share of problems but I wanted to finish reading it.

Spoilers Ahead

The story opens with Eden on the beach, contemplating suicide, when she meets Az and Gabe. In between the second and third chapter, completely off-screen, Az and Eden fall in love... an all encompassing love that took all of a week to develop. But Gabe, who also became Eden's best friend in a week, has found out that Eden is destined to kill herself and come back as a Sider (I assumed that Sider was short for Suicider). That's not the only problem, though.

Az is only half-fallen and Luke, the leader of the Fallen, wants him to completely fall. He tries to make this happen by destroying those Az loves. So Gabe and Az come up with a completely asinine plan- In order to protect Eden from Luke, she has to kill herself in a timely manner so Luke doesn't find out she's a Sider. So they decide to push her into it by making her think Az fell to his death in front of her. In a way, I kind of applaud the thinking outside the box of the idea. It would have been so easy for Az to just say he hated her now and leave in order to devastate her. But the overall idea of pushing someone to kill themselves, destiny or not, seems a little distasteful. Anyway, the plan works... and all in under 60 pages.

This is a huge problem for me, just a like a lot of other people. I don't know the characters. I don't see that Az and Eden are in love. I don't see that Eden and Gabriel have a great friendship. All this took place in less than 60 pages of a book that is over 400. There just wasn't enough time given to character development or relationship development.

Eden wakes up some time later in an unfamiliar room in the home of Kristen, the first Sider and Gabriel's friend. This part of the book was supposed to supply the information about what Siders are and what they do, but Kristen never really got around to giving that information sufficiently. I felt like the author was trying to build her world and establish the rules of the Siders, but it just didn't come across. I know that Siders are supposed to be somewhat a mystery, but there was little to no information conveyed other than they have to pass Touch. I actually got a little annoyed with Touch. It took up more room in the book than Az and Eden's relationship.

And the author killed that relationship around this point. Eden finds out that Az is not really dead and, in fact, purposely made her think he was so she'd kill herself. This was another part where I felt torn. On one hand, I applauded the fact that Eden was angry and didn't just fall into his arms. On the other hand, her stubborn inability to listen to any sort of explanation for about 160 pages really made the end of the book so hard to believe.

During her lessons on Touch, Eden finds out that she has an ability that the other Siders don't. Her breath can kill another Sider if they breathe it in. She uses this to escape from Kristen (And I never quite got why Kristen was supposed to be scary) and takes Adam, another Sider, with her. Adam was another character that just didn't make a lot of sense. He barely met Eden and still chose to stand with her. Not only that, he loves her. It seems like a lot has happened already and, while it did, it happened in 140 pages.

At this point, the story drags. Two months or so after she left Kristen's, she and a few other Siders (all male... surprise surprise) are living in an apartment that they pay for because Eden kills Siders for money. While it's not so harshly put in the book, that is essentially what it is. Siders that want to die pay her to kill them. And Eden feels like it's her duty and, even though the author doesn't really go there all the way, she is kind of addicted to it. This takes up so much time. She and her friends argue about it. They have to force a young Sider to pass his Touch. They watch someone who got a dose of Touch jump off a building. It was just so much and it all seemed unnecessary to the ultimate goal of the book.

There are bits of information thrown in during this middle part of the book. We start to learn a little more about the angels... but only a little more. Apparently, angels can do whatever but can only be punished for it when they actively confess to a sin. Angels feel compelled to confess, though, so it comes out eventually. I guess, in hindsight, this was foreshadowing for the end of the book. It didn't come across that way while reading it. We also learn that Gabe has been keeping the Siders a secret for a long time and that the "Upstairs" doesn't know about them. How this could be possible is beyond me. I don't recall if the author said how old Kristen was, but I find it so hard to believe that the people Upstairs are so unobservant.

Eden and her group meet Libby, who wants to join them. After an initial dislike for the girl, which didn't make a whole lot of sense unless we assume Eden just doesn't want another girl around or that Eden is one of the Goths that hates anyone who isn't, she agree to let her stay. Honestly, I felt that the author should have just stamped "Villain" on her forehead. I saw that coming a mile away, just like I saw her having the same ability as Eden the first time there were no Siders waiting on Eden's doorstep. Libby is instrumental in getting Eden to finally meet with Luke, who tells her that she didn't really kill herself. Az killed her.

This is the beginning of the end and where I think the book really starts to fall apart for me. Everything happens in the last 100 pages or so. Eden confronts Az and he pulls her into a kiss where, somehow, she doses him with Touch even though it shouldn't happen to an angel. This is never explained or pursued further, so I can only assume this was so everyone knew she kissed Az. She leaves and her devoted lackey, Adam, who knew that she still had conflicting feelings for Az, turns on her. Luke kidnaps Az and Eden and Gabe try to save him. They do, but Gabe has to admit that he was the one who killed Eden, thus falling. Now Gabe isn't himself and he wanders away, lost to Az and Eden. Adam and Libby are dead. It wasn't exactly set up for a sequel but I assume there are going to be more books and that Gabe is not going to be left a fallen angel.

I get the feeling that this is meant to be an epic, good-vs-evil series of books, but there are a lot of problems. The biggest problem with this book is pacing. That's the reason I harped on how many pages things took. The events in the book were not spread out evenly and the information given was sporadic and not very clear. The author raced through the beginning just to drag out the middle and shove too much into the end.

The characters are another problem. There were just too many one dimensional characters. One of the only characters that had any personality was Eden and it was an annoying one. She was always yelling or snapping at someone. I couldn't believe that anyone liked her. Gabe was the most fleshed out after Eden and not quite as annoying. Az, the love interest, had no personality whatsoever. I didn't care when James, Adam or Libby died. I didn't care that Az was injured. They were not developed enough for me to care what happened to them.

I don't really want to get into whether or not the book glamorized suicide. I will say, though, that I would feel it necessary to let a parent of a younger teen know that it does involve suicide. When I was a teen, I doubt it would have had any impact on me, but I can't say that for everyone.

Overall, I think this was a good concept that was executed poorly. I am interested in seeing where it goes, however, so if there are more books I will probably read them. 3 out of 5