Author: Kelly Hashway
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Released: January 15th 2013
Pages: 229 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
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Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.
After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.
Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.
I hate it when all your friends love a book but you just don't. The first person who told me about this book was Tyler, who absolutely loved it. After checking out the blurb, I was 96.4% sure I'd love it too. Turns out my judgement was way way off.
I was just unable to get into it. I started reading this on September 15th, and only finished it yesterday on October 2nd. I honestly did try my hardest to become involved with the story, and I did manage to finish it...but I just didn't like it. I can pick out good aspects about the read, but on a whole, there were too many terrible things for it to balance out.
The initial concept was great. Yes, Greek mythology and young adult novels is a widely overdone combination - however, Greek mythology involving Medusa isn't. It's all about gods and goddesses, and rarely ever about all the other fascinating creatures the Greeks believed in. In that sense, Touch of Death was a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, it wasn't executed as well as I'd hoped. The language was quite simplistic and borderline boring, and the pace was completely out-of-whack. I thought the beginning just wouldn't end - the amount of time spent dwelling over Jodi pricking her finger in a ridiculous way and sending some animal/human/thing on a rampage was astounding. It happened, what four or five times? I just wanted to scream WE GET THE PICTURE! JODI'S BODILY FLUIDS ARE DANGEROUS! MOVE ON! All the time wasted on that would have been much better spent elongating the ending, which went by so quickly, I was left deeply underwhelmed.
I also didn't like the romantic element in this, purely because the chemistry was dead. Heck, it wasn't even dead - it was completely non-existent! And actually, the characters themselves weren't that good either. For one thing, Jodi just flat-out annoyed me, especially when she went off on tangents about how she just "felt" that the necklace was hers! She also reacted really weirdly to bizarre situations, for example: this creepy stalker guy placed a dead rat in my room, yet I'll fall for him anyway! Yeah, no. I don't care how "hot" he is, that is just downright creepy. HE is downright creepy! I think it's the initial creepiness that kept me disliking Alex throughout the entire novel. You can't make a character do something like that and then try and redeem them - Alex is irredeemable!
Overall, the novel was just a bit off. I don't know how better to describe it than that. If you're truly interested, then definitely give this a go. But if you're only mildly curious? It's not worth it, trust me. Seeing the final page was a relief.
Rating: 2/5
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