Leah CliffordRezensionen
Autor von A Touch Mortal
Rezensionen
But I can't wait for Leah Clifford's next book!
LAZINESS.
I get the feeling that the author just really wanted to start off with the plot right away. Which usually, you know, would be good.
But in this case, the plot involved the main character and the main love interest being in love.
So what did the author do?
Well, she certainly did not give any time whatsoever to developing a relationship between the two of them.
It was like this: Chapter 1 Eden and Az meet and go on a totally unrealistic first date, five minutes after they meet. Chapter 2 Gabe (another character) watched Eden and Az make out on a beach, presumably a couple weeks later. Eden and Az declare their undying love for one another right before Az tells her that he's an angel.
Yeah. And I never really got into them. I Just don't know why they love each other, so everyhting in their relationship is baseless for me.
Because the author was LAZY. Put some work into it!
Actually, I do have one more thing to say-- Now, I haven't necessarily heard of anyone disliking this book, but I can definitely see how large percentage of the world's population could be offended by the ending.
Also, I fully intended to skip the rest of the series, but the end got me hooked. I gotta know what happens to Gabe.
Set in a world where a small group of humans are born with a genetic mutation that allows them to heal wounds absurdly fast (including many kinds of life threatening injuries and even survive death), this small community of resurrectionists dedicate their lives towards charging hefty fees for bringing the recently deceased back to life. Their society is disperse with a middleman that handles the money and legitimacy of each gig along with a cleaning system that kills humans that harm their people in order to obtain the secret to their fountain of life for personal profit.
Allie knows all too well the bad aspects of the life she was born into. After having her parents murdered at the hands of a former client that couldn't pay the bills, she briefly lives with her aunt Sarah that is the middleman in charge of her working area and learns the management aspects of the profession. Tired of the perils of this life, she decided to move into a modest apartment and frequents homeless communities where she befriends two teenage guys: Brandon and Ploy.
When Brandon is brutally murdered for his blood, she turns to the mysterious but friendly Ploy that sometimes sleeps on her couch for his help without knowing he has a dark secret as well that haunts him incessantly during the novel.
Filled with believable and interesting characters, Allie is distrustful but yearns for love, Ploy is brave but at the same time self-loathing because he doesn't stand up to himself and the villain Jamison is a terrifying yet convincing psychopath that manipulates everyone around him for his ulterior goal. If there is one flaw of the novel, I am sort of confused as to where Jamison and Allie grew up. Allie comments her parents used to live in Ohio whereas it seems like Jamison grew up in the outskirts of Fissure's Peak. If you read the book, you'll agree with me that it's a bit confusing.
Otherwise, it's an exciting and refreshing thriller/dark fantasy read with tints of believable romance and interesting characters. Highly recommended!
We do not learn much about the story from looking at the cover, just that it would possibly be a story about a girl, potentially Goth I do really like the cover though. The deep colors and the artistic pose are great. The girl really looks like she could be the main character, Eden. Even the font seems to suit the tones of the novel. If I were grading it, I would give it a solid A.
Book Thoughts:
The story starts out with Eden reflecting on the last few months of her life. She feels that people are starting to forget her, her friends, even her parents. It is like she is slipping away, becoming nothing. As she reflects, she makes a choice. Since her life isn’t going so well, she is going to end it. Almost the second she makes that decision, Az walks into her life and changes everything.
Turns out, Az is an Angel caught between worlds. He left “Upstairs” and constantly fights the battle to keep from falling “Downstairs”. In this world, there are good Angels, and bad, and also stuck in the world are those who had no path, commit suicide and now walk the earth as ‘Siders’. Eden is one who has no path.
I am still not 100% sure how I feel about this book. The first few chapters were FANTASTIC! And then…eh. It turned into completely different book. It was almost as if one person picked up where another left off, it was that different. There were a few shining moments throughout the remaining 370 or so pages. Clifford did a wonderful job conveying the pain Eden was going through, but overall, the story lost its execution after the first few pages. Though this was disappointing, I do believe if the problems with the book could have been ironed out, it would have been excellent. I will probably attempt the second in the series, hoping that the plot will be more solid. I would recommend this book for anyone who finds Angels vs. Demons novels an absolute 'must read' in their tbr piles.
Rating: 2.5/5
I am giving this rating because about half the book was good. After the first few chapters, it was touch and go. While I did read the entire book, word-for-word, I had to pull out the good and kinda forget the bad.
This is the last book of the “Touch” trilogy. Lots of betrayals between Kristen, Madeline, Luke, Eden, Az and Gabe. The reader may be confused between the Siders, angels, demons and Bound. Eden is dying by turning into ash. She wishes she could have stayed mortal and she wants to find a way to make the other Siders turn back into mortals. As in the first two books, it’s a fight between good and evil but some of those lines have been blurred by the two factions.
I had a difficult time getting through this book. I usually love paranormal YA, but this one was just confusing, dark, angsty and had a lot of twists that I couldn’t keep up with. I feel bad not giving a good review because it takes a lot of work to write a book. I would only get this one to finish the trilogy and if a student asked for it. There is not a lot of objectionable material in this book. However, a big premise of becoming a Sider is having the intent or having committed suicide. Also, giving out “The Touch” is like giving out drugs. But the author doesn’t really go into detail so it is an appropriate YA novel. I would not recommend reading the third book as a stand alone. The first two books have to be read in order to understand what might be going on. I only found one professional review, that was quite short.
WARNING: Contains Spoilers!
It's books like "A Touch Mortal" that make me mad when I finish reading them. And frustrated. So very frustrated because I feel like I should have enjoyed them a lot more than I did.
The book opens with the main character, Eden, alone on a beach thinking dark thoughts. Over the last few months of her life, people seem to be forgetting her more and more. As such Eden feels depressed. And then she meets Az. He comes onto her with a corny pick-up line but she finds herself falling for him. And he for her. This all happens in the space of three or four pages (although in the book two weeks pass), so I kind of figured the romance wasn't that important to the story (I was kind of wrong) and that the author was just setting things up for the main events.
The story mostly focus on Eden, who ends up dead shortly after meeting Az, under mysterious circumstances... but she doesn't stay dead: she turns into a "Sider".
And this was where things started to go downhill. After reading the entire book it is pretty clear the author has a very definite idea of her world and it's rules; she isn't just going with the flow... she has mapped the mythology of her world perfectly. The thing is, all that splendid world-building stayed... in her head (or notebook, or whatever).
As for the readers, we are confronted page after page with new concepts like "Siders" and "Touch" and the author's particular take on angels, but as the characters all know about these concepts they aren't explained properly to us; they're just mentioned. Even now I don't know exactly what "Touch" is or where "Siders" came from, why they appeared and all that. And strangely enough the newest Sider on the block, Eden, doesn't seem interested in learning the answer to these questions either... she is more into being a brat and seriously annoying.
As for "Az" and "Gabe" and all things related to them, I noticed some weird inconsistencies and fallacies in the 'system' so to speak. Apparently in Clifford's version of Heaven ("Upstairs") the "Bound" (good angels) won't know of your sins unless you confess them. It just didn't seem very logical. And don't even get me started on the name shortening... UGH!
So while I thought the author's idea had potential, I think she 'spent' her pages writing about things that... well, didn't matter that much (Eden and her boys and their life, etc) and should have probably taken up less space. She should then have used those extra pages for world-building.
I also had a major problem with Eden. I didn't like her. I thought she was bossy and bitchy most of the time, very emo and angsty (maybe searching for answers would have helped eh?). When you don't like the main character it is kind of hard to read the book. Plus there weren't any other characters that stood out except for James and Jarrod. Adam was one-dimensional and annoying, Gabriel was confusing, and Az was your typical "dark and tortured" guy. I'd have loved it if her characters were as fresh as her base idea.
As for story, as I said before, Clifford focused her writing on the wrong events while in the background it seemed like Gabriel was running around looking for answers (but did he ever find them? Who knows).
On a more positive note, I thought the writing was pretty engaging and kept me reading even as I was frowning at the story and character development.
Overall, "A Touch Mortal" could have been a new and fresh approach to angels. It is certainly different from the usual fare - "Hush Hush", "Fallen", etc - and much more imaginative. Pity the author didn't explore her idea in the best way (at least in my opinion) and gave us an unlikable (although I think she was going for "strong") heroine. Still curious about the world the author created (or had in mind), though.
Reviewed for: http://pinkgum.blogspot.com/
Same bat problems, same bat channel but with twisty bits. Everything we thought we knew about Eden, Gabe, Az and Luke is torn to shreds and dare I say that Morbid was even more, well… morbid and dark that A Touch Mortal? My heart ached for everyone, I wanted them all to succeed. New information leads to new betrayals and Eden has way too much on her plate with keeping Az from falling sans Gabe to link everything together.
What I really loved the best about this book was the new information on Luke and on Kristen. Clifford found a way to make you feel sympathy for even the most vile evil badasses in her cannon. We also learn a lot about the third gang of Siders and who they work for, also what their motivations are.
A Touch Morbid is a fantastic sequel and I can’t wait to read the continuation of Eden and her ragtag group of miscreants.
The story begins with Eden thinking about how her existence seems to be fading from her friends and family. She is contemplating suicide on the Jersey Shore when she is approached by two guys named Gabriel and Az. Their presence takes her mind off of suicide, but she has yet to realize that Gabriel and Az are angels. A romance begins with Az and Eden and they seem perfect for each other. Eventually, Az tells Eden that he is an angel. She has a hard time coping with the truth. She feels a sense of betrayal and then she is found dead by the ocean. It turns out that Eden was destined to become a Sider. She turns to Gabriel for help and he takes her to other Siders. Eden is trying to figure out her mission and purpose in being a Sider and she tries to make this life she didn’t ask for, work. Eden is on a path of discovery, she meets other Siders who become her friends and she begins to have romantic feelings for another guy even though she hasn’t gotten over her love for Az yet. With a final twist, Eden’s after-life keeps getting more complicated.
This book is a YA paranormal romance that uses angels and fallen angels for characters. There was a lot of religious symbolism that was not explained and it seems that the reader would have to have some background in Christianity to keep everything straight. It seems as though the Siders are in Purgatory for committing suicide, but the reader has to make that assumption. I think there is a lot of complexity to the paranormal aspect of this story. I appreciate the direction of the characters and the storyline, but it is not a light, easy read.
Overall, this book has a very dark and gothic mood. The underlying issues of suicide, sex and death make it a story for older teens. While the language is realistic, it may be a problem for school libraries. I would recommend the book for public libraries and I would recommend it to fans of paranormal fiction.
Gabe, Az and Eden are back for the follow up book to A Touch Mortal. The book jumps right into continuing the story from the first book, so the story and characters are not introduced again. Readers will be lost if they have not read the first book. Eden is still coming to terms with being a Sider. She can suck the soul/life out of humans. People become Siders when they commit suicide. However, the story is playing out that Eden had help committing suicide and that maybe she should not have been a Sider. There are elements of Angels, the Devil, schizophrenia, and runaways, but it is all very confusing and was not clear to me where the story was heading. Towards the end of the story, Kirsten was on her way to giving Luke her soul in exchange for him helping her deal with mental issues and so she would not be lonely. The story ended with the death of another character and readers are left with a cliff hanger. Is the character who just died going to be a Sider?
I just felt like there were too many characters and story lines going on that I didn’t really understand where the story was going. I could see that it was supposed to be dark and there were elements of angels vs. the devil, but I almost gave up reading it. It had been a few months since I read the first book (which I did enjoy), but I should have reread it to understand the story development. However, I did not love the first book enough to reread it. As an avid reader, I normally do not have to reread books in a series to remember who the characters were and what was going on in the story.
Besides buying this for a school or public library collection, I don’t really have any ideas as to where else this book could be used. The cover art is great and would tempt students into picking it up. I would actually not even recommend buying this book for the school library unless you have the first one AND a student requests it. I would agree with the Kirkus review that states it’s “chaotic”.
Series: A Touch Mortal #1
Author: Leah Clifford
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 419
Source: Library
My (High!) Opinion : This book was pretty good considering it was a bit of a zombish(is that even a word?) book.
I thought the concept of Siders and the Touch... I think the author made it clear, just that i didn't grasp the idea.
The writing was particularly good, and had a way to get me thinking about the book after finishing it. The words were meaningful.
I loved the cover. I figured out it was Eden since they talked about her having pink streaks in her hair... like the girl on the cover.
I didn't like the way Az tried to get Eden to kill herself... He could have just told her everything!
I finally have to say that I can't wait to read the sequel to this; A Touch Morbid.
4/5 stars!
Quick & Dirty: About a hundred pages shorter than A Touch Mortal, this sequel is a cliff-hanger with the same drawbacks as book one — but it does leave you excited for the final installment.
Opening Sentence: When the kitten broke out of the shadows in front of Gabe, he’d though it was a rat until he heard the pathetic mewling.
The Review:
Clifford takes a standard paranormal theme — Angels — and makes sure to run as far away from the stereotype as she can. Which is refreshing, but sometimes she missteps and makes you long to defenestrate this sequel. Eden, our heroine, goes through a lot in this novel and grows as a character. I still didn’t like her until the very end. (This happened in A Touch Mortal too, where I couldn’t get over her idiocy until the last 50 pages.) A Touch Mortal glamorized suicide and depression. A Touch Morbid didn’t do much better, condemning the suicide victims to hell. Even the ones that Eden killed with her Touch. You could say I’m not a happy camper with the way Clifford’s world-building holds up.
Gabe has fallen. Az is….almost falling. Kristen’s schizophrenia is back, and he’s not around to help her. Luke is bent on revenge and Madeline tugs at your heartstrings with her flavor of crazy. Jarrod is loyal to the end (I love him!) and Eden has stopped killing Siders. The cast of characters is way too big. I wish Clifford had made Madeline and Luke the main heroine/hero, because I loved to hate them (and loved to love them) and their relationship. I was much more invested in them than in anything Eden and Az did.
As it is we see a shift in the group dynamics. Jarrod points out all the changes in Eden the reader fails to notice from her point of view. Luke turns out not to be such a bad guy, which makes our gang of heroes seem really self-serving, and I liked him a lot. There are a lot more hot scenes in this novel, and it grows darker as the characters develop and grow.
Free will and choice come into play much more in A Touch Morbid than in the first book, but it felt like Clifford was rooting for Fate. It felt like every time a character had a choice, they either screwed up or made the bad call. The characters keep secrets from each other, just like in A Touch Mortal, and they never learned. Her writing is excellent, with some snarky wit that made me laugh and lighten the mood, but it wasn’t enough to make me like the novel. And the cliffhanger at the end? Lord, is that a rough way to leave an audience!
This book felt more balanced than its prequel in a lot of ways — probably because we got out of Eden and Az’s heads more and into characters I actually liked — but the problems from the first book persist. (And will probably continue throughout the series.) I just can’t bring myself to like or recommend a novel where suicide is whatever. On the other hand, this novel doesn’t make me go ragey – rage the way the first one does, so that’s something. I doubt I’ll be picking up A Touch Menacing, even though I think it’ll deliver the heartbreak and angst I love in my YAs.
Notable Scene:
“Eden, what the fuck is going on?” Jarrod demanded.
She trembled, Az’s tremors running through her. “The Bound,” she managed.
Jarrod’s mouth dropped open. They’d been a threat, but a nightmare one. Distant. “You saw them? Is he hurt?”
Az’s legs went out. He slammed his hands over his ears, his fingers digging into the sides of his head as he dropped to his knees, rolled over onto his side.
“No, Az!” Eden dropped, grabbed Az’s fingers and pried them away. “He’s Falling.”
FTC Advisory: Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of A Touch Morbid. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Quick & Dirty: Based on interesting mythology, the switches in POVs and insta-love between Eden and Az were serious drawbacks that kept me from getting seriously invested in the plot or characters. A Touch Mortal makes light of teen suicide and depression, which made me resent it.
Opening Sentence: Eden dug her hand into the damp sand, black polish chipping off the tips of her fingernails.
The Review:
At the very beginning of the novel, our heroine is thinking about committing suicide. Her family and friends don’t seem to care about her — they’ve been ignoring her for weeks — and so she’s sitting on the beach at sunset. And a hot, paragon of a guy walks up to her and she decides to keep living. No, seriously. It takes three pages for her to fall in love.
Put on Face of Judgment. I have a serious problem with authors making their characters live for a man — this happened in Bewitching by Alex Flinn too — so you should know I had a problem with this novel from the get-go.
Eden is something called a Sider. Basically, it’s a teenager who goes down a dark path like Eden (or no path? This part was confusing.) and ultimately kills themselves. (The dark side, contrary to propaganda, does not have cookies.) A Sider lives out their immortal life in a horribly-ever-after, where they need Touch to survive. It’s confusing and complicated and really cool, because it puts our heroine in a life-or-death limbo. She has to Touch mortals and it’s a shot in the dark whether her Touch will make them very happy or depressed enough to off themselves. Explanations for the world of Siders, Angels, Fallen, Damned, are scattered throughout the novel. Clifford did a great job of making sure not to throw too much at her readers at once, while also crediting us with enough intelligence to figure out what she’s talking about.
Eden’s character felt false for a very long time — actually, it wasn’t until I finished the book that I finally looked back over how she grew through the novel and appreciated her. Her confidence grows as she begins to become more independent and understands her powers. Her insta-love with Az? Strike one. He uses a really cheesy pick-up line and she goes out with him and it’s all true love and rainbows. Honestly, it’s what made me doubt her intelligence for the first half of the novel.
And then there’s the fact that no matter how many times they made out and told each other they were in love, I didn’t believe them. It felt like some hot-and-heavy lust from two teenagers — not a happily-ever-after, true love deal. Also, there’s this whole Az-being-her-former-lover-who-betrayed-her thing that I couldn’t get over. I mean, Az and Gabe convince Eden to kill herself. So the romance was a major miss for me, and kinda screwed over any chance this book had of getting a high rating.
A Touch Mortal is a lot darker than more paranormals I’m used to — and not just because our heroine is very Goth. (In fact, very stereotypically Goth.) I like all the mythos and world-building that Clifford dropped in to establish the trilogy, there were a lot of characters that showed up because they’ll have a bigger role later. They bogged down the story, but at the same time took me away from Eden and Az, who I didn’t like at all until the very end.
It glamourizes teenage suicide and depression, issues very close to my heart, which made it impossible to give a higher rating.
Notable Scene:
Her face paled when he moved toward her. “Don’t come any closer!” He froze, but she stepped back anyway.
“Eden, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”
“Is that, like, an angel rule or something?” she asked, her breaths coming faster.
Az winced. “No, it’s a boyfriend rule. Not all angels are good.”
“Neither are all boyfriends.”
“I used to be the good kind. Of angel,” he clarified. “Bound, like Gabriel. I got in trouble. The wings, they’re like probation.” He forced himself to stop the ramble and met her eyes.
“Gabe too?” She took a shuddering breath, shaking her head. “No. No, I’ve seen Gabe with his shirt off. I’ve goneswimming with him.”
Az nodded. “The Bound don’t have wings. Neither do the Fallen.” So Fall. Lose the wings and you’ll look normal enough for her to love you.
FTC Advisory: Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of A Touch Mortal. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Gabriel is bound and Az is not. Gabriel is trying to prevent Az from becoming one of the fallen. Luke wants to push Az over the edge, so that he will join him in the ranks of the fallen. He has tortured everyone that Az has cared about in order to persuade him to his side without fail. But that was before Eden.
Eden dies and Gabriel and Az arrange for her to stay with Kristen in the city. Kristen is also a Sider and is supposed to show her the ropes of giving touch and what exactly everything means. When Eden wakes up in Kristen’s house after supposedly dying in the ocean, she is sure what to expect. Kristen teaches her and Eden finds out by mistake that she has a gift that not all Siders have. Kristen locks her away to become one of the “Screamers,” those who are locked in room and scream.
Eden sees Az again and is angry with him when she realizes that he know what she is, he is alive and he knew what would happen. Az is on the verge of falling completely and so must be removed by Gabriel. Kristen promises Az that she won’t hurt Eden, but that doesn’t mean she won’t lock her up again. When Kristen is gone, Adam, a fellow Sider helps her escape. They leave Kristen’s house and start off on their own. What will happen when other siders realize that Eden can help them? Will Luke ever stop trying to hurt Az? Will Az fall?
I first heard of this book while at another book signing. I immediately put it on my TBR list and just never got around to reading it. I really liked that this book gives you a different angle on the angel story. I really like the way that Clifford writes. She draws you in with the emotions that are felt from Eden and Az.
Cover:
On the cover is a girl with dark hair with burgundy highlights. I’m presuming this to be Eve. I like the contrast in colors on the cover. I like the quote on the front of the book: “She’s been betrayed by life by love and by death.”
I Like:
•Eden. She is a Sider, which meant she would’ve committed suicide and has to spend eternity spreading touch to survive. Eden doesn’t like spreading touch because that makes the people she touches have bad thoughts or do bad things.
•Az. He loves Eden. Plain and simple. You can easily see how much he cares for her when he talks to Gabriel and what Luke has done to girls he liked in the past.
•Gabriel. He is Az’s friend and is also Bound. He is trying to prevent Az from falling completely, which isn’t always an easy task. He is there for Kristen and Eden, just as he is for Az.
I did not like:
•Luke. Why must there always be someone who has to mettle in things and make it hard for people. I guess it wouldn’t be a good story if there wasn’t though. He is trying to “help” Az fall, so he can join his ranks.
•The swearing in the book. I knew to expect it though. I had first heard about this book from Leah Clifford’s mom, who sat next to me during a Maggie Stiefvater book signing. She told me that it was a good book, but there was a lot of swearing and f-bombs. “I don’t know where she gets that from,” she told me.
•Libby. She is the Sider that Eden, Adam, Jarrod and James took in. There is just something about her that rubs me the wrong way. She seemed too eager in the beginning. Kind of like your much younger sibling wanting to hang out with you and thinking everything is cool.
I was sympathetic for Eden at the beginning of the story. Then she meets Az and before you know it they are in love. Unfortunately this is where things began to sour for me. There was very little development of the relationship in action. The reader is told that this happens and that happens, time passes, but it was not ever shown. I could not connect with Az, simply because it seemed like there was not a chance to get to know him. Thus, I could not enjoy the relationship between Az and Eden because I simply did not care. Gabriel was more interesting a character, and I actually got a chance to get to know him, so I kept rooting for a relationship between him and Eden.
The overall storyline is a little bit confusing. It takes some time to understand and get a hang of the idea of Touch. I do want to comment, however, to say that I love that the author took angel/demons and spun the mythology to make it her own. I respect that quite a lot. This book, though, seemed to try to do and be too much. Perhaps if the pacing/timing was reworked I would like this more, but the way it stands I do not. I was unable to come to a point where I truly cared about the characters.
Overall, this was an incredibly disappointing read for me. There were elements that intrigued me, such as the Touch factor, but for the most part I am not a fan of the series. Others have absolutely loved this book, however, so if you want to read it definitely go for it. It is just not for me. Fans of Fallen by Lauren Kate or Unearthly by Cynthia Hand may enjoy this. It also has a zombielike element, so fans of zombie fiction may enjoy this as well.
One big difference from book one is that there aren't time skips. The second is that Jarrod and Kristen have become narrators as well. Jarrod's relationship with a mortal brings another important character into the story while Kristen's narrative opens us to another side of a key character. Jarrod's perspective becomes crucial in pointing out changes in Eden that we wouldn't pay attention to otherwise, and it allows us to see the changing dynamics in the group's functions with Adam and Libby out of the picture.
As I mentioned earlier, there is more dark and sexy in this book. Leah further develops character relationships. Prepare yourself for hot scenes, sweet scenes, and some surprising reveals. I found myself falling in love and/or sympathizing with characters that I wanted to hate, and I fell deeper in love with characters that I liked from book one.
Eden forms new alliances, and she faces old friends in new lights. As Eden learns more about Siders, she faces new, dangerous threats that may potentially bring about her downfall. I eagerly anticipate book three in Leah Clifford A Touch trilogy!
In a couple of weeks, Leah Clifford will be hosting her InsaniTEA Party at my local bookstore for the release of the second book in her A Touch Mortal series, A Touch Morbid, so I thought I should probably get around to reading the first book. I picked up A Touch Mortal last year when Leah was at Schuler Books promoting the book. I had had every intention of reading it then, but for those following along, a lot happened between then and now, and I didn't, plain and simple. So I picked it up the other night and pretty much read it in two sittings.
It's a fairly quick read, which honestly surprised me. It was also easy to get into. I find that I have a hard time getting into the flow of a story with some books, but Leah seemed to make hers relatively easy, and I found myself reading along, enjoying where the story was going, even when it was becoming apparent what was going to be happening to out heroine, Eden. I feel like I should be up front with about what happens, because if someone is reading this who might have a problem with the subject, maybe this will give them fair warning. Eden commits suicide. She does this fairly early on in the book, after she met the love of her life, Az, an almost Fallen angel. Az is afraid that the Fallen are going to find out about Eden, and torture her to try to get Az to complete his Fall, so he plays a hand in her committing suicide, to protect her. This is where some will need to have a little suspension of disbelief, because that doesn't really sound like a win/win situation for Eden, does it?
Anyway, I was going with the flow of the story up to the point. Eden becomes a Sider. She is more or less alive again, but her entire mortal existence has been erased from the memories of everyone she knew. She'll live forever; and she now has Touch. What is Touch, exactly? I have no idea. I don't know if the characters know what it is. I don't even know if Leah Clifford knows what it is. This is where I started to dislike the book. A lot. This key element, Touch, is never really explained, unless I missed a big chuck of the story. Eden is told she has Touch, needs to pass off Touch to mortals so that it doesn't build up in her system, and she just accepts it and carries on. No explanation. No questioning what it it. She just accepts it at face value, and the readers are forced to accept it at face value because there is never an explanation. By the time I realized how much I was frustrated by this one lacking key explanation to a key plot point, I was well over half way through the book, so I figured at this point, it was a quick read, so maybe Clifford explained it by the end. Just for those keeping track, she doesn't.
However, at some point through the last 1/3 of the book, I discovered that I was really enjoying the story, was engaged with the characters, wanted to see how things were going to end with this book, questions about Touch be damned. I had already figured out some of the twists of the story and was fairly sure I knew why things were happening the way they were. My reservations and questions about the purpose of Touch aside, I really ended up finding that I enjoyed A Touch Mortal. I'm just hoping that these questions are answered in the next book.
I’m more than ecstatic that we get to see Jarrod’s POV in this book. He is by far my favorite character now. I’m absolutely Team Jarrod! I have a soft spot in my heart for him…he is awesomely, amazingly sweet!
Close to the end of ATM1, and throughout ATM2, I totally began to understand why people have the hots for Luke. I even had to keep telling myself, “He’s Lucifer! He’s evil! He’s not hot! I’m not supposed to like him!” I had to do this because he IS the very definition of HOT. And, I think that’s one of the reasons why he could be considered The Perfect Villain!
There is also a lot more of Az in ATM2. And even though I think he is perfect for Eden and he’s pretty hot too, I still had trouble truly connecting with his character. I found myself always contemplating his motives for his actions. To me, he seems to just keep making one idiotic decision after another.
All the characters seem to have major trust issues, and you will totally understand why when you read ATM2. Even Eden has her own secrets, but for the most part Eden and Jarrod are the most honest characters in ATM2, and they both are consistently trying to do what they feel is right. That is why I admire their characters so much.
The character I would like to see more of is Zach…is that the name of the Java Boy? I absolutely suck with names, but I’m pretty sure that is his name. I think he could bring a lot to the story if we get to see more of him in the future book(s).
Ultimately, a possible horrific fate hangs in the balance for Eden, Kristen, Gabe and Az. And that’s one of the main reasons this book kept me intrigued throughout.
Leah Clifford’s books are very different from the books that I’m normally used to reading. Her books are very dark and demented…and they contain a lot of lies and betrayals, and there are some pretty awesome twists throughout. While reading, you totally have to expect the unexpected because there is no way that you could possibly guess where this story would lead. And this is what makes Leah Clifford a totally awesome, creative author…with an extremely demented imagination!
Eden and Az are finally together, but it definitely isn't happily ever after. They're keeping secrets from each other, major secrets that will can change everything, and they're just barely holding on to each other. I have to say that I honestly would just love it if Eden were to somehow end up with Gabe, because I much prefer that pairing to Eden and Az. That is just wishful thinking on my part though.
Alliances are also changing. Whereas Kristen and Eden reluctantly worked with each other in A Touch Mortal, in Morbid we see more of Madeleine and Eden working together in a way, and Kristen going to someone else for help, since Gabe isn't around to do what needs to be done. Also, while we do see snippets of Gabe here and there throughout the story, it wasn't enough. I'm hoping to see more of him in the third book.
Overall the book was just as good as A Touch Mortal, but the pacing might throw some people off. I kind of felt like I was waiting for something to happen most of the time, and then everything seemed to come together in an action packed end.
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Leah Clifford ist ein LibraryThing-Autor, ein Autor, der seine persönliche Bibliothek in LibraryThing auflistet.
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Set in a world where a small group of humans are born with a genetic mutation that allows them to heal wounds absurdly fast (including many kinds of life threatening injuries and even survive death), this small community of resurrectionists dedicate their lives towards charging hefty fees for bringing the recently deceased back to life. Their society is disperse with a middleman that handles the money and legitimacy of each gig along with a cleaning system that kills humans that harm their people in order to obtain the secret to their fountain of life for personal profit.
Allie knows all too well the bad aspects of the life she was born into. After having her parents murdered at the hands of a former client that couldn't pay the bills, she briefly lives with her aunt Sarah that is the middleman in charge of her working area and learns the management aspects of the profession. Tired of the perils of this life, she decided to move into a modest apartment and frequents homeless communities where she befriends two teenage guys: Brandon and Ploy.
When Brandon is brutally murdered for his blood, she turns to the mysterious but friendly Ploy that sometimes sleeps on her couch for his help without knowing he has a dark secret as well that haunts him incessantly during the novel.
Filled with believable and interesting characters, Allie is distrustful but yearns for love, Ploy is brave but at the same time self-loathing because he doesn't stand up to himself and the villain Jamison is a terrifying yet convincing psychopath that manipulates everyone around him for his ulterior goal. If there is one flaw of the novel, I am sort of confused as to where Jamison and Allie grew up. Allie comments her parents used to live in Ohio whereas it seems like Jamison grew up in the outskirts of Fissure's Peak. If you read the book, you'll agree with me that it's a bit confusing.
Otherwise, it's an exciting and refreshing thriller/dark fantasy read with tints of believable romance and interesting characters. Highly recommended!