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Touch by Claire North
Jul. 11th, 2020 10:15 amTouch
3/5. A person who can jump from body to body with a touch of bare skin is pursued by an organization bent on killing such ghosts, and in turn pursues a sociopathic body-jumper.
AKA a lesser monster goes after a greater monster. North is very good at thinking through the implications of a premise, and this book has terrific sequences of body-jumping shenanigans, like the protagonist fleeing in the body of the man who tried to assassinate them, occasionally jumping to someone else and trying to talk to the assassin. And there's a whole sequence of body-jumping through airports that – and I never say this – would be really cool on film. Also some gender fluidity, as the protagonist generally leans into identity as projected by the body they're in, to varying results, like guessing an accent entirely wrong based on skin color.
But otherwise this is about unpleasant people being unpleasant, and the through line about how identity arises from the body doesn't develop into any of the cool places I was hoping, but instead swerves into this whole thing about yearning to be loved that just did not work for me at all.
3/5. A person who can jump from body to body with a touch of bare skin is pursued by an organization bent on killing such ghosts, and in turn pursues a sociopathic body-jumper.
AKA a lesser monster goes after a greater monster. North is very good at thinking through the implications of a premise, and this book has terrific sequences of body-jumping shenanigans, like the protagonist fleeing in the body of the man who tried to assassinate them, occasionally jumping to someone else and trying to talk to the assassin. And there's a whole sequence of body-jumping through airports that – and I never say this – would be really cool on film. Also some gender fluidity, as the protagonist generally leans into identity as projected by the body they're in, to varying results, like guessing an accent entirely wrong based on skin color.
But otherwise this is about unpleasant people being unpleasant, and the through line about how identity arises from the body doesn't develop into any of the cool places I was hoping, but instead swerves into this whole thing about yearning to be loved that just did not work for me at all.