Three months ago, Emma's life shattered when her boyfriend
Nathan died in a car accident. She didn't know how to
survive without him. One month ago, Emma began to see the
dead. This power has made her and everyone she cares for a
target. The Queen of the Dead wants Emma to become a true
Necromancer, someone who can use the power of the dead to
wield magic that could make her immortal. To tempt her, the
Queen sends Nathan home. All she wants him to do is be with
Emma. Emma knows that becoming a Necromancer will change her
into someone dark, someone that isn't her. If she doesn't
join the Queen, her friends will be hunted. If she doesn't
join the Queen, she will never see Nathan again.
TOUCH by Michelle Sagara is book two of The Queen of the
Dead series. Within the first four pages, Sagara had
brought
me to tears with her poignant prose that captures the pain
of death and loss. Lyrical and heartbreaking writing explore
the internal barriers within the scenes of intense emotional
conflict. Those scenes are really what made this a
phenomenal story and proved Michelle Sagara's talent and
insight as a writer. Without slipping into sentimentality or
overly angsty teen drama, Sagara conveys the absolute worst
emotional turmoil within a person. Compared to the intense
emotional conflict within individual characters the physical
confrontations between Emma and the Necromancers felt slow.
They were well written and advanced the plot, but the heart
of this story really does lie in the internal conflict.
Lyrical, compelling, and beautifully poignant, TOUCH by
Michelle Sagara is a must read. I'll be waiting anxiously
for the third book in The Queen of the Dead series to
hit
the shelves. TOUCH is an intelligent and compassionate novel
that will enthrall you from the very first words.
Nathan died in the summer before his final year in high
school, leaving behind a mother who was devoted to him and a
girlfriend he loved. His mother and his girlfriend, Emma,
are still alive; Nathan is not. But he wakes in his room—or
in the shrine his mother’s made of his room—confused, cold,
and unable to interact with anyone or anything he sees. The
only clear memory he has is a dream of a shining city, and
its glorious queen, but the dream fades, until he once again
meets Emma—by the side of his own grave.
Nathan wants life. He wants Emma. He wants warmth,
sensation, a sleep that doesn’t leave him confused and
aching.
But the cost, to Emma, will be incalculably high—because
Emma just might be able to give him what he wants.