Goodreads Rating: 4.09
Pages: 235
Format: ARC
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.
So not amused by this book. It reminded me exactly of Cursed, with a different twist of having a thirteenth zodiac sign instead of people just being born with different powers. They follow almost the same plot line, and lead to the same sort of ending except that Touch of Death is a series instead of a standalone. I like how this book does have a second book because there were a lot of unanswered questions, but I also thought that had they lengthened it a little bit, they probably could have just made it one book. That statement is also made not knowing what is going to happen in the next book/s.
Another book that this one reminded me painfully of was Undeadly. Both books are about young necromancer girls who come unto their power, unknowingly raise their boyfriends and then are shipped off to “schools” that help them develop their powers. I did like Touch of Death better than Undeadly because Jodi was a much better main character. While she was imperfect and at times annoying, she was also a lot more human and like a teenager girl. There were a few things that her reaction was a little strange like touching the deer she hit with her car or talking to the guy she thought was stalking her, but really it was just stupid.
It was also annoying how much she cut herself, I can understand being clumsy, but girlfriend, you gotta watch yourself on rusty nails and everything. I also understand That it was important to the plot progression, I just felt like it was silly. This whole book felt silly really. I wasn’t very partial to the plot and several times, I wanted to give up on it. The writing wasn’t even the problem, I had more of a problem with events that happened in the book and how the plot unfolded than I did with the characterization.
I did also find it strange that she was homeschooled by her teen mom until her senior year so that she could have something for her college applications. I understand, sure, being homeschooled, but then her mom wouldn’t let her in the house alone with boys, which again, was fine, but what did she do while she worked with her daughter? Nothing else was indicated, and even if her parents helped her out, I’m sure they had their own jobs to go to, so they couldn’t watch their granddaughter. The homeschooling was interesting, but it would have been maybe even easier had Hashway just stated that she was new to the school district because she moved there.
I had serious respect though for the fact that Jodi and Alex did not have instalove. Their relationship grew, and while she did give him more that she should have when she thought he was a stalker, I liked that she took her time to grieve over Matt and that she felt confused and wrong about having feelings for Alex. I did sort of like him, but mostly I felt bad for him because of his parents and how they seemed to treat him like he was nothing to him. No child deserves that.
All in all, I don’t think I’ll be reading the second book just because I felt ambivalent towards the first one, and I’m not sure how much that will change for the second one, but maybe I will check it out.
The Courts Decision:
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