A Mind is a Terrible ThingSally suffers from a the ability to Touch others and see their thoughts. Witness to the worst innermost secrets of others, she's been driven to a life of seclusion. But when a new danger threatens her and those around her, she must overcome her fears to bring justice to a deranged killer.Witness the debut work of independent author Garrett Robinson and the beginning of one of his most beloved series."Make no mistake, Garrett will be a name you know."—David W. Wright, author of Yesterday's Gone
I liked the premise, and I like the execution of it. My biggest disappointment was how short it is. I see I actually picked up the trilogy some time back as an omnibus, so I'll finish up the series there.
Your thoughts are a private thing, but for one woman a brief moment of skin-to-skin contact reveals those thoughts to her in Garrett Robinson’s Touch: A Novella.
Sally has lived with a strange affliction of being able to know the thoughts of other people via Touch; she has no understanding how or why she experiences this, she just does. As a result, she’s expended a lot of effort in shaping her life to cope with her aversion to being around a lot of people, including taking a job cleaning an office during night hours. When arriving home after work to a swarm of police outside her apartment building that causes her apprehension, she learns that her kind, elderly neighbor was killed. With few to no leads to solve what seems to be a random murder, Sally realizes that her ability may be useful in getting justice for the old woman she considers a friend. In her investigation that uses her natural and unnatural powers of observation, Sally comes in contact with enemies who reinforce her decision on how she’d been living as well as a few new friends, making her reevaluate her previously resigned and reclusive lifestyle.
Knowing the thoughts of others is an ability that would be both fearsome and fascinating because you don’t know what you’ll find and you will likely not enjoy much of what you “overhear”; the character of Sally conveys this concept well through her meek demeanor and behavior tendencies of avoidance of others and then her gradual determination and action to potentially make the ability she feared useful. This novella moves through events fairly quickly, feeling like a pilot episode of a series being developed, outlining the basics of the characters involved and of Sally’s ability. Though the narrative provides a bit of mystery and misdirection to go along with the inhuman Touch talent, the most intriguing aspect of the origin of this ability isn’t really addressed and remains a mystery with no answers that would help provide clarification for the logistics that govern this world and the question raised as to what other abilities might be lurking within other people in Sally’s life.
Imagine that when you make skin contact with someone, you can read their thoughts… no, really think about it. Would you be signing up to be a member of the X-men or would you be trying super hard NOT to touch anyone? This is the problem for the main character, Sally. But she’s young and pretty and she misses being touched. She sees it as a terrifying burden, until her apartment neighbour is murdered and then she wonders if her ability can be used to find the murderer? *** It’s a short ebook that was given away by the author when you sign up for his website (amongst other works). http://garrettbrobinson.com/
I’ve often wondered about living with issues like this - a-la Rogue of the X-men - and clearly Garrett has too. I think touch is severely underrated as a form of affection, or interaction. 3 stars
The main character has a curse; she can't come into physical contact with anybody without being overwhelmed by their thoughts and emotions and whatever they are thinking about at the time...which if she is touching them often means that they're thinking about her. She decides to play junior detective after discovering that her neighbor was murdered one night...I especially found it interesting that her ability includes touching animals (specifically, the neighbor's cat) along with other humans.