Whenever I begin a book–whether I know the genre or not–I am tempted to categorize it. You know how that goes: you read a few paragraphs or a chapter, and you go, ‘Oh, I see. This is supposed to be a thriller!’ or whatever the case may be. Even after reading the blurb for Ey Wade’s ‘When Clouds Touch’, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I loosely categorized it in my mind as a romance. Then almost immediately as I began reading, I realized that this wasn’t going to be the same ol’-same ol’.
The premise, of soul-mates flitting about the outskirts of each other’s lives until the time of their predestined meeting, is novel but not unprecedented. What made it intriguing was the complete ‘otherness’ of the main characters. Paisley is a young woman grappling with what it means to be on her own for the first time in her life, struggling with overbearing parents and a desire to become her own person. So far not particularly remarkable, right? But Paisley is Japanese-American and her parents are very traditional, very protective. And added to that, Paisley has albinism which renders her legally blind. She also has congenital heart disease, a condition which–her parents often remind her–once killed her as a baby before she was revived.
Paisley’s “condition” is the tether that binds her to her parents in a way that she has always felt was stifling. But the path of least resistance for her has always been to … not resist. Except now, attending school and living on her own, she is finally on the cusp of independence, as long as she can convince her parents that she is being attentive to her health.
Enter Malachi.
He is a handsome East Asian man whom Paisley has known literally all her life, earthly and before. Though they have never actually met, nor spoken to each other, Paisley and Malachi’s souls were bound before their birth and they have been ever-present in each other’s lives from the time they were infants; always on the cusp, but never quite meeting.
When finally they do meet, in a minor mishap as she enters the building where he works, Paisley and Malachi quickly dispense with coy mating rituals and pour themselves into each other, recognizing their other half almost immediately. But there is still the pesky issue of Paisley’s health and her oppressively over-protective parents who in an effort to save her life have denied her the pleasures of living. This includes things as extreme as confiscating her phone to prevent her from contacting Malachi, and keeping her a virtual prisoner in their home when they grow concerned about this new attachment she’s formed.
Malachi‘When Clouds Touch’ is a love story, but also struck me as being a fairy tale in the best sense. Paisley has an otherworldly quality in appearance that cause people to stop and stare; and a princess-like isolation from the real world, that is similar to Rapunzel locked in the tower. Because of her isolation, and because she recognizes Malachi as her meant-to-be, she wastes no time in letting him know that she is devoted to him. Malachi is her prince, seeking to rescue her from the tower, using first his charm and eventually his smarts to overcome Paisley’s parents’ resistance. All the things that Paisley hasn’t seen, he is determined to show her; and if she asks, he can’t say ‘no’ even when saying ‘yes’ puts her health and life at risk. No time is wasted in this book with the sometimes tedious ‘love-me, love-me-not’ stuff. Paisley and Malachi’s conflicts come from the limitations she has because of her health, and from her parents’ well-intentioned but damaging hovering and intervention.
At first, as I read, I was waiting for ‘When Clouds Touch’ to show its romance-novel chops and become the kind of book one expects from that genre. But it never did. And the story was better off for it. When I let go of my preconceptions, the story and its characters settled in for me. I stopped expecting Paisley and Malachi to relate to each other as traditional romance novel heroes and heroines do, and I came to accept it as it was.
Ey Wade’s writing is worthy of note as well, because it gave the story an almost mythical quality which I believe was fully intended. The imagery had a wistful, dreamlike feel, particularly in the scenes that played out in a field of bluebonnets, and at a festival that left the pale-as-a-ghost Paisley covered in all the colors of the rainbow. The color in those scenes for me symbolized the color and depth that Malachi brought to Paisley’s previously monochromatic life, and added to the overall mystical feel of the story. Although at times I found the dialogue a little ‘romantic’ or sentimental, at other times it fit perfectly the theme of a love and bond that transcended time and space. And there was also something brave about the sentimentality when most writers these days (myself included) seem to be striving for the opposite by writing stories with gritty realism (but with a billionaire or two thrown in). So I applaud Ey Wade for going where so few writers dare to tread–not only in her style but in the unexpected, though not unsatisfactory climax to her book.
‘When Clouds Touch’ left me curious about what I may be missing by not having read other work by this author. But I suspect that when I do, those stories will–like this book–be somewhat magical, somewhat unexpected.