Touching Strangers

by Stacey Madden

Aaron Cordic and Samantha Riske are a couple of twenty-something hypochondriacs living in east-end Toronto. While Aaron works part-time at a bathroom supply store, donning surgical masks, plastic gloves, and a backpack full of sanitary products, Samantha hides herself away in their apartment, tip-toeing around naked and spying on the neighbours. Between paranoid trips to the doctor and extremely intimate examinations of each other's bodies, they've managed to eke out an isolated and highly sterilized existence. Then, one day, birds begin falling from the sky as numerous tenants in their building become mysteriously ill. Before long, a pandemic known as Buzzard Flu has swept across the city, and Aaron and Samantha must come to terms with the all-too-real possibility that disease, or even death, could finally be at hand. But is Buzzard Flu the biggest problem the couple must face? Or does a more dangerous killer lurk closer to home. By turns disturbing, uplifting, funny, and weirdly erotic, Touching Strangers examines what it means to be young and afraid in a world more hazardous than we want to believe.

198 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2017

About the author

Stacey Madden is a writer based in Toronto.

He is the author of the novels Poison Shy, and Touching Strangers.

Reviews

[Sandysbookaday (on indefinite hiatus)]

I listened to 20% of this, and sorry, it just wasn't for me.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars out of 5.​
Like a cherry milkshake;​ ​satisfyingly sweet​ and ​cloying​ all at once. ​​Madden whips up a tale rife with ​subtle ​sentimentality, ​antipathy​, brutal honesty​,​ an​d raw sexuality​.​ Touching Strangers rams present day life in Toronto (any city) smack up against an R-rated apocalypse​. ​It's a​ ​quick ​romp from ​which ​you'll​​ emerge ​​debating the need to​ masturbate, text an ex, or shower first.​

Hoping not to wait another five years until his next offering.

[Elli Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Satisfying Rummage Through Tangled Minds and Stories

💛 This is all about delightfully dysfunctional lives and those who lead them. There’s drama, there’s action, but behind it all is a thread of comedy.

💚 So, what are we dealing with? One building, one bird flu pandemic, a smorgasbord of fascinating characters. And, let me tell you, Madden created quite the cast. They are so vivid, complex and raw, it felt voyeuristic to intrude on their thoughts. In a good way. I particularly liked the relationship between main characters Aaron and Samantha. You could see how it had built over time and why.

💜 As the pandemic unfolds, the plot weaves from one narrative to the next, tying them closer and closer together.

❤️️ I’m not opposed to, but am not generally a fan of erotica. But I thought the use of it here was clever. It was both weapon and exposition. And, at times, just funny.

Soundbite

🎧 The production of this book was excellent and just as unique as the story itself. It’s a mix between recorded performance and audiobook. Told from several perspectives, there is one male and one female narrator to take on respective roles according to gender. What I found so interesting was that dialogue was always split. So, when a male narrator was speaking to a female, the voices would accord. I thought it worked really well, especially as other sound effects were minimal.

🎧 Narrators Nate Drury and Cherlanda Estrada were great to listen to. They brought characters to life with nuance and versatility.

Shall I Compare Thee To...

2021 seems to be the year of the off-beat and darkly comic. This falls nicely in line with TV shows like Physical, Mr Corman and Glow.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Now or Never Publishing for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.

Find more bird’s eye audiobooks reviews at Audiobooks Nest.

[Kirsty (BookBlogger) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching Strangers - Stacey Madden
Narrated by Cherlanda Estrada and Nate Drury

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Now or Never Publishing and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Aaron Cordic and Samantha Riske are a couple of twenty-something hypochondriacs living in east-end Toronto. While Aaron works part-time at a bathroom supply store, donning surgical masks, plastic gloves, and a backpack full of sanitary products, Samantha hides herself away in their apartment, tip-toeing around naked and spying on the neighbours. Between paranoid trips to the doctor and extremely intimate examinations of each other's bodies, they've managed to eke out an isolated and highly sterilized existence.

Listening to this during a global pandemic was a little off-putting. It was a strange feeling finding out that this book had originally been published back in 2017. This is a very quick read - the audiobook is only 6 hours.

Honestly, having lived through a pandemic, I thought that that this was a refreshing read to see what Stacey had predicted would happen during a pandemic. Warning: this book contains a lot of smut.

Rating: 4/5

[Lorraine Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

For most of the book, the adjective I would use to describe it would be either surreal or bizarre. When I got to the end, the only one applicable would be pointless. I would agree with the blurb in that it is disturbing, but I can't see anything uplifting or funny about this story at all. Most of the characters are horrible, including Samantha, and the ending is atrocious. I also think that releasing this book during a global pandemic is disturbing.

The only positive I can furnish would be for the audio, which was excellently produced - I loved the two narrators and the way the dialogue was recorded.

Many thanks to NetGallery and ECW Press Audio for allowing me the chance to listen to the book - it is regrettable that I couldn't leave a more positive review.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full transparency time: I did not finish this book. Made it about halfway through when I finally had to tap out, for two primary reasons: 1) I've been struggling a lot with specific anxieties over the past year or so and found this to be super triggering and gross in some ways (mostly medical); and 2) the sex/physicality is super male-gazey in a way that feels incredibly pronounced and hard to break through, especially as someone not driven by either sex or physicality. Tl;dr, I couldn't relate to most things in this book, and the things I could were deeply uncomfortable and made me want to crawl out of my skin. It's will written, certainly, but tonally not for me. Not at all.

[Heather Judson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to make of this book at first. I picked it up at the library and the synopsis on the back of the cover made me bring hit home. This story is quirky and offbeat, but not in an annoying way. The two main characters, Samantha and Aaron manage to be highly OCD but also endearing - not that one precludes the other, of course. I'll definitely look for more Stacey Madden books.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even know how to describe this book! It made me sad, made me laugh, made me think. I guess I'd settle on a dark comedy. I thought the characters were really deep and interesting, and I loved how everyone was connected. The audio performance was especially fun to listen to.

[Jocelyn Pendermere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and weird (in a good way), filled with interesting characters who aren't often written about in commercial fiction.

[Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A germaphobic romp.

[Amy Verhulst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was different… 2 hypochondriacs, lots of sex, very descriptive writing. I couldn’t stop listening to it. Just what I needed. Perfect read for the pandemic!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is hard to wrap your head around. Who ever thought that chronicling extremely germophobic voyeurs could even work?!?