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Touch: A Trilogy by A.G. Carpenter
Of Lips and Tongue: A Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 1) by A.G. Carpenter
Of Shade and Soul: Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 2) by A.G. Carpenter
Of Flesh and Bone: Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 3) by A.G. Carpenter
SERIES REVIEW
Unexpected. Awesome.
This Southern Gothic mixes together urban fantasy elements, a little bit of horror, and some of the police procedural/CSI/mystery genre. Sprinkle in a little romance. Mix together completely and the book stands on its own – gripping, entertaining, … loosing you a bit from the real world.
And as with all my highest ratings on Goodreads, the worldbuilding is spot on. The magic being integral is never explained. Everyone living here knows how it works; it isn’t something new because of a break in reality. And a reader learns about it as they sink into the bones of the story and world. It sneaks in the little crevices of the mind, like a cold air into a plank house. No need to build a bright info dump fire; the shadows in the corners hint at everything and reveal nothing.
Available as a collection (Touch: A Trilogy) or three novellas – Of Lips and Tongues; Of Shade and Soul; and Of Flesh and Bone. Each title perfectly fits the story. Also out in audiobook.
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Of Lips and Tongue: A Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 1) by A.G. Carpenter
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Delaney Green is one of them that don’t burn. Possessed of the Touch – with the ability to not only see the future but manipulate it – she’s been kept in an institution for most of her life. When the Salesman, a murderous entity with a connection to Delaney’s past, starts burning girls to death, FBI Agent Percival Cox gives her the chance to leave the asylum behind. But he presents an even greater threat and she must risk flesh and bone in order to keep him from becoming a Power more destructive than the Salesman.
MY REVIEW
Unexpected. Awesome.
This Southern Gothic has a little bit of urban fantasy elements (in that it has monster bumping about in the contemporary world – but the setting is about non-urban as you can get and still have people everywhere), a little bit of horror elements (people die in not nice ways), and bit of the police procedural/CSI/mystery elements. Mix together completely and the book stands on its own – gripping, entertaining, … loosing you a bit from the real world.
The characters each stand by themselves and in their relations to others, different motives, reasons, and goals. The language and descriptions are beautiful.
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Of Shade and Soul: Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 2) by A.G. Carpenter
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Delaney Green might be dead, but she don’t mean to stay that way. As she searches for a way back to the realm of the living, and the man she lay down flesh and bone for, Percival Cox and his team investigate a series of deaths and stolen souls. But Percy is not the man he used to be. If Del can’t find a way to stop him from waking his past, he could destroy everything, including himself.
MY REVIEW
Nice Southern Gothic to spook the corners of your mind.
Continuing the Touch Trilogy, this time the monster isn’t quite as bad, the world is a bit more unreal, and the voice of the story isn’t as strong. The “sagging” middle of a trilogy – cleaning up the ends of the last book and setting up for the cooking of the next meal, this snack satisfies but doesn’t fill.
On its own, a solid story but works much better within the trilogy. The CSI/mystery component is an appropriate investigation for the FBI group, but I miss the original community with the sheriff and cast of characters in the rural area. Suburbia has its share of eccentrics, but the constant pruning of rubbing shoulders with lots of people keep them from reaching the full heights found in the rural setting of the first book.
Jumping into the third book now because Delaney needs her Bones, ’cause she ain’t good at staying dead, and Percy could use some pruning before reaching the full heights of his Power.
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Of Flesh and Bone: Touch Trilogy Novella (Book 3) by A.G. Carpenter
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Delaney Green may have found her way back to the living, but her new body isn’t going to last. Without magic, and still separated from Percy, she is forced to rely on the tangled memory of what might be to find a way to reclaim her bones. With the help of an old ally, and the reluctant assistance of new enemies, Del must take the final steps down a long road home.
The Touch Trilogy is a series of Southern Gothic novellas, short novels with a lyrical style and eerie tone, perfect for fans of True Blood or Flannery O’Connor.
MY REVIEW
Tell me a story.
“Well, just set yourself down a spell,” says the author AG Carpenter, setting the rocking chair creaking on the old porch.
I take up the painted blue rocker beside the writer and start sipping the sweet tea which has appeared in my hand. Outside in the darkness, the cicadas chirp and the mist start rolling in as the heat of the day dissipates. I hear the moths and bugs fling themselves at the overhead bulb, searching for a fiery death. In my other hand appears a book “Of Flesh and Bone”, the third of a series of novella and I get dragged into the Southern Gothic with a comfortable fearfulness.
Knowing the unknowable of those Touched.
I try not to look sideways at the chair set in motion by the wind and assure myself that the voice I heard – still hear strongly from the story – is just a story.
Yeah, the book is exactly like that.
A comfortable fearfulness.