Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Book Review of Touch by Courtney Maum

I won an ARC of Touch by Courtney Maum from the publisher. I entered the giveaway for one simple reason: I was enamored of the cover design. Something about how the title was printed vertically, in rainbow-hued smears that looked like the result of fingerpaints and black scrawl that called to mind a hurried grocery list scribbled on a stray Post-It more than it did a publisher's typeface really appealed to me. It felt visceral. It felt human. It felt alive.

As I began reading the story of Sloane, an American ex-pat and professional trend forecaster living in Paris with her longtime boyfriend and oft business collaborator, I realized all of those cover design elements weren't simply employed because of their sensory appeal--they tied into the themes of the book rather profoundly.

Sloane is returning Stateside for a six-month trend forecasting gig at a high-powered tech company mere minutes from the family from which she's become all but estranged since her Dad's death three years ago. As her Parisian boyfriend Roman withdraws from her in favor of temporary fame and neo-sensualism, Sloane realizes what she craves (and, what other humans are sure to crave in this increasingly isolated digital age) is simple: human touch and face-to-face connection. Delivering this message runs directly at odds to her mission at the tech company, where gadgets and sensationalism reign supreme, but fits into her newfound--or newly realized--desire for familial relationships and human closeness.

Touch deals deftly, albeit with some sensationalism of its own, with ultra-relevant issues of the day. Featuring characters who feel tethered to their phones at the expense of relationships and relationships that have suffered the death of effective communication, Maum has written a book which manages to be both engrossing and applicable to her readers' lives. It feels like one part chick lit with all of its attendant tropes and requisite plot points, and one part futuristic dystopian novel with its searingly honest look at technology's role in our lives. Its contrast of touch vs. technology wrapped up in a chick lit package reminded me strongly of another book: My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella, of which my review is here. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for intelligent chick lit, or a dystopian look at technology with the classic rom com will-the-or-won't-they plotlines. Touch comes out May 30th.


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