The characters are incredibly human, which makes them flawed and relatable.Ī veryveryvery silly complaint I had, though, is something that I didn't even notice on first read. It's an incredibly realistic post apoc scenario. It's the sort of story that really sticks to you.

That being said it is a solid, engaging little book. I've read probably thousands of books in the interim, and have gained 20 more years of life experience. It wasn't as OMG AMAZING as I remember thinking it was then. That’s a rare thing, and this book is so ignored and forgotten that I urge anyone reading this review to track down a copy and give it a shot.Īs I mentioned in a status update this was a reread of a book some friends and I read after finding it in a thrift shop when it was only a few years old. I was moved, but I never felt manipulated into being moved. It was raw and yet touching, hopeful but not saccharine. There was never any confusion on my part, and the fact that he did juggle all those people so well deserves some applause.

Bosse managed to make each of them so themselves and smoothly reminded us within the text of their importance. The cast of characters was huge, and there was an appendix that named them all with a blurb about their story, but I found I didn’t need it. What it offers is a more realistic approach, humanistic in the same way as The Stand, but unique. It’s not particularly supernatural, not at all, so don’t approach it waiting for a Randall Flagg or Mother Abigail to show up.

Rest assured that both have a lot to offer, different and similar things, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mister Touch stands on its own. It’s easy to make comparisons between Mister Touch and The Stand by Stephen King. There is darkness to be found here and villains, because there is no such thing as a good story without conflict, but there’s a spirit of hope that suffuses this book and glows from it all the same. Yet this book is all about people finding where they belong, surviving against the odds, moving forward and refusing to inhabit the past, and overcoming adversity. Most of them didn’t really have much to offer the world before a virus destroyed it, much less after. Most of the survivors are now disabled in some way. The world is not in good shape, for sure. This is probably the most hopeful apocalypse you’ll ever have the good fortune to read. Their leader, Mister Touch, wants them to make a journey from New York to Arizona, but with a laundry list of disabilities and trauma, can they hope to make it? The Skulls, full of crazy nicknames and with strict rules about never speaking of the past. Those that are left range between levels of blindness and being unable to breathe, but one group in particular has banded together with the intention of surviving. A virus has hit the world and greatly diminished its population.

Mister Touch by Malcolm Bosse