Three months ago, Emma's life shattered when her boyfriend Nathan died in a car accident. She didn't know how to survive without him. One month ago, Emma began to see the dead. This power has made her and everyone she cares for a target. The Queen of the Dead wants Emma to become a true Necromancer, someone who can use the power of the dead to wield magic that could make her immortal. To tempt her, the Queen sends Nathan home. All she wants him to do is be with Emma. Emma knows that becoming a Necromancer will change her into someone dark, someone that isn't her. If she doesn't join the Queen, her friends will be hunted. If she doesn't join the Queen, she will never see Nathan again.

TOUCH by Michelle Sagara is book two of The Queen of the Dead series. Within the first four pages, Sagara had brought me to tears with her poignant prose that captures the pain of death and loss. Lyrical and heartbreaking writing explore the internal barriers within the scenes of intense emotional conflict. Those scenes are really what made this a phenomenal story and proved Michelle Sagara's talent and insight as a writer. Without slipping into sentimentality or overly angsty teen drama, Sagara conveys the absolute worst emotional turmoil within a person. Compared to the intense emotional conflict within individual characters the physical confrontations between Emma and the Necromancers felt slow. They were well written and advanced the plot, but the heart of this story really does lie in the internal conflict.

Lyrical, compelling, and beautifully poignant, TOUCH by Michelle Sagara is a must read. I'll be waiting anxiously for the third book in The Queen of the Dead series to hit the shelves. TOUCH is an intelligent and compassionate novel that will enthrall you from the very first words.

Book Summary

Nathan died in the summer before his final year in high school, leaving behind a mother who was devoted to him and a girlfriend he loved. His mother and his girlfriend, Emma, are still alive; Nathan is not. But he wakes in his room—or in the shrine his mother’s made of his room—confused, cold, and unable to interact with anyone or anything he sees. The only clear memory he has is a dream of a shining city, and its glorious queen, but the dream fades, until he once again meets Emma—by the side of his own grave. Nathan wants life. He wants Emma. He wants warmth, sensation, a sleep that doesn’t leave him confused and aching.

But the cost, to Emma, will be incalculably high—because Emma just might be able to give him what he wants.