Thankful Tenys isn’t your ordinary high schooler. Homeschooled until her senior year and going to public school for the first time, a mother wasting away from Huntington’s, and a father who left her when her mother got sick. Throw in an eccentric aunt, come to Glenrock, Wyoming from New York City to take care of Thankful’s mother, and it hardly seems that things could get any more confusing.
Until Liam enters the picture. Liam is a social pariah in Glenrock. All his life people have said that he’s cursed because he always seems to be around right when terrible things happen to people. Add in the fact that he obsessively avoids touching people and you have a recipe for a teenage outcast.
Yet Thankful sees something in Liam that others don’t. A side he tries not to show. A side she wants to get to know, in spite of what anyone else thinks. One awkward conversation at a time, Thankful starts to get close to Liam.
But Liam has a secret and its one that could change both of their lives forever. How close can you get to someone, when getting close is what puts that person in jeopardy.
I was taken completely by surprise by the reveal at the midpoint of this book, and a pleasant surprise it was. I’m not going to go into details, because I really feel that spoilers could ruin the effect here, but suffice to say that there is a paranormal/fantasy element to this book that I wasn’t expecting.
And what an interesting one it is. The fantasy element is very well done because it ties in so intrinsically with the characters. Making them by turns both more lovable and hateable, depending on who you’re talking about.
Speaking of characters, I love the depth of the characters in this book. Each one is a unique individual you want to know more about. The relationships between them really sell this book.
Although, to be honest, when I first started reading I was annoyed by the attraction between Thankful and Liam. I just didn’t get it, as it didn’t make any sense to me why Thankful was so interested in him. Once it got past the initial attraction phase and they were in the midst of the friendship and more, though, the relationship became one I really enjoyed reading about. Atkinson’s background in romance serves her extremely well here, as the sweet yet passionate romance between these two teenage lovers comes off as far more realistic and interesting than most teen romances.
The sense of consequences and stakes is marvelously executed from the first page, and the book keeps you turning pages well before the big fantasy reveal I mentioned above. The stakes of course get higher after it, but the empathetic sense that everything happening matters, a lot, is no less in the early parts of the book before the paranormal element comes into play.
General fans of YA Lit will devour this title. General fantasy fans may have to stick with this title a bit before getting to the part that will hook them, but I think it’s worth it. “Untouched” handily earns five stars from me, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
