Touch

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Touch is a story about a boy named James, and his friends: a group of young, superpowered people brought together by trauma; all trying, in their own ways, to come to terms with what that trauma means to them and who they want to be in response to it. This is a learning process, and mistakes are made, but they grow, learn, and adapt to these difficulties in ways that some might say only young people can.

While it may look it at first, this is not intended as a sad story, merely an honest one. I wanted to make the characters human, and unfortunately, that means that difficulties hit them in very real ways through the story, but then again, they have some equally human moments of warmth between one another as they grow.

Triggers: Explores the aftereffects and recovery process of sexual abuse, and some other forms of physical abuse. I like to think I avoided making it edgy, but you deserve to be informed. Some readers have told me that it can feel a bit too real at times. A bit too honest.

If you like what you read, feel free to comment or review. I like the feedback. Or you can vote for Touch onTopWebFiction.

Touch also now has both aDiscordand aPatreon!

Updates weekly.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2018
Author: Rhythminthemind

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 679
Views: 599,148

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

CapungRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm your average silent reader clubs who hang around royalroad..
But please, you have to try to read this one, you would find a dark adventure of a kid who struggling.. well i'll be damned.. can't describe it like a pro
Anyway, the story is good, the world building and more important the battle scene is satisfying..the plot could change from your deduction in a single chapter.... The only thing i'm dislike is the protagonist sex orientation...but it's forgiven because of the background story.. so yeah,, pls read this one and help me get my free novel, thank's a lot
ElaikasesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Spoiler: Spoiler
I just read this from start to today and the pacing and plot are clean and without shift.
Well done, very well done.
Elliot MoorsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I enjoyed the story overall. It was definitely a slow start, but the later chapters were more intriguing once the plot got rolling. I like the author's exploration of superpowers in ordinary people, and a lot of the minor details about the inner workings of the powers made my nerdy side giddy. I like Tasha so far. I think she's a well fleshed-out character with fun dialogue and a lot of agency. The rest I don't connect with so much. It seems like a lot of them mill around without much direction to them. Some of the prose was a bit hard to read. Especially the fight scenes made my head spin. I'd say it's still pretty good in terms of web fiction, I've seen far worse out there. Some of the dialogue made me wince, but there were some really sweet lines in there, also. Overall, good job. Thanks for a nice read, Rhythm. I'll be looking to pick this back up once you've updated with a few more chapters.
Minutiae IdiosyncrasyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is the best on RoyalRoadl. The realistic reactions and emotions, are of a far higher quality than any others on here, and even the works of formally published authors. I cannot wait for more, my favourite character as of now is most definitely Tasha...She is, seemingly the muse for all displays of sassiness, crude-but-lovable and lighthearted even in the worst of situation characters. Her issues are...different than the others, but no less serious...though how well she's handling her living situation leads me to believe there is another issue that caused her powers to awaken. if that is true, my heart will undoubtly shatter into nonillions of pieces. This story is wonderful, and I hope you the best Rythminthemind.
Molick 2.0Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I don’t think I have ever done a review since I’ve been a member of RoyalRoad, till now.
Touch is truly a masterpiece, compare to the stories I have seen here. Rhythminthemind is an absolute wonder at creating breathless characters who have substance, in a world that’s not so far from our own. The protagonists and antagonist aren’t text on a screen. They’re people like you and me who have real goals, problems and “powers”. The story also brings light to the darker side of society. Sad to say it’s the truth of the world and these things happen and to write about it takes a lot of courage.
Honestly, the story is worth reading simply for the excellent grammar.
SepiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I would like to start this by saying that royal road has failed me and I can't make something 6 stars, namely the characters. The characters are beautifully done and feel like they have motivations and personalities that are actually realistic. If you just yanked them out of a book and set them in real life nobody would bat an eye. I could gush about these characters for a long long time but ill just move on.
Honestly I could put the grammar at 5. People have given stories with worse 5. But its not quite perfect (close enough in my opinion) ive been confused by a typo or a weird way of saying things once or twice total in the book. So the grammar is more or less a non issue.
The story is really good, and I don't want to spoil anything so theres that section
And the style is very decent, I have had only one issue with it which is why its 4.5 rather than 5.
Final score: you're already on the page, stop wasting time with this, it is REALLY GOOD. Go read it!!
ShadowkeyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What can I say about Touch?
Reviewing is not my strong suit, and I doubt I'll be able to do this story justice. Touch is good and you should give it chance cause you'll love it. That's probably as far as I would go in my description of it, if someone asked me my views on it. But Let's try and go deeper than that shall we.
Touch is a story that explores very sensative topis and honestly does them well. I have no personal experience witht the main subject matter of Touch nor would I deem myself very knowledgeable on the matter but I think the author does a good job of exploring them, in a way that's not overbearing or off putting to people with or without experince on the matter.
I have a golden rule with my content. I always give tv series three episodes to catch me and for books I do five chapters. I do not belive in the whole "It gets good later, you just have to hold out for a few chapter/episodes.". I believe in strong first impressions. I expect a story to at least pique my interest and continue to hold said interest. Touch does that. First drawing in me in with its intriguing characters and then leaving me full invested in its story.
Touch is one hundred percent a character-driven story. And oh boy are the characters great. There are probably some bumps in the road I'm not seeing, but as far as I can tell they are flawless. I like how the author switches the perspective to different characters. Giving us a fine glimpse into each an every character. The way they think, and react to the same things as other characters, personal views and whatnot. This is something I personally enjoy. I love getting into the head of each and every character.
Touch's magic system can be defined to me, as somewhat refreshing. Its interesting to say the least. Its not like the common potrayal of magic I'm used to in some stories. It has my interest and I look forward to seeing the abilites of others and how they function.
I guess this is really all I have to say on it. So is this rev
invidiousRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Touch is good. I'm rating it five stars not because I consider it to be perfect, you'll be hard pressed to find a story that is, but because it deserves to be on the first pages of the 'top rated' section of RoyalRoad. Giving this story less than five stars isn't a good way to get that.
If you don't want to read the whole thing, it's good. I got an account on RR specifically to write a review saying it's good.
Why is Touch that good? The grammar is spot on, but more than that, the sentences are well put together. There isn't a single moment I can recall where I winced and thought 'There are better ways to say that.' Both achievements are a rarity amongst webfiction in general.
The characters are interesting. It's hard for them not to be, as for an individual to get their spooky super powers, they need to go through some sort of traumatising experience. Which means they have extraordinary circumstances. Rhythm also writes them well. James is intelligent, haunted, but still young, and at times, immature. Which he should be. He's, what, eleven? A lot of stories overlook how age effects one's outlook on the world, but in Touch, it is absolutely vital that the story examines how someone's perspective and personality is influenced by trauma. All of the characters feel similarly fleshed out, with the exception of some villains and older characters, a flaw I'm sure will be remedied in the future. (besides it's not as if every single side-character needs an essay on motivations)
Speaking of trauma, it feels realistic. I don't really know this, as I've led a pretty easy life, but that aspect of the story is obviously well-thought out. The only real problem I have with it is that I do a little bit of work with kids who have abused, and more often than not they're troublemakers, they lash out frequently, and generally have difficulty verbalising their emotions or seeking help (most of this due to anxiety). Again, I'm no expert, but sometimes the characters feel too mature for t
pillowfortRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Seriously, read this. It contains an interesting world, cool magic, characters who act like humans, with the right mix of emotions and logic, and a gripping story that has moments both awful and beautiful. Probably second in terms of quality that I've read on RoyalRoad only to Mother of Learning.
It is a heavy story however. It deals with heavy subjects like rape, domestic abuse, sex slavery, brainwashing, childhood abandonment, and more. Trauma isn't something the characters have at the beginning of the story and work through, it's something that constantly presents itself in their lives. If this isn't the kind of story you want, you shouldn't read touch.
Style
Rhythm uses a multitude of POV's throughout the story, including a decent amount of single use POVs. They will frequently shift mid chapter, sometimes mid-conversation. However, in almost all cases the shifts are easy to follow and add to the story. Incredibly, there hasn't been a single POV that I have found boring. Even when taking the view of characters that I frankly don't care a ton about, the events happening are relevant and interesting, and the POV adds the the depiction of the events. Even if you hate multiple POVs, I'd recommend giving this a try, just to see what a skilled author can do with them. The writing style as a whole is varied and interesting, with no complaints on my part.
4.5/5, losing .5 for the occasional POV confusion.
Story
While the magic system isn't particularly well developed, it has enough meat as to not hold back the rest of the story. You will cheer as James and co explore their powers, even if you don't understand exactly how they work within the story. The world building on the other hand is top notch, with a setting like our world, but subtly different, with tons of interesting characters and events to fill it out. I will say that I wish a lot of the information was expanded on, but even as-is it is extremely solid.
As far as the journey the characters embark upon, there's
silastheguardianRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Alright, so here goes. World is more of a contemporary super hero setting with a darker edge to it. Not too dark as to consume the reader with it though. Rhythm talks about some heavy stuff, and treats it accordingly and with respect for its serious nature. There are moments of levity though and some psweet super hero combat moments. I am looking forward to see where this story goes as right now I think we may have read only about 2-3 weeks worth of time into the story. It feels like there is so much to look forward to and I hope the author maintains the quality of the work done so far.