Touching the Surface [Hardcover]

This book was beautiful. Not just the writing, although the publisher's description of "lyrical" is accurate, but also the story - and evolution of the characters. It was apparent from the start that Ms. Sabatini could write, but I worried that my initial dislike of the main character Elliot would ruin my enjoyment of the rest of the book. I was relieved to find that as Elliot grew and learned and changed, so did my perception of her. Which I believe is wonderfully fitting, given that the entire book is really all about that - redemption, evolution and eventual acceptance. It's odd that a book set in such an abstract place could feel so real, yet it does, and that's in part due to the fact that the characters feel like people you could know. They are flawed, some majorly so, but that's the whole point - if they were perfect, they wouldn't be there. At times, I did feel a bit disoriented by the twisty fantastical world created by Ms. Sabatini (or rather, by her characters ;)) - but I think that only added to my connection to the characters themselves as I felt some of their confusion.

"Being brave isn't about not being scared. Being brave is what you do despite being scared." - Trevor
(That one's going into my all time favorite book quotes, by the way.)

My favorite character by far was the brooding Trevor, who plays the tortured hero role extremely well. The constantly changing quips on his t-shirt were such a clever way to get a glimpse inside his mind and were some of my favorite lines in the book. There's a bit of a love triangle (or a love trapezoid perhaps) involving Trevor, Elliot, and the nearly perfect good boy Oliver, but it wasn't overly angst-y as so many YA novels can get.

Touching the Surface is a beautiful story of love and redemption. It's spiritual without being preachy, and I kind of hope Kimberly Sabatini's vision of the afterlife is out there to give a second (or third) chance to all of us who might need one.

5 Stars.

Originally reviewed at:[...]
Touching the Surface is an unusual book. The entire book takes place in the Obmil, or Limbo, the place between Heaven and Hell. The characters that we meet, protagonist Elliot, her ex-best friend, Julia, Mel, a counselor at the Obmil, Trevor and Oliver and the rest are not exactly people, but souls. Souls that have wound up back at the Obmil, which is, as you might surmise, a holding area of sorts. The place a soul goes after "death", and before the soul moves on to it's next "life." The quotation marks are because saying a soul lives or dies doesn't sound accurate, does it? It's difficult to explain and difficult to describe. But one thing you should know is that although this book deals with religious themes, souls, heaven, hell, reincarnation, limbo, it is not a preachy book. It's not a Christian book or a Buddhist book, it's sort of a universally spiritual book. Different aspects of different religious belief systems are mashed up together. I like this, I like that Sabatini picks and chooses certain things from these different belief systems and creates a uniquely spiritual story all its own.

Elliot is a 'third timer', she's a soul that has lived three lives and has once again returned to the Obmil. This is significant because the "rules" seem to state that a soul should reach enlightenment before three lifetimes. I'm not sure if this is the way the story goes in Buddhist doctrine or if this is Sabatini's invention, but Elliot is back as is her best friend Julia, the soul she has been closest to in two of her past three lives. When Elliot and other souls return to the Obmil, they do not instantly remember their past lives. The Obmil is portrayed as one big group therapy session of sorts (which I think is so VERY cool.) The soul must 'delve '(or witness others 'delving') which essentially means reaching back into their memories and subconscious mind to figure what went wrong in their past life and what they need to do to make changes so that their mistakes won't be repeated in their next life and they will move on to enlightenment. In Touching the Surface, the reader watches as Elliot, Julia, Oliver and Trevor go through this delving and remembering process.

Elliot has connections to the souls Oliver, Trevor, and Julia, connections from her recent past life, and in Julia's case, even more, but she doesn't remember the boys and she doesn't remember why Julia, who has been her best friend in her past three lives, is now upset with her and doesn't want to continue their friendship. Much of Touching the Surface is about each of these souls remembering their connections to each other and healing from the trauma of their past existences.

This book was a truly original and fascinating read. I don't think I have ever experienced anything like it. Everyone wonders what happens when we die. Life's greatest mystery is explored in this work and I really admire Sabatini's creativity. The characters in this book are all beautifully crafted. I was frustrated and enamored with each and every one. I was pulled right into the drama, wanting to find out what happened to all of these souls to make them so hurt and so angry. I loved the way every character, big or small, had a compelling story to tell and I loved the surprises that came when I realized they were all interconnected and linked somehow.

Elliot is an awesome MC, she is strong and stubborn, generous and selfish, frightened and brave. It was amazing to witness her character grow and develop over the course of the book. It was wonderful to watch her journey of self discovery, a journey that left me feeling hopeful and upbeat.

I loved Trevor, who was so closed off and harsh in the beginning but was an amazing character. I think I loved learning his story most of all. And Oliver. Oliver is probably the most heart warming, generous, put-a-smile-on-your-face-that-never-wears-off character I have ever read. "Sunshine in your pocket" type of thing.

"It's not so bad," I shouted out. "The separation, I mean." I felt dumb after I said it, but Oliver nodded his head in agreement.

"It's because I'm full," he called back.

"Of pizza?"

"No-full of you."

"Huh?"

"When I first saw you, I felt like I was running on empty. As if I'd been away from you for far too long. I needed an Elliot fix." He grinned.
"But now I'm feeling fully charged again. I've got a full tank." He patted his heart twice. "Now I can venture out, safe in the knowledge that I know where to find you should I need to
replenish my reserves."

I LOVE me some Oliver. And he's that awesome throughout most of the book. Really, where can I get an Oliver of my very own?

There is definitely a romance in Touching the Surface. And when you start meeting the different characters you think there may be a love triangle too. But there isn't. I can't go into too many details but just trust me, those of you who shudder over triangles (LJ, I'm thinking of you!) do not let this keep you from reading this book. Even with romance being factored in, the relationships found within the pages of Touching the Surface transcend romance. There are friendships and there are family ties but there is this loving bond and connection between each of the souls, a higher form of love, if you will, that is the core of the story. It is really difficult to explain, you just have to read it to understand.

I have to talk a bit about the writing. For a story so unique and unusual, Sabatini somehow found a way to write it in a very easy to comprehend way. It's smooth and seamless even when some of concepts are hard to wrap your head around. The dreamy descriptions of the Obmil are particularly lovely, and Sabatini gets major kudos for managing to build a world that is so much more than white halls and and puffy clouds. What do you think of when you imagine Limbo? I'll bet it's not half as beautiful as what Sabatini presents in this book.

In closing, Touching the Surface is one of those rare books that makes you ponder the big questions, and it's a book that I continue to think about even a couple months after reading it. It is an astonishing debut and I am now an official fan of Kimberly Sabatini. As far as I am aware, Touching the Surface is a standalone (yay! for standalones!) so I will anxiously await Sabatini's next project.

If you like books that have religious and spiritual undertones without coming off as preachy or biased; if you like books that have psychological elements included; if you like books that deal with the concepts of the afterlife and souls; if you like books that deal with not only romantic love, but deeper bonds and connections as well; and if you like original storylines and beautiful writing you must check out Touching the Surface. I do not think you will be disappointed.

4.5/5 Stars

One of my very favorite subgenres of fiction deals with stories about the afterlife. I spend a rather indecent amount of time considering what life after death might consist of and my only completed work of fiction dealt with that topic. Touching the Surface has been on my radar because of its subject matter, its beautiful cover (which looks like the work of my friend Annie and fits the book perfectly), and the author's participation in the Apocalypsies. As ever when embarking upon a book with high hopes, I dreaded disappointment, but instead found a beautiful, quirky, emotional, clever, sweet, dark, magical read.

Sabatini's vision of the afterlife enthralled my imagination completely. She combines familiar concepts into something fresh and compelling. The concept of reincarnation has always called to me far more than most religious ideas, so I loved that Sabatini included that. She also put her own spin on it with the idea that, on a soul's third failure to reach some sort of enlightenment and whatever next step that brings, the soul's memories are wiped. This forces delving, a slow recapturing of the previous life's memories that allows for deeper reflection and analysis, removing preconceptions and errors kept in ordinary memory. Delving is also a group experience, not just a personal one, so that others can try to help the Third Timers figure out what has kept them from moving on.

Another fascinating element of this is the bodiless nature of the characters. They are all technically embodied throughout the book, but they have not always worn that body. In her first life, Elliot and her best friend Julia were twin brothers named Arty and Jim. The souls simply continue to wear the body and use the name of their last life until they reenter the stream to a new one. The souls can idenitfy one another by their scent that remains constant from body to body. Though she occasionally comments on appearances, the personality obviously factors in much more in how others seem to her.

The other main delightful quirk about the afterlife is the ability to manifest the mind's landscape physically. Thoughts can be created, from a lake to a mountain to a book the soul wants to read. Within the Obmil, this afterlife, the body cannot be injured and seems to have so much power. Not gonna lie, I would want to stay there and would try to get my friends to stay too. Of course, when you have a bad day, you literally will be stuck in a storm cloud of your own devising, but that's a small price to pay for the perks.

Alright, now that I'm done fangirling over the world building, I should probably discuss the plot a bit, shouldn't I? At the outset, I was a bit concerned that the book was heading for a stereotypical romance plot line: a rift between two best friends, a beautiful boy she feels inextricably drawn to (Oliver), a hot, angry boy who also seems to be part of her past (Trevor), and a love square between the four. Thankfully, this got cleared up pretty quickly and the characters did what was right for them, rather than conforming to tropes. Though the emotions become intense alarmingly quickly, it helped set the scene and conveyed the confusion Elliot felt being confronted with people who remembered her that she could not yet recall.

Elliot is a great character. She doesn't kick butt. She's sometimes weak. She's selfish, and sometimes a bully. All of that makes her who she is, and, even at her worst, I still felt for her and got her motivations. She manages to feel utterly real, especially in her struggle to find a sense of self, and her blithe unawareness of how she can steamroll others. Elliot wants to move on, hates having come back as a Third Timer, but she fears delving into her memories. Obviously, death in one's teen years doesn't signify a happy story.

The book alternates between the fantasy lanscape of Obmil and flashbacks to the characters' memories of their previous lives. This allows Sabatini to confront both gritty real life issues and psychological struggles. The flashbacks also explain why the characters feel the way they do about one another in the beginning, often for reasons even they don't know. This storytelling method adds a lot of tension to the tale and kept me flipping pages.

I dearly love Trevor. Oliver may be the nice one, though he shows some darker moods too (which I like), but I always have been drawn to the moody ones. Watching Trevor open up is delightful and he definitely puts hummingbirds in my stomach, let me tell you. What I love best is the way he changes the slogan on his t-shirt to match his emotions, generally with a smartass comment.

Ending books about the afterlife is generally pretty tricky, more so than with other genres perhaps. Sabatini's ending worked perfectly, I felt. I didn't anticipate quite the direction it would go in, and I really appreciated that. Nothing's wrapped up exactly, but it feels complete.

Kimberly Sabatini's debut blew me away and I know Touching the Surface is a book that I will be rereading. For a book with similar themes that does some wholly different things, check out Level 2 by fellow Apocalypsie Lenore Appelhans.