Author: MC Lee
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Cover Artist: Blake Donner
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Length: 228 pages
Reviewed by Sammy
Synopsis
It’s no surprise teens Sam and Harry are inseparable. Harry’s ability to fly manifested at age ten—when he saved Sam’s life. Since then, Sam’s made it his mission to shield Harry from danger. They’re being watched by people with an unknown agenda, and their only chance is to run.
An encounter with Jonah Clayton and the group of gifted teens he’s training means a place for Harry and insight into his powers. But is there a place for an ordinary kid like Sam, or has he reached the end of his quest to help his best friend? Jonah’s group isn’t as benign as it seems, however, and the danger is far from over. Harry still needs Sam—who is far more than anyone can imagine.
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Review
Sam and Harry have been on the run for over a year. Each
time they let their guard down some shadowy figure ends up stalking them and
forces them to move on. Now the two are living on the edge of poverty and
barely scraping by but Harry has been noticed by a man, Jonah Clayton, who says
he can help him hone and expand on the ability that appeared when he was ten
years old and saved his best friend Sam as he fell from a tree—if he is willing
to leave Sam. Harry can fly and more
than one person is interested in seeing just how his gifts could be used but
the idea of being away from Sam is intolerable until the guys are threatened
again. But something goes wrong when the two are separated and suddenly Sam,
who everyone thought had no powers of his own, becomes the most important
member of the small group Jonah Clayton has assembled.
M.C. Lee has a new young adult novel featuring a ragtag
group of teens who work together under the guise of anonymity. Since their
defacto leader, Jonah Clayton, has the ability to not only communicate
telepathically with others but also wipe memories and plant new ones, the gang
is able to do various jobs virtually undetected. Each teen has a superpower
from invisibility to controlling the elements. When he and Sam were just boys,
Sam fell from a dangerous height and Harry rescued him by flying down and
catching him. From that point on the two boys realized Harry was different and
as time went on the appreciation Sam’s mother had initially toward Harry for
saving her son morphed into fear and distrust. When she tries to force Sam from
seeing Harry, the two run and they have been on the run ever since.
Now in their late teens they are barely surviving and when
Jonah approaches Harry and Sam and says he can help Harry adjust and hone his
powers both boys are leery. But eventually Jonah wears them down and Harry must
go live with him and the other teens while Sam is left behind waiting for Harry
to return. It’s during this separation that Jonah and the group realize just
how important Sam will end up being not only to Harry but the others as well.
But when a sinister man appears telling Sam not to trust Jonah and threatening
to grab Harry and take him away, Sam is forced to work with the group in order
to save Harry and the life they want to have together one day.
I loved how the author made these two boys act sometimes
years older than they actually were and then brought the reader right back to
the fact they were just teens by having them respond in a way that reflected
their real age. It made sense, in light of how they had been on the run, that
they would have a certain maturity that helped them survive but M.C. Lee never
took it too far. Instead the author used
some of their responses to the danger around them and their relationship
with each other as a way of reminding us that these guys were awfully young to
be handling the stuff life was throwing at them. I loved Sam—he was so in love
with Harry—so set on guarding him and helping him shine. Every time one of the other
teens would remind Sam of his lack of abilities and intimate that he was
holding Harry back from reaching his full potential, you could see how Sam
wrestled with what to do in response to the accusation. He would sacrifice
anything for Harry and already had by leaving his home and going on the run
with him.
For Harry’s part, there was no one for him but Sam. All
Harry knew was that if Sam was with him he could get through anything. The two
of them were magical together and their relationship was incredibly sweet and
lovely to read. Jonah was the perfect shady good/bad guy who made your skin
crawl with the way he could get inside people’s minds yet who you wanted to
believe was really only motivated to help these teens live better lives. The
side cast of characters were all interesting and nearly perfectly portrayed as
a clique of teens might interact. From the nasty way Maia treated Sam to the
hero worship that Alejandro had for both boys, there was a truth to the way
these kids who had extraordinary powers acted like every day common teenagers.
There were a few plot points that gave me pause and were
brushed aside fairly quickly that made the story feel a bit contrived. For
instance, how was it that Harry and Sam were able to go on the run with no one coming
after them? Surely the high school would have applied pressure om their parents
when they no longer showed up for school? And how did they manage to get jobs
and an apartment as minors? I assume Sam was being paid under the table but the
last time I looked dishwashers didn’t make enough to support themselves. It was
little things like that which threw me off a bit while reading. However,
despite those issues, the action was really quite well done and didn’t prevent
me from enjoying this fast paced adventure story.
The Touchstone has great potential to become a crazy good
superhero saga. I really hope the author will continue Harry and Sam’s story
and we get to see more of them in future novels.
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