Proceed With Caution:
This book contains blood, death, violence, murder, and mentions of homophobia.
The Basics:
The Coldest Touch is narrated by sixteen-year-old Elise, who recently gained the ability to see how someone will die when she touches them. She believes she's cursed and is doing everything in her power to get rid of it. Then she meets seventeen-year-old Claire who says she has the answers that Elise wants. But Claire isn't a regular teen girl either. She's a vampire and was sent to train Elise in her new ability.
My Thoughts:
The Coldest Touch is a fun read. It felt very nostalgic to me, like there's this cheesy vampire renaissance happening! It feels very early 2000s, which totally worked for me. It's full of teen vampire novel cliches, and I couldn't put it down!
The Coldest Touch is also delightfully queer. Claire is a lesbian and she keeps falling in love with her assignments and it keeps ending badly. She doesn't want to get close to Elise, but obviously. Elise identifies as straight, but after getting the tingles around Claire, she starts questioning that. Claire's boss, Wyn, is nonbinary (using they/them pronouns). Elise's ex slash best friend is bisexual (uses the word!). It's just a gay ol' time!
The plot of The Coldest Touch was fun and interesting. Elise needs to learn how to control her power and eventually progress to the higher tiers of her ability. Of course, there's a bad vampire out there who wants to use her for evil. On top of that, there's the mystery of Elise's dead brother, whose body was never found. Plus a teacher and a classmate get murdered on campus. There's a missing vampire leader, and the last Death Oracle was also murdered! It's quite the twisty-twisted time.
I did find myself really interested in Elise's Death Oracle ability. I've read this ability plenty of times before, but it's a bit different in The Coldest Touch. Instead of seeing someone's death the first time Elise touches them, or only when she's actively using the ability, she sees their death every single time skin brushes against skin. She's taken to wearing long sleeves and pants no matter the weather and pulls away from those closest to her in order to avoid any accidental touches. Needless to say, she's completely isolated at a time where she needs support the most. Of course, being dead already vampires like Claire cause no issue for Elise.
Where The Coldest Touch lost me a bit was toward the end. Everything is falling into place. Elise is mastering her ability. They found the bad vampire and it's time for the big showdown! Well, it all goes well, but then the bad vampire disappears so they don't get to finish all of their plans. I just don't get how they got away. Like, they had them tied down, did what they needed to do, needed to do it one more time, but she was gone. It was like a forced way to add more tension and a not-so nicely tied up ending.
I still really enjoyed The Coldest Touch and definitely think that if you've ever been into this genre, you should give it a try.