Touch
by Claire North · first published 2015
4mentions
3recommended by
4HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned
75% recommend25% neutral
"He tried to take my life. Instead I took his. It was a long time ago. I remember it was dark, and I didn't see my killer until it was too late. As I died, my hand touched his. That's when the first switch took place. Suddenly, I was looking through the eyes of my killer, and I was watching myself die. Now switching is easy. I can jump from body to body, have any life, be anyone. Some people touch lives. Others take them. I do both"--Jacket.
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…won't personally address that person, which will make the relationship more difficult. It's interesting. Changing your name can increase your power. Hollywood has known this for year. Few people do it. "Touch" by Claire North makes you really think about this in the digital age. IRL you have a body, so names are more detached, but as we go digital, names are all you have... currently. In the book the protagonist…
on “You are not your name (2015)” ↗I discovered Claire North this year after she was interviewed on the Imaginary Worlds podcast. I picked up Touch, The Sudden Appearance of Hope, and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, all of which were wonderful.
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2018?” ↗Touch by the same author, Claire North is a great book too.
on “Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?” ↗…excellent I Am Not a Serial Killer. I've just started Slow Gods by Claire North. I find her books a bit hit and miss for me but so far, so good. I absolutely love The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and Touch was also quite good, but some of her others I could not finish or didn't event start as they were just not for me.
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗