ALA Booklist

Juliette, 17, feels as if she is a monster. Her touch causes pain en death. She begins her story from an isolation room in a facility for undesirables, but everything changes when the leader of the Reestablishment offers to keep her by his side if she will agree to help quell the resurgence movement. Juliette wants nothing to do with Warner and his evil ways, but she reconnects with one of his soldiers, Adam, who is immune to her curse, and this lifelong friend becomes much more as he shatters her with the incredible sensation of a loving touch. There are plot conveniences and melodramatic writing to spare in this first novel, but it also offers a rip-roaring adventure and steamy romance scenes, along with a relationship that teens will root for as much as they did for Bella and Edward. Inventive touches also help propel the story, such as the text strikeouts that reveal Juliette's inner thoughts. The final chapters leave Juliette, Adam, and Warner well poised for round two.

Kirkus Reviews

A dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself. Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Juliette's journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Mysteriously, Juliette's touch kills. After months of isolation, her captors suddenly give her a cellmate—Adam, a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Adam, it turns out, is immune to her deadly touch. Unfortunately, he's a soldier under orders from Warner, a power-hungry 19-year-old. But Adam belongs to a resistance movement; he helps Juliette escape to their stronghold, where she finds that she's not the only one with superhuman abilities. The ending falls flat as the plot devolves into comic-book territory. Fast-paced action scenes convey imminent danger vividly, but there's little sense of a broader world here. Overreliance on metaphor to express Juliette's jaw-dropping surprise wears thin: "My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. My eyebrows are dangling from the ceiling." For all of her independence and superpowers, Juliette never moves beyond her role as a pawn in someone else's schemes. Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Mafi combines a psychological opener with an action-adventure denouement in her YA debut, and the result is a page-turner with a slightly split personality. Juliette Ferrars is 17 and cannot remember a loving touch; indeed, after 264 days in solitary confinement, she can barely remember human contact. Then a boy is shoved into her cell, and her world changes. Just as she begins to trust Adam, guards burst in and march them off to the commandant. Juliette discovers Adam is really a soldier of the Reestablishment, a totalitarian regime that wants to use Juliette because her touch can kill. Juliette wants to get far away from anyone she can hurt or who can hurt her-though she can-t help hoping that, somehow, Adam might not fall in either of those categories. Mafi doesn-t escape some rookie pitfalls; descriptions like -fifteen thousand feelings of disbelief hole-punched in my heart- strain after lyricism, and proof that the divided plot can be brought to a satisfying conclusion must await later installments. Nevertheless, this is a gripping read from an author who-s not afraid to take risks. Ages 14-up. (Nov.)

Horn Book

Juliette's dangerous power--her touch is fatal--leads to a life of ostracism. When a military leader tries to seduce her, she discovers reserves of personal strength and unexpected allies. The story's setting is an intriguing near-future dystopia; however, Mafi is more interested in romance than world building, leading to an implausible conclusion.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Children playing in the street, climbing fire escapes, and dodging cars is unheard of today. Street games are a foreign concept to young people raised by helicopter parents (those who hover over and micromanage their kids). This engaging documentary explains old-fashioned street games such as stickball, stoopball, hopscotch, and Red Rover by looking at the happy memories of people who played them. Famous and not-so-well-known New Yorkers are interviewed, and while static shots of talking heads can be dull, they are intercut with a plenitude of black-and-white as well as color film footage of children playing. The interviewees (including actors Ray Romano, Whoopi Goldberg, and Joe Pantoliano), reminisce about the pink Spalding ball which played a central role in so many street games, about roughhousing games like Buck-Buck and Red Rover, and about how unsupervised play forced them to resolve conflicts and get along with others. The film ends with some lamentations about kids not spending enough face time together today, preferring to text or chat online. This leads to a discussion concerning obesity in children, and how running around the neighborhood with friends is not only fun, but also can be healthy. Whether high school students will appreciate all the fond reminiscing is debatable, but the memories the interviewees are humorous and the film footage from different eras is fascinating. The DVD includes a rulebook for street games should students want to give them a try. Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT