Waiting On…Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

“Waiting on Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine!

This week I’m waiting on…

Title Don’t Touch
Author Rachel M. Wilson
Pages 432 Pages
Genre Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Mental Illness
Publisher HarperTeen
To Be Published September 2nd, 2014
Find It On Goodreads

A powerful story of a girl who is afraid to touch another person’s skin, until the boy auditioning for Hamlet opposite her Ophelia gives her a reason to overcome her fears.

Step on a crack, break your mother’s back. Touch another person’s skin, and Dad’s gone for good.

Caddie can’t stop thinking that if she keeps from touching another person’s skin, her parents might get back together…which is why she wears full-length gloves to school and covers every inch of her skin.

It seems harmless at first, but Caddie’s obsession soon threatens her ambitions as an actress. She desperately wants to play Ophelia in her school’s production of Hamlet. But that would mean touching Peter, who’s auditioning for the title role — and kissing him. Part of Caddie would love nothing more than to kiss Peter — but the other part isn’t sure she’s brave enough to let herself fall.

Perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson, this debut novel from Rachel M. Wilson is a moving story of a talented girl who’s fighting an increasingly severe anxiety disorder, and the friends and family who stand by her.

Don’t Touch is an upcoming publication that’s near and dear to my heart and one I knew I wanted to read the instant I saw the synopsis. While thankfully my condition is not nearly as severe as Caddie’s, I’ve struggled with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder for a number of years now. As nice as it is to read stories that transport one to other worlds and allow exposure to people, places and things previously unknown to them, there’s something equally comforting and important about seeing one’s own story reflected in the pages of a book. My heart aches for Callie and her struggle to forge a connection despite an insidious mental illness that threatens to cripple her at every possible turn and I can’t wait to see how her story will unfold. The fact that this novel is also being billed as “perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson” is the cherry on top of an already extremely enticing sundae. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to receive a digital advance reader copy of Don’t Touch from the publisher and I’ll be counting the days until this novel is next up on my review schedule and I can finally experience it firsthand.