Customer Reviews

Gifted Touch (Fingerprints, 1)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The "Fingerprints" series is about a girl named Rae who can touch a fingerprint and know what the perons who left the print was thinking at the time they left it. At first she thinks she is going crazy. (Since her mother died in a mental institution, she has extra good reason to be worried.) Then she, with the help of a guy named Anthony, figures out that she has a psi power. But Rae still has something big to be afraid of.She touch a fingerprint that told her someone wants to kill her. She just doesn't know who. Or why.

Melinda Metz also wrote the Roswell High series, which is my absolute favorite series of all time. She does a great job mixing sci-fi and romance, and I'm really looking forward to reading these books when they come out. The first two are coming out in April, and then one every month after that. So far there's six in the contract.

--Rachel

Rae can't help it but sometimes she hears thoughts in her head. Thoughts that aren't her own. She dosen't understand why and she sometimes thinks she crazy. After having a mental breakdown in the middle of the cafeteria at the end of her sophmore year she spent her summer in hospitals and is still going to group therapy. SHe's nervous of what people will think about her when she comes back to school. She wonders if they'll be afraid of her. In her group therapy meetings she meets Anthony who's tough bravado seems to cover up deep problems. But when something terrible happens to Rea she's forced to face her secret and use her strange powers. But will that be enough to save Anthony?

I really enjoyed this book. The concept was orginal and the charecters were complex and different than others that you usually see in books. If you liked series like Fearless and the Sweep series this book is for you. I hope I get to read the second book in the Series. It's called Haunted.

Gifted Touch is about a girl named Rae Voight who starts hearing voices in her head. Her first impulse is that she's going crazy like her mother. Then Rae starts going to group therapy but all she wants to do is be a normal girl and go to school and parties. On her way to group therapy a bomb explodes in the girls bathroom that she is in and hears a voice in her head that sounds like she wants to kill Rae for something and wants to frame Anthony for it. Anthony is this boy in Rae's group therapy who is a slow reader and who helps Rae realize that she is gifted. Whenever she touches a fingerprint she can read your thoughts at the time you left the mark. Now Rae has to help prove that Anthony is innocent and find whoever wants her dead. This was a great book and I would recommend it to anyone.

I absolutely love this first book in the 'Fingerprints' series. Melinda has outdone herself again. Just like with the ROSWELL HIGH series, she has created such likeable and realistic characters...She takes you deep into their mind and helps you explore what they are all about...I really like the character of anthony...I relate so much to some of the things he thinks and does...The lead character rae,reminds me of myself way down deep inside...she has beauty and has spirit..If you loved ROSWELL HIGH, like I did, I would recommend that you read this book and love it even more!.I can't wait to get the rest of the series.

Sixteen-year-old Rae Voigt was your ordinary, popular sixteen-year-old girl. What she feared most of all was that her friends would discover her mother died in an insane asylum. Rae's whole life changes forever when she suddenly acquires an amazing gift. When Rae touches a person's fingerprint, she can hear what the person was thinking when they left the print. At first, Rae thinks she is going crazy, just like her mother. With the help of a boy named Anthony, she begins to understand her amazing powers. But as she does so, she realizes that she is in terrible danger. After a bomb in a bathroom nearly kills her, she knows someone wants her dead. But who, and why? Rae has never done anything to hurt anyone. Rae's going to have to find out fast. This book starts off a thrilling new series for teens by Melinda Metz, the wonderful author of Roswell High.

Rae starts out as a normal teenager and she is living a pretty good life. That is until she starts having thoughts that are not hers. She begins to think that she is going crazy, like her mother did before she died in an insane asylum. Then finally Anthony, a guy she met at one of her support groups, figured out that she had a wonderful and amazing gift. But somebody doesnt like this whole amazing gift idea. They want Rae dead and fast. With her gift she starts to investigate who wants to kill her and why. Rae and Anthony go through sad, happy and angry times. These books are great because at the end of each book they leave you hanging so you cannot put it down, but you have to keep reading each book within a matter of days! I recommend this book to people of all ages. It doesnt even matter what kind of book you like, this one has mystery, suspense, romance, and fanstasy all put together. If I had to choose one book to read over and over again I would definitely choose this one!

I read Fingerprints 1: Gifted Touch by Melinda Metz. Gifted Touch is the first novel in a series of six. I really loved this book because she always kept making me want to read on. At the end of each chapter, it was almost always a cliff hanger, which kept me turning the pages.
One message Metz tried to deliver was finding yourself, she did this through the plot of the book. The main character Rae always get these thoughts which she calls "not me" thoughts. She thinks she is crazy and has a nervous break-down in the middle of school. This book is about her trying to find out why she is getting these thoughts, and where they are coming from. Rae is hoping that these thoughts are not connected to her mother, who died in a phsychiatrich hospital a few years before.
One character who really stood out to me was Rae, she had such a compassion for people and fighting for what she believed in. On one of her visits to Anthony, Rae says "I came here because I don't think you set off the bomb, and I dont want to be a part of putting you into Ashton". She tells him this because while Rae was in the bathroom at one of her group therapy sessions, a pipe bomb went off, someone had tried to murder Rae, and her friend Anthony was framed for it.
Metz created characters that were easy to relate to and were easy to root for and sympathize with. I could relate to Rae because I also went through a point in my life where I wasn't sure who I was, and didn't know what to do. I think it will be easy for a lot of people to relate too, because I'm sure everyone has been lost and confused at one point in their lives. I could also sympathise with her because she had to go through the realization that her mom did something terrible to be put into a hospital, but was too ashamed to say what. "But she was crazy. Remember that, Rae? She was crazy and not just crazy in a nice I-see-leprechauns-and-unicorns way. Crazy in a horrible, vicious way".
I would reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in a suspense story, filled with mystery and emotion. I rated this book a 5-star, not just because it was well written, but also because I felt like I was right next to Rae the whole time.

The one thing Rae feared the most all of her life was going crazy and dying in an insane asylum like her mother. So when she gets her amazing gift, her natural assumption is that she is going crazy, just like her mother. Whenever Rae touches someone's fingerprint she can hear what that person was thinking. Of course she doesn't realize this right away, she just starts to think she's crazy and so does everyone else. So she gets sent to a hospital and after she gets released she tries to pretend the thoughts in her head that aren't hers, she calls them not-me thoughts, don't exist. She meets a guy named Anthony at these group sessions she has to go to. And after an attempt on her life is made, she realizes that someone wants her dead. Is it because of her gifts? Does it have something to do with her mother and the terrible crime she committed? Rae doesn't know but in order to stay alive she's going to have to figure it all out and soon, before it's too late. This new series by Melinda Metz is captivating and gets you hooked. I can't wait to read more and find out about Rae's mom and why she has this gift of hers. Melinda's fans won't be disappointed.

The Fingerprints series begins with a blast, and is excellently written by Melinda Metz, author of the Roswell High series. It explores the dark, insecure world of a frighteneed teenage girl, Rae Voigt, whose fear always locks her away from her friends. Rae always thought she was crazy. Her own mother was, and all her father ever does is tell Rae how special her mother had been before her death. Rae doesn't believe it all. She tries to fit in with her friends, and all she ever wanted was to feel normal. But words, strange, other words, always fill her head. She doesn't know what to think of it. It's a fascinating, extraordinary power she has, to touch things and to know people's thoughts by the fingerprints they leave. She only thinks she's crazier. But the real terror begins when she touches a fingerprint that reveals that someone is trying to kill her. It will take all her courage to try avoiding an unseen, dangerous enemy -- if she can find it. Fingerprints #1: Gifted Touch is an excellent first book of this great new series , and always leaves you on the edge of suspense, moving the reader and feeling Rae Voigt's uncertain view of the normal but terrifying world that surrounds her.

I know I'm late to the party on this one, Fingerprints came out ten years ago, but I don't care, I'm just pleased to have stumbled on this little gem of a series. From the writer of the Roswell High series comes an intriguing, sharp book about Rae, a prep school beauty who has it all and loses it suddenly when gripped by the same mental illness as that which claimed her mothers' life. Well, at least that's what she thinks. What at first seems a quickly spiraling plunge into mental illness becomes a gift (or curse, depending) that changes her perspective on herself and those around her.

Here's what I loved about this novel:
It's written in third-person limited, which not only lets the reader get a peek into Rae's head but also that of Anthony, Rae's reluctant new friend at group therapy. The narrative is so character-specific that you can feel when Melinda Metz switches gears and without her telling the reader who she's writing, you can simply just tell. The voices are that distinct and the transitions are flawless. Also wonderful are the creepy narratives of the mystery stalker who is apparently hell bent on Rae's destruction, leading to a pipe bomb explosion which leaves Rae mildly wounded. Another great device is the use of the "messages" Rae receives "telepathically" when she touches fingerprints. At first it felt a little choppy, as it interrupts the narrative, but after the connection is made it simply becomes part of the storytelling tapestry.

Anthony and Rae are interesting characters, with very real quirks and problems. There's nothing pat about these two. Rae is used to having what she feels is a "normal" life and when that is ripped away it leaves her feeling lost and uncertain but not in a woe-is-me kind of way. Anthony suffers from anger management issues, due to some issues at home, and is attempting to change his life though uncertain how best to accomplish that goal. These two unlikely friends find each other when they need each other most, each offering the other a new way of looking at things and an honesty that was lacking in their former lives. The relationship which develops is natural and considerate, filled with bumps in the road and the appropriate level of tension.

Here's what didn't work so well:
Really there isn't much that didn't work so well but there was one issue I had some difficulty with. The bomb. I watch enough TruTV to know that when a bomb goes off a building is evacuated and the bomb squad descends immediately. But when the bomb explodes at Oakvale, where Rae attends therapy with Anthony, she's brought to the nurse and the group reconvenes for its group therapy. Rae isn't taken to the hospital, the building isn't evacuated and, by the time the scene ends, the cops still haven't showed up. Not very realistic. But it's such a minor complaint that I can't rate the novel lower than the five I've given it. It's simply that good.