Touch is Really Strange

Touch is Really Strange

Touch is Really Strange is the newest book in the therapeutic comic series. Written by Steve Haines and illustrated by Sophie Standing, it’s due out in April 2021.

The book is almost a meditation on paper, wandering through poetic thoughts on the importance of touch, how damaging the lack of touch can be, how we use it to engage with the world, and how touch interacts with the rest of our senses. (There are footnotes, too, with sources and additional quotes.) There’s even a brief digression on how harassment and the pandemic have made touch problematic.

Touch is Really Strange

The captions are accompanied by lovely, sedate images in shades of sand and night. The author points out a few cultural differences as well as trying to educate on misinformation about massage. The book ends with a set of exercises the reader can try with a partner to learn more about touch interaction.

This is a book to experience, one where different points might strike the reader as significant at different times. It’s something to pause over and think about.

The biggest problem with it is the price. It’s $14.95 for 32 pages. They’re beautiful pages, but at that price, this really should have an upgraded format. (The publisher provided an advance digital review copy.)



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