What a gorgeous book. I love the illustrations. It’s so pretty and such an aesthetically pleasing way to put the information across. A timely book in a world that lacks touch. Loved it.

Steve Haines has crafted a science-based, informative visual work that is lovely to look at in terms of artwork and layout, and rich in detail. Touch is Really Strange shows even more of what a graphic novel can be, and is a compelling read.

This ARC courtesy of Netgalley was a really interesting piece of research and a beautifully depicted summary of the benefits of touch. Within the backdrop of covid19, it raised important points relating to the importance of human contact and cited many sources to back up its points. Well illustrated and an interesting exploration. Short however and perhaps could have given more.

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.

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.

This was such an interesting book to read. I learned a lot about touch from it. The exercices at the end were also very suitable with the book.
The art in this book is very beautiful!

This book has an interesting premise - the way that our longing for physical contact affects our bodies and lives - and the text is well-written, but the illustrations and layout fall a little flat for me. The artwork has a tendency to read as stock imagery used for advertising rather than adding to/engaging with the words, and too much text is frequently crammed into one panel or page. The colour palette is great, though, and I really like the touch exercises, which are simple but very meditative and refreshing . I look forward to seeing a copy in print as I think the illustrations will come across a little better that way.