So when I was at Geek Girl Con, I stopped by the Razorgirl Press table to chat and picked up a couple of books, and since I finally made it through the list of books waiting to be reviewed for City Book Reviews, I was able to pick one of them up.

I started with Trace by Ian Smith. The lead, Joanne Shaughnessy, is a young woman who was adopted as a child from China by a family in Montana and grew up not only as an adopted minority, but also as an amputee missing her right hand…and any memory of why it was gone. The story picks up as Joanne is trying to build a new life in Seattle after college having moved in with her best friend from high school. During her quest to figure out a way to deal with her phantom limb sensations in her missing hand, Joanne ends up discovering that she has the ability to sense imprinted memories on objects and stumbles into a an ongoing power play between those who have this gift and those who wish they did.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that although the author is a white male, he does a remarkable job creating a nuanced and realistic female, Chinese-American amputee. Not once did I feel like he went for the easy and stereotypical descriptors, and Joanne is well represented in all of her aspects, all of which had valid story aspects and were not used for tokenization or fetishisaztion. In fact, if any of the characters were lacking in depth, it was the white males in the book. But even them I found believable. So congrats to Smith on threading that dangerous needle.

Beyond the excellent characterization, the story itself is fun and unique in its representation of a supernatural gift. The quiet suggestion that it is all a part of their chi and somehow related to her missing limb were well articulated and drove the story forward, especially how it worked together with neuroscience and technology. This was a definite page turner and I maybe spent more time reading it than I should have over the last few days.

The last thing I want to say is that this book also did an excellent job of characterizing Seattle (yay, hometown!) and the city came out feeling more like a character, more real, than I’ve found it in most other books set in the city. It was grounded, realistic, and all the little inside jokes about living in Seattle were well placed and utilized in the novel. As a (non-native) Seattleite, it rang true and was highly amusing. So thanks for that!

It does end with the suggestion of a sequel, so I’m hoping that might be in the works. I would definitely buy it when it came out!