304 pages
English language
Published Oct. 29, 2017 by Canongate Books.
Short-listed for the Whitbread Award, this remarkable book defies categorisation. Under the Skin introduces Isserley, a woman obsessed with picking up male hitchhikers – so long as they're well-muscled and alone. But why? As the novel unfolds and the reason becomes clear, the reader is drawn inexorably into a completely unexpected and increasingly terrifying world.
An incredible mix of social commentary, empathy and horror that manages to be both accessible to none sci-fi readers and novel to sci-fi readers.
I really appreciated that all of the characters are vulnerable or damaged in some way, especially Isserley.
Each chapter gets more scary, and I really like the pace of the book. But, a lot of open questions remain unanswered, and I have a feeling author decided to have a series of books, instead of single one.
Would have been 3-stars, but it is well structured, paced and with a uniform tension that this other-wise perfectly-average, perfectly-good novel gets one more for novel-craft.
Somewhat interesting - but novels are supposed to be, so nothing special there. Some vaguely novel ideas - but that's what you'd expect from a novel, so nothing special there, either.
All in all, a well done, perfectly readable, otherwise average novel.
I read this as soon as I caught a trailer for an upcoming film version. The film, by Jonathan Glazer, looked so visually intriguing and so rich in mystery that I was pulled right in... and I'm so glad I read the book first. Unfortunately, the film has almost nothing to do with Faber's novel. It's as though Glazer read the novel and liked it so much he decided to color it's pages over with a crayon and present it to the world.
The novel, however, is excellent. There are moments when it conveys that same Marxist dread Kazuo Ishiguro portrays in Never Let Me Go. In fact, the two novels are in interesting dialogue and I highly recommend one after the other.
I can't go into plot detail because so much of this story comes across in a slow yet compelling reveal from start to finish (even as the …
I read this as soon as I caught a trailer for an upcoming film version. The film, by Jonathan Glazer, looked so visually intriguing and so rich in mystery that I was pulled right in... and I'm so glad I read the book first. Unfortunately, the film has almost nothing to do with Faber's novel. It's as though Glazer read the novel and liked it so much he decided to color it's pages over with a crayon and present it to the world.
The novel, however, is excellent. There are moments when it conveys that same Marxist dread Kazuo Ishiguro portrays in Never Let Me Go. In fact, the two novels are in interesting dialogue and I highly recommend one after the other.
I can't go into plot detail because so much of this story comes across in a slow yet compelling reveal from start to finish (even as the characters are slowly revealed to themselves). I can say that the reveals, however interesting, are not what this novel's story hinges on (thus succumbing to gimmickry).
I highly recommend this novel (and if you haven't read Ishiguro I recommend that, too). I do NOT recommend the film but the good news is you can watch the film before or after you read the book and your experience will not diminish.
What a weird and wonderful book.
I must admit to discovering this book through news of the film adaptation being made, starring Scarlett Johansson. I'm in two minds about movie adaptations - I used to prefer watching the movie first before reading the book it's based on, having been disappointed by how "Lost World" didn't live up to the novel, but more recently have been won over to the opinion that having deep background from having read the book rather complements the experience of seeing the movie adaptation.
That being said, the plot of this book -- and it's setting -- is too intriguing to defer reading until the movie comes out. Scotland's bleak (yet beautiful) landscape is pretty much the perfect setting for a novel in which the protagonist (?) is an alien preying on humans ... intriguing as a social commentary in itself. Faber managed to make us sympathize with her all throughout -- …
I must admit to discovering this book through news of the film adaptation being made, starring Scarlett Johansson. I'm in two minds about movie adaptations - I used to prefer watching the movie first before reading the book it's based on, having been disappointed by how "Lost World" didn't live up to the novel, but more recently have been won over to the opinion that having deep background from having read the book rather complements the experience of seeing the movie adaptation.
That being said, the plot of this book -- and it's setting -- is too intriguing to defer reading until the movie comes out. Scotland's bleak (yet beautiful) landscape is pretty much the perfect setting for a novel in which the protagonist (?) is an alien preying on humans ... intriguing as a social commentary in itself. Faber managed to make us sympathize with her all throughout -- in the tradition of sci-fi as political commentary, we see her as escaping an even more hideous fate on her home planet, and after all, her victims are not really civilized "humans" (ironic, the role reversal there).
strange. weird. kinda sad.
