I have two exams next week but I’m not particularly worried about them, so I spent today reading books instead of studying. I hope THAT doesn’t come back to bite me in the butt.
Specifically, I read two books I had gotten through inter-library loan and needed to return soon: Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey and Black Jack by Leon Garfield. I thought instead of doing separate reviews posts for them I’d jsut talk about them a bit here.
I came across Skin Hunger through a Tor.com post, I think, though I neglected to note down the exact post in my Rec’d by Others thing, so I can’t say for sure. Anyway, I wasn’t entirely disappointed by it, but it certainly wasn’t what I expected it to be.
I really liked the writing; it was very atmospheric and conveyed creepiness excellently, but nothing happens. It’s like the whole book was a prologue for something else, and while it was a nice prologue, it didn’t really lead anywhere. I had no idea wtf was happening, honestly, until I read the summary (which I obviously hadn’t done before). THEN it made sense. A lot more sense! And I liked the book much better after it made more sense.
But why didn’t the book itself, y’know, tell me wtf was going on? Did I just skip something entirely in the narrative, or was I supposed to make a connection and never did? I think it might have been that last thing- I could see an obvious connection between Sadima and Hahp, but I couldn’t figure out what that connection was. Maybe I’m…stupid? I don’t know. I don’t think I am, but I can’t help but feel I should have picked up on stuff. Going back over it after reading the summary I can obviously see the clues that should have told me what was going on, but I just never made the connections.
Anyway, if you make sure to read the summary before you read the book, I’m sure you’ll have a better time of it than I did. It’s a really good book! It’s dark and borders on depressing, and ain’t no-one happy in it, but it was enthralling. I definitely want to read the next one and see what happens.
Continue reading »
Loading ...
