Reviews

Skin Thief: Stories by Suzan Palumbo

raincorbyn's review

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

2treads's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was such a great collection of stories. I can't remember reading and feeling an ache of longing and connection with the main characters as I did with this collection.  I can't wait for Suzan to give us more stories.
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mygeekblasphemy's review

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dark emotional
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

What a dark and gorgeous collection of stories. About—well, many things, of course, but what most struck me—transformation and becoming, about leaving behind people that try to own you, deceive you, shape you, people who won't accept you unless you hide yourself and mirror their face, their morality. I'm a huge fan of Suzan Palumbo's work. "Of Claw and Bone" might still be my personal favorite, but I was happy for the chance to reread other stories I love (like "Douen" and "Laughter Among the Trees"), as well as find other wonderful and new (to me) stories (like "The Pull of the Herd," "Kill Jar," and "Tessellated.") Truly, a lovely collection.

kikireads's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.5

chantaal's review

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5.0

Skin Thief is that rare anthology that, despite the natural result of liking some stories more than others, is so strong in theme and tone that it earns a full five stars.

What Suzan Palumbo has done here is just wonderful. Each story is a speculative feast, various ideas toying with themes of love, bodily autonomy, connection, familial relationships, and much more. The strongest theme that I enjoyed was the theme of bodily autonomy, or our connections to our bodies as we are either stuck in place or go through great change. 

Every story feels incredibly well crafted, doing exactly what Palumbo intends to show in exactly the right amount of page space needed. No story felt too short or too long. The lows in my reading of this entire collection only meant I liked a story instead of all out loving it, or being very moved by it.

Palumbo's author's note is also incredibly enlightening; I'd only just barely noticed the thematic movement on a superficial level, but didn't really think about it until I saw that it was intentional. Love it.

Skin Thief is a fantastic collection, and if you enjoy speculative short stories at all, then give it a try.

Many, many thanks to Neon Hemlock Press for giving the opportunity to read this. Skin Thief is now available on their website.

booktribe's review

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

🖤 Beautiful & engrossing writing
🖤 Trinidadian folklore
🖤 Shapeshifters
🖤 Gothic settings
🖤 Creepy atmosphere
🖤 Characters you care about
🖤 Themes of bodily autonomy & finding your voice
🖤 Incredibly sapphic (literally every story except for maybe one was gay, we love it)

Story ratings: 

📚 The Pull of the Herd: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Personal Rakshasi: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Her Voice, Unmasked: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Of Claw and Bone: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: domestic violence)
📚 Kill Jar: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (Tw: suicidal ideation, child abuse)
📚 Propagating Peonies: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
📚 Tessellated: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Tw: domestic abuse)
📚 Laughter Among The Trees: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Apolèpsie: A Descaling: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 The Bride: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Tara’s Mother’s Skin: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Douen: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: death of a child, animal death)

Average rating: 3.8 ⭐️s
Overall rating: 5 ⭐️s!

Thank you Neon Hemlock for this review copy! All opinions are my own.
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naimereadslines's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Review to come!

joreadsbooks's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Received a review copy from the publisher
General content warnings: death, misogyny, domestic abuse, body horror

Skin Thief is an upcoming collection of dark fantasy and horror fiction from award-winning master of the craft, Suzan Palumbo. Deftly wielding beauty and monstrosity, the stories here run the entire spectrum of horror mundane to horrors supernatural, centering themes of identity, self-acceptance, survival, and a love of women of all kinds. My favorites are still bouncing in my head like ping pong balls and haunting like specters.

My favorite aspect of all of Palumbo’s story is the tendency to follow a main character through an extended period of time. Instead of focusing on one incident, there are hauntings both literal and metaphorical that follow the main characters. Healing isn’t a discrete moment in time, and that sense of ongoing recovery permeates each story.

These stories also celebrate and love women. Mothers, daughters, aunties, women who fight back, women who cannot, there is a reverence for every type of female protagonist. Power doesn’t manifest in the same way in any work. Fighting back also takes on many forms, focused on individual survival that I found empowering in more ways than one.

Without further ado, here are my favorites:

  • “Personal Rakshasi”
    • A girl goes to art school and is haunted by a creature that’s trying to manifest suffering for her art
    • Facing your demons made literal
    • CW: bullying
  • “Her Voice, Unmasked”
    • A science fiction story about a robot learning to sing transcendantly
    • Delicious, righteous revenge galore
    • CW: body horror, violence, murder
  • “Of Claw and Bone”
    • Second person
    • About a mother and daughter in a culture that values animal parts and what they represent as a rite of passage and coming of age
    • Most unsubtle piece in the collection and evocative in its presentation
    • TW: domestic violence & abuse, blood, bodily injury (broken arm)
  • “Kill Jar”
    • A mad biologist of a father forces his daughter to become his apprentice and the reasons behind it become more sinister with each page
    • Loved the worldbuilding and the way Palumbo unravels the truth
    • Cunning in how it bites leaving the reader with a satisfying conclusion
    • CW: animal preservation, snakes, emotional abuse, poisoning, parental abuse (emotional and physical), body horror
  • “Tessellated”
    • A vignette about a girl reflecting on her relationship with her mother who is made of literal wooden tiles
    • Really clever in both its imagery and depiction of trying to do better by the next generation
    • CW: domestic violence
  • “Laughter Among the Trees”
    • Ana’s sister Sabrina goes missing in a prank gone wrong, but there might be more supernatural forces at play
    • Love the depiction of thorny sisterhood and watching Ana grapple with the hole in her life left behind by that loss
    • Eerie in its presentation of horrors both mundane and mythological
    • TW: missing children, microaggressions, prejudice
  • “Douen”
    • Samantha dies upon getting hit by her uncle’s car and comes back as a douen
    • Not all of her family can see her
    • Absolutely heartbreaking and, once again, an incredible blend of every day and supernatural horror
    • Love the depiction of thorny sisterhood and watching Ana grapple with the hole in her life left behind by that loss
    • TW: body horror, dead children

edunbar87's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

jrho's review

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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