8 reviews for:

An Army of Skin

Morgan K. Tanner

3.62 AVERAGE

kate_rescueandreading's review

3.0

This was a gory, fever dream of a horror story. I wasn’t sure what was really happening, left questioning if there were supernatural events at play or mental madness.

I can’t even summarize what I just read- it’s still so skewed in my mind…

Definitely pick up this story if you want an unreliable narrator, and a plot that keeps you guessing at where it’s heading.

jquivo's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

laurenhollowell's review

5.0

Will read again! It took me some time to finish this short read but I enjoyed it thoroughly!

stitching_ghost's review against another edition

4.0

Normally this kind of psychological is it all in his head type of stories feel like they've already been written a 1000 times to me but this one was really engaging even though the main character has that one enormous flaw that made it so I couldn't root for him at all, his name was Trevor, an unforgivable sin in my book.

On a more serious note, if you're looking for a quick read that has just the right balance between gore, character building (Mr. King was actually a pretty compelling character) and action look no further.

thathorrorbish's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

astoldbybex's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

findingmontauk1's review against another edition

4.0

"I wiped the corpse's sticky blood and my own sweat from my brow. Taking a step back I cast a critical eye over the finished piece. Not bad for a first attempt, but in reality, it was nowhere near the picture in the textbook."

The opening lines of this novella totally hooked me. And the story turned into this wild and gory descent into madness. 4 stars from me!

My full review is posted on the Night Worms blog: https://nightworms.com/blogs/news/a-side-by-side-review-army-of-skin-by-morgan-tanner

lilyn_g's review

3.0

First-person doesn’t really do it for me. There’s been a handful of times where I’ve appreciated it, and that’s really about it. So, unfortunately, that was a hurdle I hit with An Army of Skin almost straight away. However, the story was immediately weird enough to keep me reading anyways.

Morgan Tanner makes some interesting word choices during his story. I can’t say they always worked for me, but I could appreciate them for their originality. Probably my favorite one is “post-mortal architecture”. Such a nice way to put “arranged dismembered body parts.”

Unfortunately, it felt either too long or too short, and I can’t make up my mind which one I think it is. However, the pacing is mostly good, and the gore made me happy. The twist was truly unexpected and after it, I wasn’t quite sure where things were going to go, which was nice.

Overall, An Army of Skin didn’t work for me, but I did like how Tanner keeps you wondering if dude is crazy or there’s supernatural crap (or both) going on. It’s worth taking a look at. It might slide right into your happy spot. If not, it’s short enough you aren’t spending a ton of time on something you don’t enjoy. It is a short piece of horror fiction with some imagery that can really screw with your head if you let it.

I’d be willing to read more from this author in the future just to see what else he comes up with.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for review consideration.