A review by mdpenguin
Under the Skin by Michel Faber

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

3.0

This was a decent story and well written except that it didn't really seem to commit to saying anything about its themes. Part of it is that the main character doesn't really grow much and is rather bitter and antisocial through the whole thing. But part of it is that it brings up issues of hierarchy and class but doesn't really do anything much with them. It would have been pretty easy to use the conversations with hitchhikers to draw parallels between Isserley's situation and those of her victims. And there's a point at which severe trauma causes issues but doesn't lead to any long-term changes in the way that the character relates to others. I guess you could say that it is a portrait of a person so affected by the brutality of class in her society that she cannot break herself out of a mentality that reinforces it even when isolated from the society and invited to do so by one of her "betters." However, it doesn't give enough for us to really understand why she would entrench herself so heavily into her own subjugation. There's just not enough food for thought in it for me. 
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