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A review by dobbsthedog
Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett
5.0
This is quite a book. It is about Mr F, who is a 47 year old furrier in London’s fur trade, in 1967.
What I found fascinating about the book is how it defies genre. It certainly veers towards horror, but is also deeply emotional. And while you’re pretty certain Mr F is going to straight up murder someone throughout most of the book, the ending is completely not what you would expect. So, it also veers towards being a thriller, because it keeps you guessing until the very end. But then maybe it’s just a story about a lonely man, living and working in London in a year of great change (the Homosexual Offenses Act was passed, the Abortion Act was passed).
This book gave me so much to think about and having read it twice, back to back, I’m still thinking about it, and likely will be for quite a while to come.
Skin Lane is definitely not a book for everyone. But if you like genre-bending with an incredibly fascinating narrator that will leave you guessing, then maybe this is the book for you. Though good luck finding a copy; it’s out of print and not available as an e-book.
Also, if you read this book and need something more, I so enjoyed the book that I wrote a bit of fan fiction for Mr F, you can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40161987
What I found fascinating about the book is how it defies genre. It certainly veers towards horror, but is also deeply emotional. And while you’re pretty certain Mr F is going to straight up murder someone throughout most of the book, the ending is completely not what you would expect. So, it also veers towards being a thriller, because it keeps you guessing until the very end. But then maybe it’s just a story about a lonely man, living and working in London in a year of great change (the Homosexual Offenses Act was passed, the Abortion Act was passed).
This book gave me so much to think about and having read it twice, back to back, I’m still thinking about it, and likely will be for quite a while to come.
Skin Lane is definitely not a book for everyone. But if you like genre-bending with an incredibly fascinating narrator that will leave you guessing, then maybe this is the book for you. Though good luck finding a copy; it’s out of print and not available as an e-book.
Also, if you read this book and need something more, I so enjoyed the book that I wrote a bit of fan fiction for Mr F, you can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40161987