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The Book Of Human Skin (2010)

by Michelle Lovric(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1408802244 (ISBN13: 9781408802243)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Bloomsbury UK

review 1: The title is a fair indication of what lurks inside the covers of this book. It has been compared to Harris’s “Silence of the Lambs”, Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” and Süskind’s “Perfume” – but I have never read anything quite like it. There are five narrators; an insane 18th century Venetian count, Minguillo Fasan; his sister, Marcella, whom he wants to kill; Marcella’s devoted manservant; her lover, a doctor of skin diseases; and a fanatical nun in a Peruvian convent. It is about quack medicine, the plight of women and enduring love. It is multi-faceted, dense with historical detail, and absolutely gripping all the way. It will simultaneously creep you out and mesmerise you, and you will find, as Count Minguillo says just before he does something gh... moreastly, that “this is going to be a little uncomfortable”.
review 2: This is a difficult book to review, because I can't decide whether the book is trashy but I enjoyed it anyway, or if the book has genuine merit and I enjoyed it justifiably. It's got interesting things going for it: it is told from the point of views of multiple narrators, each designated their own very distinct way of speaking and even their own font, which was a weirdly effective technique. The plot was quite riveting and it definitely kept me eagerly turning the pages, even when nearing the 500 mark. This being said, I can't help feeling that the characters were fairly flat and the whole thing was a little gimmicky. Or is it just a good old fashioned good versus evil story which I'm trying to over complicate? Who knows. All I know is that I definitely enjoyed it. I just don't know whether I should have or not! less

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