Book Review: The Skin by J.E. Hannaford
Genre(s): Fantasy
Content warning: There are some scenes of violence, themes of abuse, and kidnapping.
The Skin begins with the classic selkie story. The selkie (and her sister in this case) go onto an island, then shed and hide their skins in order to travel more easily. Her sister’s skin is stolen by a human, but rather than allow her sister, who is pregnant, to be trapped on land, she gives up her own skin. Her sister escapes into the sea, but the selkie of this story remains trapped on land until she can locate her sister’s skin.
She is sold to a greedy and ruthless man, but manages to convince him she is human. She’s put to work in his household as an aquarium cleaner. Given that she’s actually a selkie, most of the sea creatures understand her and give her no trouble. Then Sal enters the picture.
Sal is a wealthy trader of secrets with power and influence in many ports. He arrives to purchase exotic sea creatures, and pays extra to bring Selkie along with them “for proper care.” Sal is also a selkie, but he has chosen to leave the sea. He recognizes Selkie for what she is and agrees to help her in her search.
What’s different about this selkie story is that it’s set in the future. Humanity is in decline, and much of their technology is lost. Many of the Old Ones, like the selkies, suffer from the effects of climate change, but also from the greedy nature of humanity itself. It’s an interesting take on the classic tale that gives it a modern twist.
During the first part of this book, there are three points of view—Selkie, Gina, and Georgie. After reading a few chapters, I found little differentiation on the view points and was somewhat disappointed. However, at the end of part one, there is a bit of a reveal (more on that later) and I understood why each viewpoint felt similar to the others.
I’ve already discussed Selkie’s point of view, so let’s move on to Lady Gina. She is Sal’s daughter and heir to his empire. She’s still learning his methods, but when he’s away, he leaves her in charge. She agrees to help a prince locate his missing artist, who was stolen by his ambitious younger brother. Her story involves a bit of political intrigue and promises that may or may not be kept between herself and the prince, the king, and others.
Georgie is Sal’s cousin, and is the captain of the Black Hind. Her crew is an interesting mix; there’s Zora, a sea witch, Eden, who has the ability to speak to birds, a human helmsman, and Gerogie herself (another selkie). It’s Georgie who is tasked with locating and retrieving the missing artist.
I liked this story for several reasons. It’s not common to find a selkie featured as a main character—I liked the idea so much, it’s what drove me to purchase and read this book. Even though there isn’t as much action in the story as a lot of the other fantasy works I’ve read, it was still a very engaging read. It was also well-edited, and I love the cover art.
But there is one thing I want to mention. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a spoiler for part of the book. While I do my best to avoid them in my reviews, in this case I feel it’s warranted.
* Spoilers inside. If you’d rather avoid reading them, don’t click on this section. *
As I mentioned above, the narrative bounces between the three viewpoints in part one. At first, I thought the storylines were happening concurrently, and as the story progressed, I believed I found some strange inconsistencies between Selkie’s story and the other two. Toward the end of part one, it’s revealed that Selkie is the same person as Gina and Georgie. Selkies, in the mythology, can change their “glamour” and appear as they wish in human form, so it does make sense. I just wish it had been a little clearer that the chapters from Selkie occurred prior to those of Gina and Georgie. It became confusing at times, and it bothered me that Zora seemed to be with Sal and Selkie, but also with Georgie.
As I said, it all made sense at the end of part one (about the 55% mark in the book.) If there had been some way of telling the reader that Selkie’s chapters were from the past, it might have eliminated some of the confusion and concerns I had.
When part two begins, the chapters are no longer separated by personality, since the reader knows the identity of both Gina and Georgie.
I loved the second half of this book, and overall, it was well worth the read.
Author website: jehannaford.com
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