In Her Skin by Kim Savage
Publisher: FSG
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Rating: 3 Stars
Source: Audible
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 293
Summary (from Goodreads):
Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest scam of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine.
When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.
Much like AFTER THE WOODS, this book was solidly just okay for me. I can't say that I feel particularly strongly about it one way or another.
Jo has not had a very good time since (or really before either) her mother was killed and she ended up on the streets of Boston, but when she finds the perfect opportunity to score herself a loving family, she thinks she's got it made. But does she, really?
I didn't particularly care for the writing style of this one. I believe it was written in present tense, which I am not really a fan of. Also, all the sections of the book where Jo is talking about her new "sister", she refers to her as "you", which is also something I don't really dig. I feel like it just sounds weird and I felt very aware of it the whole time.
I think a lot of my problems with this book stem mostly from the beginning and it got better when I got more used to the things that bothered me. Like a lot of things that I don't specifically remember about Jo's character kind of bothered me, but I don't feel like they were things that were really wrong with her, I think they were totally plausible for someone in her situation, but I guess they were things that were so far out of my own realm of understanding that I just didn't enjoy them.
I believe that Jo is bisexual, but I don't remember it ever being stated outright in the book. She leaves behind a boyfriend of sorts when she gets off the streets and then starts thirsting for her new "sister". There really isn't much in the way of romance in this book, but I think Jo has bigger things to worry about than that.
I feel like this book should have been a lot more suspenseful than it was. It felt like the beginning was a lot more well-crafted, then after the plot twist, everything seemed just kind of haphazardly thrown in and I think it would have really benefitted from more detail in several aspects. I really wanted to feel a lot more like I was on the edge of my seat. I feel like there were things that I would have liked more closure on, but I also feel like not getting it could be fitting with Jo as the narrator, but like.. I wanted it.
Overall, I think I would have to say that this book was mostly a miss for me, but it was nice to listen to while doing menial tasks at work. I think if you are someone who has never really read any thriller books, you are more likely to enjoy it, but if you know what a good suspenseful thriller is, you might not like it as much.
Have you read IN HER SKIN yet? What did you think of it? I tried out a slightly different review style today, in which I tried not to be SO descriptive of things that happen in the book. If you have an opinion one way or the other, will you let me know? I feel like I don't like it as much, but I skipped some things that I normally might have included that I think would have made me overly word-y and give more away than I would like to.
