(S)kin

Featured
718exJzanIL
Author(s)
Publisher
Age Range
13+
Release Date
February 11, 2025
ISBN
978-0062888877
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“Our new home with its

thick walls and locked doors

wants me to stay trapped in my skin—

but I am fury and flame.”

Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.

Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.

But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.

Editor review

1 review
(S)kin
(Updated: June 06, 2026)
Overall rating
 
4.7
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
4.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
Fifteen-year-old Marisol shreds her skin every new moon. She follows in the footsteps of her soucouyant mother. They are Caribbean shape-shifters. Only now her mother has taken her to Brooklyn, far from her island home. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor who is obsessed with Caribbean folktales and legends. Genevieve knows nothing about her mother. She also has a terrible skin condition that grows worse. Then her life collides with Marisol and they find they have something in common. A truth that is explosive in more ways than they'll ever could have thought.

What worked: Powerful, unique story told in verse of two unlikely girls who find they have a lot in common. What really worked in this story was the author's choice of using free verse that adds a punch to the magical element.

Soucouyants are Caribbean shape-shifters. Kind of like vampires that shed their skin and suck on the essences of those who harmed them. In the beginning, readers see Marisol's painful transformation into a soucoyant with her mother's help. The struggles Marisol encounters in the new country are very realistic as well.

Genevieve at first comes across as an arrogant girl but also one who can't deny a painful hunger that increases. When she first meets Lourdes, Marisol's mother, she senses a connection. She fights it to no avail. Her anger against her father grows when he reveals the truth. A truth that shatters everything Genevieve believed in.

The relationship between Marisol and Genevieve is complex. Both are jealous of each other in different ways. They quickly realize that they both need to work together. The alternative is worse.

There's family drama and betrayals, including one huge betrayal directed at both girls. Plus, a secret that can destroy lives.

A very twisty ending gives a new definition of karma.

Enthralling magical contemporary tale with Caribbean shape-shifters, where everything is more than skin deep.
Good Points
1. Entralling magical tale of Caribbean shape-shifters
2. Unique fantasy told in verse
3. Soucouyants
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