Review Detail

I'm a huge fan of Donna Jo Napoli's YA historicals so I was excited to be able to review her latest.

SKIN introduces us to sixteen-year-old Sep who wakes up one morning to white lips. She's horrified. Her mother let's her borrow some candy pink lipstick to cover it up till she can see her doctor. Then her former fifth grade best friend Joshua, who's the captain of the football team, seems interested in her...again. Sep at first isn't sure to trust him or anyone especially when more white patches appear on her body. Her doctor tells her it's vitiligo-a skin condition that isn't contagious but has no cure. Sep struggles with this diagnosis and fears she'll be looked at as a freak. Along the way she makes some choices about who to confide in while experiencing the usual High School scene.

Let's just say this book was intriguing enough for me to read in one afternoon. It's nothing like Napoli's other stories.

What worked for me had to be what I felt was a realistic at times reaction to receiving not great news from a doctor. In this case it's vitiligo, a skin condition. Rock legend Michael Jackson suffered from this disease too. I could see why Sep would be hung up in her appearance. It reminded me of my own terrible acne when I was 14 years old and how the kids called me 'pizza face' and worse. I swear for that whole year I avoided mirrors. So I felt for Sep.

I also liked her best friend Devin, who was supportive at times. There's some great scenes with Devin and Sep, that show their friendship. I just wished we'd seen more of these scenes.

What I did have a hard time with was the dialogue that rambled on and on. At times I would skim over it as I felt it would go off on a tangent. I'm not sure if the author wanted that to be a quirk of Sep. All I know is it was jarring at times and took me out of the story. Also Sep came off as not very likeable and very moody. I know that it's normal for anyone to want to lash out once they hear not great news. But I felt she didn't give Joshua or others the benefit of the doubt and at least let them know what was going on.

And I admit it. I liked Joshua, who had a sweet appeal going for him. I didn't get a sense of Owen, only that he seemed to talk way over Sep's head.

Overall though this is an interesting take on a teen dealing with vitiligo along with other things that happen in high school like boyfriends, friendships, family dynamics, and the very real fear of being ostracized.