A review by mgncpr
The Skin Beneath by Nairne Holtz
3.0
Although this is billed as a lesbian mystery, it really doesn’t fit that genre – it fits more comfortably as literature, Canadian Literature to be exact. This is a well-written and intriguing book that takes a bit more thought than most of the books that I have been reading recently. The story follows Sam, a young woman who seems rather at loose ends until she receives a postcard suggesting that her sister (Choe)’s death was not a suicide. She leaves her life in Toronto and moves to Montreal to trace her sister’s life, finding a job where her sister used to work and contacting her sister’s friends and beginning a relationship with her sister’s ex roommate. The two sisters are as different as could be, but Sam’s idolization of Chloe results in her identity being caught up in her sister’s. As the story progresses, she learns more about her sister’s last few years and in doing so learns more about herself.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read. The characters were quite fascinating and multi-facteted. No one was what they necessarily appeared to be at first – there were no heroes of villains, everyone was painfully human and realistically portrayed. The narrative style is a bit jarring at first – the story is told third person, present tense. It is an effective style – dragging the reader into the story, but I’m not sure why Holtz set the story in the 90s if she was planning on using present tense. Regardless, it is an effective style, albeit a bit jarring at first and she does alternate with flashback chapters told in past tense which makes it a bit less daunting. Stylistically, this is a wonderfully crafted book and it was a welcome departure from the fluffy lesbian themed books and the other spec fic books that I’ve been reading.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting read. The characters were quite fascinating and multi-facteted. No one was what they necessarily appeared to be at first – there were no heroes of villains, everyone was painfully human and realistically portrayed. The narrative style is a bit jarring at first – the story is told third person, present tense. It is an effective style – dragging the reader into the story, but I’m not sure why Holtz set the story in the 90s if she was planning on using present tense. Regardless, it is an effective style, albeit a bit jarring at first and she does alternate with flashback chapters told in past tense which makes it a bit less daunting. Stylistically, this is a wonderfully crafted book and it was a welcome departure from the fluffy lesbian themed books and the other spec fic books that I’ve been reading.