A review by minimicropup
Under Your Skin by Sabine Durrant

dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

I actually hated this (no hate to anyone who enjoyed it). I had high hopes because the synopsis sounded so intriguing, but unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me at all. I think this book was trying to emulate the psychological tension of Gone Girl but I think it failed miserably. 
 
  • The writing style was verbose and dry and fragmented. The language was overly complex trying too hard to be gritty and edgy.
  • Clunky transitions and short, stilted sentences. I swear, sometimes it was a literal word salad. 
  • Chapters dragged on with nothing happening, it was excruciatingly slow. It was always telling when I wanted to be shown and showing when it should have just been said. 
  • The main character narrates in such a disjointed way that it was hard to follow. She’d reference people or events with no explanation as if we should know them. 
  • Something important would happen and our main character would skip the summary to give detailed descriptions of trivial things like a shoe (there’s a reason for this but…ugh).
  • The plot was overly contrived and gimmicky.  
  • The main character’s behavior around the police made no sense, which made this immediately predictable for what the ‘twist’ is. 
  • The main character was one-dimensional. Being cryptic and repetitive was her core personality.  
  • The reveal felt ick like it was trying to go for a female rage good-for-her, but it’s the opposite.
  • There’s a transphobic comment that felt outdated even for 2013?
 
📚 Format: Paperback
 
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