Poppy’s life draws you in like a vortex! Even though, in retrospect, some aspects of the story stretch into the implausible. However, it is an exciting ride which kept me up into the early morning hours more than once. Best of all, the twists and turns make it very difficult to figure out “whodunit”. When the bad guy is finally revealed, it is a satisfactory - well, I will leave it there so no spoiler here! Great summer read.

What a ride! Kept me guessing the entire way through. Is she crazy, is she sane, is she delusional from grief and self medicating? Everyone in her life wants to help her through her grief after losing her husband in a senseless tragedy, or do they? I couldn’t put it down. It’s another page turner from a great author. Thanks to Net Galley and Lisa Unger and her publisher for letting me read and review this fantastic thriller. I’m definitely going back for more from this author.

Lisa Unger is one of my favorite authors, and this is definitely one of my favorite of her most recent novels. The narrator, Poppy, lost her husband Jack to a brutal unsolved murder as he was running in the early morning hours. It's a year later, and Poppy is still struggling with Jack's absence. She's highly medicated (a lot of it self-medicated, mixed with alcohol), and she's having terrifying and confusing dreams, and experiencing blackouts. All of this combines to make her quite the unreliable narrator--throughout you're never quite sure whether to believe her or not.

I thought that the characters were well developed and believably flawed. Unger slowly reveals more information about each character, lending more insight as you go, and provides a satisfying conclusion to the tale. Highly recommended.

Loved this book, even when I was not reading it I kept thinking about it and couldn’t wait to pick it up again and I finished it in a day. Would definitely recommend to others and can’t wait to read other titles from this author.

Highly recommend!!

Thank you for this early copy!

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a well-written thriller.

Didn't care for this book. It was slow moving and not suspenseful. Plowed through it like a mandatory reading in school.

Okay, this was tough. The beginning or at least the first 30% of the book was a 2 star, didn't care for the character at that point. She was pill popping, drinking, weird dreams. It was a bit much but I kept reading because I like Lisa Unger's other book that I read. Midway was a 3 star and the last 20% was a 5. So I averaged it out to a 3. I was surprised by the ending. I was lucky to get this through NetGalley. I will read Lisa's next book.

See link to goodreads review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2455694171?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I love Lisa Unger novels, and this one did not disappoint . I stayed up reading it all night long. Lisa has become one of my favorites.

“From New York Times bestselling author and master of suspense Lisa Unger comes an addictive psychological thriller about a woman on the hunt for her husband’s killer”

“Under the Skin” by Lisa Unger is a novel of psychological suspense about a photographer named Poppy Montgomery who is searching for answers of her husband’s seemingly random and senseless murder.

I had a hard time putting this book down and enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns. The book did lag in parts and could have skipped the “romance” angle, but overall, it was a good mystery/thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this Advanced Reader Copy.
3.5/5

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this novel before its release. Poppy is having lots of problems after her husband’s death. Jack was brutally beaten and murdered while out on his morning run. A good start for a thriller for sure. But I found this book so difficult to follow. I had no idea when Poppy was in the present or fully engaged in the backstory. The writing is a blend of poetry, imagination and little reality. It does finally take off the last 50 pages and becomes interesting. Normally Lisa Unger is one of my favorite authors and does thrillers well. Hardly anything about this book was thrilling.

I am a big Lisa Unger fan....I’ve read all of her books, loved them, so I was really excited to receive a copy of her latest book from Netgalley!
This is the first of her books that I didn’t love. I found it to be very slow and confusing at times!
I didn’t grip me right from the first chapter, like every one of her previous books did.
I will still look forward to her next work, but unfortunately this book fell really flat for me.

Wow what a great read! This is not your beach read it is so much more. Lisa Unger knows how to weave a tale to keep you on the edge of your seat. Poppy's husband Jack has been murdered. The police have no leads on this senseless act of violence. Floating through days of sleeping pills and anti anxiety pills washed down by alcohol she loses herself in the twilight of reality and unreality. She swears someone is following her and she gives chase never to catch him is she hallucinating? Poppy dissapears for days after the funeral, then she shows up at her best friends doorstep not remembering where she was and how she got back. Her best friend since childhood and her husband have been a rock trying to help Poppy deal with the loss that affected them all. Roller coastering thoughts and strange events makes her fear she is losing her sanity. Visions of clues materialize in her mind that she is driven to follow. . Through a maze of grief she struggles to know who killed Jack. Why, he had no ememies. What happened to her those days following the funeral? Where was she? Is her life in danger as she thinks, She grapples with what if's over and over about that last morning before Jack went for that fateful run. The argument that now can never be forgiven. There is evil out there and she is closing in on finding who and what. The answer could shatter her. You won't forget this book. It'll reach into your life and make you think. A must read if you appreciate books with depth, mystery, drama and if you like to guess "who dune it". You won't not until it's revealed. I received a digital copy of the book from the author through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Well this was quite the novel! I was confused but very much enjoyed the dream/reality of this novel. The beginning was a bit slow for me as we are dealing with fresh and raw emotions of Poppy losing her husband. But once it started to get more into trying to solve the murder it got better. I enjoyed the twists of the novel and through me for a loop on who the murderer was. I'm definitely going to share this novel in my Facebook book club I know lots of readers that will enjoy the ride of this novel.

I am an enormous fan of psychological thrillers and this author, which is why it was difficult to give this only 3 stars. I feel like there was a failure of editing on the one hand--there's a lot of repetitive passages about photography as an art and meditations on "can you ever REALLY know anyone"--and then on the other hand, a failure to flush out the characters that wind up implicated in the crime.

I would have enjoyed seeing more backstory on those characters and less redundancy in the parts where she's trying to figure out if she's hallucinating or if it's reality. While still a compelling read, I feel like this would have been more successful as a leaner story with more focus on the actual villains in the story.

I have severe insomnia and hypnagogic hallucinations myself, and I was impressed by the author's descriptions of that experience, as well as how she describes profound grief. This is an incredibly talented and articulate author whose novel could have been improved with aggressive editing, tighter plot structure, and a different focus.

"Under My Skin" is a psychological thriller that follows the newly widowed Poppy as she begins to investigate the circumstances around her husband's death. Not only is Poppy at odds with the actual dangerous actors around her that played a role in her husband's death, but she's at odds with her own mind. Poppy struggles with self-medication and alcoholism as she attempts to manage her depression following her husband's death. This means not only does Poppy not know who to trust, she doesn't know if she can trust her own thoughts, experiences, and memories. This book is unique as it follows Poppy as she grows stronger and begins to understand the circumstances that led to her husband's death.

What;s real and what's a memory or imagined? While I think Unger is a very talented writer and the story was enthralling, I do get tired of the unreliable narrator and the reader trying to decipher what's real and what isn't. It's a tactic that has been done way too many times in the last 5+ years.

I like Lisa Unger's books. A lot. This one was hard, though. Without going into spoiler-dom, the shifts between dreads, nightmares, flashbacks, and present day was jarring because the reader wasn't given a head's up which was which until the end of a scene.
The writing, as always, was flawless and haunting, the characters fully drawn and complete. The plot was just okay for me, I figured "it" out way before the end, but that's okay, too. All in all, not one of my favorites of hers, but a solid book, none the less.

What is real? what are memories? What are dreams, how does grief affect us.. is healing about us or the person we lost. An engrossing story that tackles all these questions and more in the new novel by Lisa Unger. Poppy is trying to deal the with death of her husband Jack. Supporting her are her friends Layla and Mac.There were so many layers to this story and try as I might I was never able to guess where we were going…. I highly recommend this book

No one tells a dark tale quite like Lisa Unger. Under My Skin was excellent. Takes hold of you on page one and doesn't let you go til the very end. Started it yesterday and finished it today. Just had to find out who did it ! And it is never who you think it is. One of the main reasons I love her books so much. So if murder mysteries / psychological thrillers are your thing, get this book !!!! Complicated plot, secrets, lies, murder............. so good !