Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my e-ARC of Such Lovely Skin!

• 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍

1. Have you ever wanted to be a Twitch streamer? Come see how Vivian does it!
2. Dark secrets can’t remain hidden forever. Just ask Vivian.
3. If you enjoy reading YA with a horror theme, this one is for you!
4. Short chapters are a must for me and this one has them!
5. Do you have a doppelgänger? You might not want to after reading this horror story.

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

After spending the summer wracked with guilt about causing the accident that killed her little sister, ambitious gamer and chronic liar Viv returns to Twitch streaming. She never told her parents the truth about the accident, but she hopes that maybe making it big in streaming and giving the money to them is penance enough for her mistakes.

The weekend before school starts, Viv finds the perfect horror game to make her Twitch comeback, and during an offline practice run, an NPC asks Viv for a secret. She decides to tell them the truth about her sister’s death since a game could never share her secret―in doing so, she accidentally welcomes a demonic mimic into her life.

No one believes Viv when she tells them about her evil doppelganger. Viv has lied to get her best friend’s sympathy and has spread rumors for attention, so why should anyone trust her now? The only person who believes her is Ash, a cute social outcast whom Viv once bullied. In trying to clear her name and kill the mimic, Viv discovers that her lies have hurt people who never deserved it, herself included.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was a debut?! I’m shocked! This story was so original and entertaining! I loved every single thing about it. The opening was immediately intriguing and the story starts and doesn’t slow down. I really appreciate my novels being faster paced. I loved the horror elements and got a little creeped out a few times whenever Vivian would see her doppelgänger around. I thought the demons tricks were all just cruel enough without being completely over the top. Overall, I recommend this one to everyone who loves horror!

This was an absolute thrill ride from start to finish. If you love fast-paced, plot-driven creepy stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, this book will not disappoint.

The story follows a high school Twitch streamer who is always on the hunt for the next big horror video game—one that will boost her subscriber count and help pay off her parents’ mortgage and forge.her career. But when she stumbles upon a mysterious game sent to her through a random email, it begins to bleed into reality, and starts to turn others against her. Now she must work against the clock to erase this sinister force before it's too late.

The author describes it as “The Ring, but with video games,” and honestly, that’s spot on. The tension is relentless, with plenty of spine-chilling moments that had me genuinely creeped out. As someone who loves a good, fast-moving plot, this story hit all the right notes for me. It’s easy to get lost in the story, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

I’m already wishing for more stories from this debut author because Such Lovely Skin was such a fun and gripping read. If you’re into horror with a modern twist and love a good scare, this one is definitely worth picking

Thank you to Tatiana Schlote-Bonnie and Page Street for the ARC!

“Tell me a secret…”

Viv, an avid gamer, has spent the summer wracked with guilt over an accident that killed her little sister. She has kept the truth about the accident a secret, and is hoping that if she makes it big with streaming her video gaming, she can earn a decent enough living to support her parents to assuage her guilt. When she finds the perfect horror game to make her streaming comeback, an NPC asks her to tell it a secret…so Viv finally unburdens herself with the truth of her sister’s death. She could have never known that by doing so, she’s welcoming a demonic presence into her life - one that feeds on her guilt and pain. Soon disturbing things are happening, and no one believes her.

I cannot believe this book was a debut! It was absolutely perfect - the mystery, the horror aspect, and the emotional impact it left on me took my breath away. The story flowed flawlessly, at a quick pace that kept me thoroughly engaged. Viv’s flashbacks of what happened to her sister and subsequent feelings were so gut wrenching and permeated the entire story. The concept of facing your inner demons (both figuratively and literally!) was my biggest takeaway and I loved how the author worked that into every part of the story.

Though it was a YA book (which I don’t read often), it was easily relatable (even for an old lady like me - LOL!) I found the gaming/technology angle refreshing and different from anything I have ever read. The idea of a dark entity preying on your weakness really gave me food for thought too - how often do we trap ourselves out of guilt, fear, etc? I know I said it already, but this book truly was perfect - it had everything I love in a good horror/thriller story and lots of surprises too. I truly can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next, and I will be first in line to read it!!

“Such Lovely Skin” release September 17, 2024. This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

I loved this book so much I bought a copy.
Intense. Creative. Creepy. Cringe. Definitely one of the best horror I've read this year.
Viv escapes via horror games - Locked In her newest thrill. It unravels her life - one dark secret shared and her life is no longer her own.

I could not put this book down! The story has a fantastic sense of dread throughout that never flagged. I love the concept behind the ‘big bad’ and how it was executed. The main character was at times hard to like, but that was key to the plot. And they suffered all the way up to the moment of redemption. I would definitely recommend this to a wide range of readers.

I was so pleasantly surprised with this one! I loved the nostalgia with teenage life and dramatics, because it felt so relatable. The dynamics between the friends, parents, and crushes were definitely spot on. The personal growth had me tearing up and cheering for Viv all the way to the end, even with her teenage attitude. The mimic concept was so interesting with how it connected with the gamers/people. My only complaint is Diet Pepsi???? COME ON, DIET COKE, MY GURL.

Such Lovely Skin was such a surprising read for me. I picked it up because the cover. Then I read the summary and it involved horror and video games. Sign me up! I'm very happy to say this did not disappoint!

Such Lovely Skin is about Viv. She streams video games live on Twitch. However, she's taken a break from Twitch due to the passing of her younger sister. She decides to make a comeback with this game she got spammed multiple times. Before going on Twitch she decides to test out the game. There is a character in the game who asks for a secret. Viv decides to spill because what's going to happen. Slowly but surely things start to go vary for Viv. There's a person who looks just like her going around causing chaos. Viv learns that she has a demon following her around destroying her life. Viv will do whatever it takes to get rid of this demon.

This book was very unsettling and also very dark. It touches on some tough themes that aren't normally showcased in books. I was surprised by how dark things got esp because it involves a child. That's always tough to read about. I don't want to say too much but I think this book will creep you out. Please be aware it touches on dark topics involving a kid so you might not want to pick this up because of that.

Overall such a great surprising read! I'm very happy I picked this up. I'll be checking out more from this author. This is her debut book and it was very well done. I look forward to see what she writes next.

wow ok Viv is my new problematic fav??? Vivian is such a morally gray 17-year-old girl (but weren't we all morally gray at 17? cmon don't lie to yourself you totally did some questionable things as a teen) that I couldn't help but root for anyway. On the surface, she's pretty "unlikeable." She's vain, only seeming to care about her twitch follower count. She made a list of her classmates who were most likely to shoot up their school AND POSTED IT TO HER SOCIAL MEDIA (really uncool). She started rumors about a boy that further ostracized him from their peers. Worst of all, she lied about the circumstances of her baby sister's death. Once they learned the truth, the people in Viv's life were much more forgiving than I would have been.

At first I had trouble getting into the book, and I thought I might DNF it. But after the first 10 percent, I swear it becomes so fast-paced and bingeable. I couldn't believe how fast I flew through the rest of the book. I just had to know what happened next! You can feel Vivian's grief and guilt and pain through the page. It was so visceral.

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

I could NOT put this down. Hooked me from the get-go, and I truly hope this author continues to write horror novels. This hit every vibe I hoped it would, and I hope that it gets the praise it should!

This book had me hooked from the get-go. It revolves around a horror game, a Twitch streamer, and her deepest secret. What more could you want?

The pacing of this book was perfect, the writing phenomenal, and the story both heart wrenching and nightmare inducing.

Our MC Vivian has held on to her deepest darkest secret for months, finally releasing it to a NPC in her newly downloaded game. She thinks it’s an innocent game. No harm in spilling your guts to an online game character right?

What follows is a horrific story of her life being turned upside down while she had to sit by and try to piece together what’s left of herself.

This book had me wishing I would have read it with the lights on, and maybe even slept with the lights on. Every noise I heard had me opening my eyes, looking around my dark room.

I can’t wait to see where Tatiana goes—she’s a brilliant author and I’m so excited to see what she comes up with next.

3.5 stars. This was a really pleasant surprise, and although I have one enormous complaint and a few little gripes that I’ll get to later, I have to admit that Such Lovely Skin spooked me, and I’m still thinking about it a few weeks after finishing. This is the most I’ve enjoyed a young adult novel since I was in the intended age range to be reading them—the imagery from one particular scene stood out to me and still pops into my head every now and then (though it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m terrified of doppelgängers which certainly helped.)

I enjoyed a lot of things about the author’s writing. She has a skill for pulling off very quick action sequences that many authors would overwrite and let drag, while still keeping the imagery clear, which is really impressive! I loved that she could borderline startle me with her writing; it was quite immersive. I read this over several days, but never really wanted to put it down and looked forward to reading it again, and all of that is made more impressive by this being both a young adult novel and a debut. Maybe it’s just me, but I was genuinely surprised by how much this creeped me out, especially compared to a lot of the adult horror I’ve read this year. For YA, this didn’t really hold back, and there’s a fair amount of blood, injury, death, etc. The story is fast-paced and never lingers in one place too long, and was overall just a lot of fun. I can see this working for YA & adult audiences alike.

I liked spending time with the characters, and I had a very clear image of who everyone was and what they looked like. I also felt that they had enough character-building to support the theme of grief and guilt. And as much as I want to say I wish that a bit more focus had been allotted to that grief theme and the story with Vivian’s little sister (because I do), I’m also trying to remember to look at this through the young adult goggles, not general fiction—there was certainly room to build everything out more, and I do think the book itself could’ve been longer and benefited from it, but I also think that regardless, it’s an appropriate, maybe only slightly lacking level of depth and time spent on the theme for a YA novel.

As far as negatives, there were a few times that the dialogue really cringed me out, but then I remembered how badly the stuff/memes my stepdaughter says cringe me out despite that fact that I love her to bits, and yeah, I have to admit that it checks out. Plus YA can be a little unserious by nature. Aside from that, I think there was a side-plot that could have been handled with a more feminist tone/been handled more tactfully in general, but I also sort of forgot that it was part of the book at all until sitting down to write this review, so it really wasn't a dealbreaker for me. The sexualization of female streamers was an interesting theme to bring up, but there really wasn't room for it to be properly explored in the short page count.

My only big criticism plot-wise is that I think the romance should’ve been cut. I feel like there’s always pressure for a romance subplot in YA, but it dragged this book down and added an unnecessary bit that took time away from the horror/grief themes. I think seeing Vivian learn to like Ash as a person and realize some of her flaws would’ve been fine standing alone as the plot device, no crush on him needed. It was cute, but it was also thin, insta-lovey, and watered everything else down. I honestly think going all in on the grief/horror in the space the romance takes up would’ve been an improvement.

Moving on to The Big Complaint that really has nothing to do with the plot/story: I’m kind of over books tricking me by advertising that they’re written by gamers, only for me to find that there’s STILL zero care put into making sure the gaming makes sense. I am absolutely sure that the author has zero in-depth experience with tabletop card games, only computer gaming. And I cannot stress enough that that’s totally fine!! But I seriously wish that she had kept the focus on what she knows about, because not a SINGLE thing about the games of Magic: The Gathering these characters play makes sense. It was extremely distracting for me as someone whose love for gaming is 50% Magic.

Basically, the author goes into a ton of detail about the games, but every detail is incorrect or impossible on multiple levels, and it left me wondering: Why would you be so specific just to be so desperately wrong?

Magic is essentially Rules: The Game. We didn’t have to guess at how the game works, yet it definitely feels like that’s what happened here?? The vibe is “guesses made based on watching a recording of a CEDH game where nobody explains what they’re doing in depth and they all move at lightning speed” plus a bunch of buzzwords and recognizable card names.

Otherwise, this was very cool, and I do recommend it despite hoping they bother to fix the copious problems with the gaming references pre-publication (which I’m sure will not happen because it never does, but I can dream). If not for the romance subplot and significant errors, I would probably be calling this a 4.5. I’ll absolutely be following up with future releases from this author.

Ooooh what fun!

Viv is barely functioning as she is haunted by the recent passing of her little sister, neglecting school, friends, her parents and her rather successful Twitch channel. One day, Viv decided to pick herself up, put on her Twitch persona and stream a horror game sent to her from an unknown email.

Silly, silly. What follows is a fast-paced and harrowing journey as Viv is hounded by the demon from the video game, parading around and manipulating her social circle as her doppelganger.

If you're after a fast and creepy demonic story, this is it!

Thank you to the author, Page Street Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC. I leave this review voluntarily.

Don't start this one just before bed because you a) will not be able to put it down and b) will be too scared to turn out the lights. This was such a creepy and, at times, terrifying debut from Schlote-Bonne. I can easily imagine this being a teen horror movie in the next few years as it read like something playing out right in front of my eyes. And you don't need to be a gamer to enjoy this book (I'm certainly not) but what I am is a fan of horror and this one did NOT disappoint!

Thanks to the author and Netgalley for an advanced copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for the ARC.

I really loved this book! It was really eerie and dark. There's some really good scary moments in the book. I was surprised to learn that this was a debut novel.

'Such Lovely Skin' was really fast-paced. The plot was interesting, along with the Twitch steamer/gamer girl aspect, while I'm not a gamer myself, really enjoyed reading about the community and obsessive nature of these games. I don't think the book being fast-paced is a downside. Tatiana Schlote-Bonne made the story really intriguing with mystery and darkness, and with characters dealing with their own trauma.

I would love to read more of Tatiana Schlote-Bonne's books in the future!

I loved this book! I haven't been actually spooked by a book in so long and it was really fun! I like horror video games and it felt a lot of the same vibes and tropes. There were a couple of points that were made to seem important to the story that weren't brought up until the last 1/3 of the book so that felt like it could've been done better (lying in the past and how the game is like the movie in The Ring). Those parts almost felt like the author forgot about them being in the description and added them in. Other than that I thought it was a fantastic book! The character development was well done, the action was good and the scary parts were thrilling. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a nice horror book, but especially someone who is into gaming!

Real Rating 4.5

Yo no pun intended, but this was so much fun to read! As y’all know I love horror and this was the perfect addition to my Summerween reading! There was so much of things I loved in this one. I hope y’all check this one out in September.

Ok so the first thing I liked about this was the mimic or the doppelganger itself. I am literally terrified of those things because they always make me think to myself, what is it about this thing that feels so real. Why can’t these people who claim to know me tell that I wouldn’t do these disgusting things? It would really make me question my own self and my morals. So basically when I tell you, this book already had the scary, weird vibes, so I was excited to see where this was going.

The scary factor is like 4/5. There’s some jump scares, but for the most part the demon is just hella weird and even moves weird. The way Tatiana even describes their jerky weird movements just makes me uneasy. It was just way too easy for that thing to go around and get everyone. I will say that there are some places that are predictable, but it wasn’t until a few paragraphs before, so I didn’t even feel like that really counted. For the most part I was making some of these realizations at the same time as the MC.

The growth in ViVi’s character was astonishing tho. It was very important to see the way she was so into her image and her follower count. I found it interesting that she was still worried about it even after things got started, but I think that made it more organic? Like yeah this is happening, but I still might have a chance to fix everything and my channel will still be there. It was totes something a teen would do and I appreciated that. Her growth continued throughout the book and by the end it seemed like she was an entirely different person.

It was of course very fun to see the social media aspect to this too. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about a streamer, so that was pretty cool. On the other side of that, I heard that some people don’t like social media in their books because it feels like it dates the book, but as a YA reader, I think its necessary to have something there. I’m less inclined to buy into it if there’s not some type of social media or some kind of weird talking lol

I did think the ending was a little abrupt, but this demon thing had literally done ENOUGH, so it really made sense on how it ended. But I do think it was a bit fast. But like I said, what more could that THING have done during that time. I think it just made sense.

This was so much fun. I truly hope this one will be on y’alls TBR for the fall. It’s definitely one to watch! Read this one and let me know what you think about it!

I loved the Twitch streaming/gaming aspect of this. I was familiar with the games Viv was playing so I was really able to immerse myself in the story. But even if you're not really a video game person, I think you'd still enjoy this. If you liked Jordan Peele's movie, Us, you'll enjoy Such Lovely Skin.

The eerie atmosphere of an unknown evil doppelganger was truly creepy. I'm sure we've all been plagued by our sleep paralysis demon before, but Viv's nightmares spill into real life.

I liked the way grief and trauma were woven into the story through the loss of Viv's younger sister. Grief can be an ugly monster, but until it's dealt with and acknowledged, it can grow and fester. It'll sour you.

I was hoping there would be more body horror involving the skin, involving the doppelganger morphing to and from Viv. The horror came mostly from the atmosphere of the story and the thought that no one is going to believe Viv, that horrible things are going to keep happening and she'll never be able to make it stop.

Suck Lovely Skin is a dark and eerie read that had me locked in from the start. I’m honestly just glad I didn’t pick this one up at night. While the fast pace and intrigue kept me hooked, I was ready for this story to be over like halfway through. Some of the later scenes felt absolutely unnecessary, like they were only there to help the book reach a certain number of pages, rather than help the story move forward. That being said, I had a great, spooky time reading this, even if the ending could’ve been better.

4.5 stars rounded up!

Wowww this book was WILD! The premise had me super intrigued before I even started but the story took right off at page one and the bonkers ride didn’t stop until the end. I was desperate to see what was going to happen at each new chapter and there were a few moments where I was genuinely freaked out (gotta love a horror that really delivers, ya know??)

My only complaint about this book is that the pacing was a little weird at times with the flashbacks. I think it would’ve been a little better had we just got one chapter with the full flashback versus little pieces here and there because I ultimately felt like they disrupted the flow of the current timeline, but truly this is the smallest gripe because this story otherwise was great!

Thank you NetGalley and Page Street YA for an advanced copy of the ebook. Such Lovely Skin drops September 17!

This book was such a fun ride!! In it you follow Viv a high schooler who aspires to be a famous Twitch streamer. ( I thought this aspect of the book would be cringe, but it's not I promise). Viv gets herself into a mess when she decides to play an Indie horror game where that asks her to tell her deepest darkest secret. At the start, you learn that three months ago Viv's sister passed away and she's holding a lot of guilt because she was somewhat involved in her death. Viv then decides to tell the game exactly what happened the night her sister passed, which unlocks an evil doppelganger that's out to destroy her life.
Horror is not the typical genre I go for but this was so entertaining and fast-paced. I even found myself enjoying the parts of the book that involved gameplay even though I am not a gamer by any means (I love the Sims and that's it). I was surprised to learn it is a debut novel and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes YA books.