Koja is brilliant and challenging. It's been many years since I read The Cipher and I was eager to read this reissue of Skin. Eric LaRocca's introduction provides a good entry point. I felt immediately drawn to Tess in her financially-stressed, outsider life, a welder and metal sculptor. The introduction of Bibi adds more tension, and the performance art took me back to my theater years.
The language, the vivid shocks, the obsessive drive and kinetic force of Koja's work make this a powerful book.
Skin isn't for everyone. The extremes and the experimental feel of it may be offputting depending on a reader's comfort zone with gritty slices of life prose and detailed gore.
The intense relationship between Tess and Bibi is hard to loook away from--and difficult to watch.
Highly recommended for non-squeanish horror readers.
Thank you for the eARC for consideration. These are solely my own opinions.

I'll add links.

Thank you to NetGalley and Meerkat Press for this ARC!

“Skin” tells the story of Tess and Bibi, of the art they create together and separately, and how their art comes to destroy each of them in different ways.

This is a re-release of the novel first released in 1993, if I am not mistaken also set in the same period, which is immensely interesting to someone like me, born in the 2000s, and will likely feel somewhat nostalgic to anyone in their teens or older during this time, especially those who, I am so envious, were involved in the art scene at the time.

This was a truly fantastic book, and the first book in a while to have me cursing God for creating me with an inability to see with my inner eye, because I wanted nothing more than to see, to imagine, all the artworks and performances described in this book. Yet, the fact that even without that ability each description of a performance had me feeling rapturous, literally at the edge of my seat (I read great parts of this at work and was several times asked if I was okay, so drawn into this book was I) should tell you just how fantastic Koja is at setting the scene, describing the events as if one were watching them happening in real time.

I would say that the two central themes of this book are the relationship between Bibi and Tess, and the lengths we are willing to go to reach our goals, just how many tragedies we can bear. Koja does both of these themes justice, building these characters up or breaking them down as needed throughout the story.

While the central characters of Bibi and Tess are of course intensely unique and intriguing, I must say that the cast of side characters almost got to me more; lovable or hateable, they were all supremely crafted and some of them will certainly stick with me for a long, long time.

The only issue I personally see with this book is its writing style; I read unique styles like this often and gladly, but even so I still struggled to find my way here at first, to settle on the tone to read this in, so if that is not something you are interested in after giving it a try I’d suggest setting the book aside and seeing this as more of a personal incompatibility rather than a judgement on the book itself, as I have seen some reviews do.

Overall I would say that if you enjoy more unique writing styles and stories equally full of tragedy and love, as well as horror of the sort that is unsettling because it could be real, could be happening somewhere right this moment, then this is the book for you.

Kathe Koja is one of the most brilliant authors of our age. Her artistic way of displaying horror like carrion carnage in a way that both repulses and forces the reader into a state of awe is something I've never seen from another author. I was first hooked by her novel The Cipher and Skin, while very different in vibe, is no different in visceral prose that leave you thinking about the words, days, weeks, years later.

This story follows Tess, a welding artist, stuck in her daily routine and floundering, when she meets Bibi, a dancer, always looking to push her art to new heights. They join forces, perform together, first only a performance that Tess welds during. While Tess moves further into the mechanical, trying to figure out giant robots, Bibi moves further into cutting and body modification on herself and others. Their rise to fame comes to an abrupt and brutal stop after an accidental death during a performance, sending Tess and Bibi spiraling apart, only tangentially connected anymore by another performer called Michael, who sometimes brings Tess news about Bibi and slowly pushes his way into her life.
The story is brutal and sets a fast pace, told in a stream-of-consciousness way, that barely leaves time to breathe between scene. Getting used to the writing took a bit of time, but once you get into it it’s really hard to stop. I really enjoyed it.
The body horror is gruesome, as is the emotional pain of Tess (who we follow closely as the main narrator) and the way we watch Bibi spiral deeper and deeper into self-destructive body modifications. The relationship between Tess and Bibi, the ways they connect, the ways they clash, their love-to-hate-to-obsession path was incredibly interesting. I also adored the way Tess hides from her own feelings, by hiding behind her welding, punishing herself and her body in much the same way Bibi is doing, while turning her nose up at Bibi’s way of doing things. It was really intriguing.
None of the characters could be really described as loveable. At best they are obsessive (Tess), at worst they push others into harm (Bibi), while never treating themselves better than they treat others. It was horrifying to read, body horror combining with psychological horror combining with love and friendship and care as well as hate and betrayal and wanting to destroy another person.
All in all this is a story about art and about the body and the clash between the organic and the mechanical, featuring self-(and others-)harm, the many, many way to fill the emptiness and love that is hate that is love that is hate.

TW: self-harm, body modification, death, grief, jealousy, lesbophobia, manipulation, suicide attempt, toxic relation/friendship, torture, physical abuse, injury, gore, body horror, blood, ableism, forced institutionalization (minor)

Skin is a strange and unsettling journey into the lives of two artists. This is like no other horror book I've read, with an experimental writing style and very few of the classic elements of "traditional horror."
Tess is a welder and steel sculptor. Bibi is a transgressive performance artist. When they meet creative sparks begin to fly, but how far will they go in pursuit of their ideals?
While this book definitely isn't for everyone, it certainly is for me. The gritty feel of the novel and the unlikable characters are what I love to see in horror. Watching Tess and Bibi descend deeper into their relationship and their art had me on the edge of my seat.

I ended up devouring this over the space of a weekend, and I am now going to go see if Koja has anything else in print that I can read. The LaRocca intro is a great table settler for what is an amazingly dark and twisted story of the lengths people will go to for art, the equally fucked up places they'll go for desire, and art gone horriffic. If you're not into piercings and gore you might want to steer clear of this one, but the cover is also very straight forward in giving you a good table setting for expectations. Pick this up this spring!

kathe koja's 'skin' is an unsettling and unique dive into the world of horror, standing apart from the usual books in this genre. the book’s style is unlike anything you typically encounter in horror fiction, yet it maintains a deeply disturbing atmosphere. a slow burn of psychological tension, where fear isn’t just coming from outside forces but also from within the mind of the protagonist, tess. kathe koja gives readers a deep dive into tess’s psyche, capturing the essence of the starving artist, the obsessive drive to create, and the toll it takes.

while i can appreciate how the writing complements the story, it personally didn’t resonate with me. it's fragmented, raw, and experimental, which works for the narrative, but i found myself struggling to connect with it at times. still, i can’t deny that it fits the eerie, unsettling tone of this book perfectly.

one of my biggest issues, however, was my lack of emotional connection to the characters. they were certainly intriguing, but i didn’t find myself invested in them or their fates. they were more like pieces in a puzzle, which i could admire but not necessarily care about.

overall, 'skin' offers a unique and terrifying experience, but it’s not a perfect fit for everyone. if you enjoy horror that pushes boundaries and explores the human mind, it’s worth checking out. 2.75 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

Oh boy... I went to NetGalley so I could easily read book outside of my comfort zone, but stories like these make me want to stay in my bubble. I didn't get this and maybe it should stay that way.

The amount of self-harm in the name of art and seeing how far one's body can go...
Huge trigger warning.

Really need to thank NetGalley and Meerkat Press for getting a chance to read this reprinting of Skin 🤩👏

Koja's vivid and horrificly descriptive writing style and "stream of consciousness" sentence structuring can be hard to follow at times, and I did find that quite challenging to get used to, but what truly gripped my attention was the growing relationship between Tess and Bibi. It was so emotional and hard to witness the raw development and decisions each of them made throughout the story, and how their obsessive demons manifested into true horrors for them both.

This visceral story is not for the faint of heart, check your triggers.

Extreme horror novels can be fine literature- this is an example of one. Glorious, beautiful prose about some of the darkest subject matter. It was a little more of a drama with gore than a full-blown horror novel for my personal taste, but I can’t deny that it is exquisitely written. Loved the introduction by Eric LaRocca as well.

Skin by Kathe Koja is one of those books that I'd always meant to read, knowing it was within the sphere of things I'm into, but I never got a chance to, until this reissued edition. A story badged as queer horror, but more of a descent into madness, love, and pain as two women push their artistic practice and relationship to each other to extremes. With a new introduction by Eric LaRocca, this version really frames the story as part of the lineage of queer body horror.

The story itself has distinct acts, with the first part the most cohesive in terms of a narrative, and the later parts looser as things disintegrate. We follow Tess, who burns metal to create great sculptures and structures, and through Tess' eyes, Bibi, who first dances and then cuts, and what happens when they come together to create a performance art troupe, and then it all falls away. There's a lot about art and especially performance art, a lot of which was quite alien to me (far more than the body modification stuff), so it was fascinating to see a lot of these ideas explored. At times in the final third I did struggle with the lack of narrative, but I think some of that came from expectations that it would be more of a straightforward queer horror story, whereas it isn't that. Skin offers a story about obsession and art written in a distinctive style, drenched in oil and dirt and blood.

This book is twisty and the writing isn't the easiest to read but Eric LaRocca's introduction really put me in the right headspace to move forward with this classic queer horror tale. I'm glad it is getting reissued and more people, like me, can get a chance to read this book.

Thank you to Meerkat press for providing this book for free via NetGalley.

Skin by Kathe Koja is one of the most unique and interesting books I have ever read.

Koja’s prose takes some getting used to; sentences run long and sometimes repetitive, with a very stream of consciousness style. This book doesn’t really make a lot of sense when you start, you have to let it take you on the for a ride. However, you get a unique perspective from the inside of Tess’s head. Every thought and feeling she has is portrayed so viscerally that you can’t help but feel it yourself.

I won’t spoil anything but Skin is a tragic story of two women’s progressing obsessions with their art and each other, culminating in a heart-wrenching scene.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, it’s visceral, gory, and full of hard emotions, but if you’re looking for something both horrific and beautiful in equal measure, give Skin a read.

I really appreciated LaRocca's introduction here because I'd not read the book and it helped me think about an appropriate perspective to take into reading it. For me, that was angsty, identity-searching college me. To be clear, I think I was better suited for the is book (or it for me) in my early twenties rather than now. The body horror is real, and I think driven by the search for identity, which we all struggle with at some point - for me, college. It was... a lot. And as with all the other reviews, the prose is unsettling, which works for the book, but I read this in several sittings and had to get used to it again. I read a review from someone who listened to the audio, and I think the right narrator could really bring that prose to life, but it is definitely something to get used to. Overall, the narrative is slow and building and deeply unsettling (all intentionally so). But be prepared for that. Thank you Meerkat Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed from this genre. I was glad it was everything that I was looking for and had that feel for the psychological horror elements. I thought this worked overall as a second edition and would read more.

Great re-edition. An enjoyable second reading, which is quite rare; I would say it is a bit hard to get into at first, but then it becomes rather gripping. Queer, camp, and horror elements are always amazing, and this one did not disappoint. Overall, it was a great read, but it didn’t have a particular impact on me whatsoever.