Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic, #1)

Sep 05, 2011 Tatiana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: readers looking for a unique, dark and edgy teen fantasy

Recommended to Tatiana by: National Book Award

Shelves: national-book-award, 2011, fantasy, only-i-will-like, series-in-progress-still-like, ya

Skin Hunger landed on my only-i-will-like shelf due to a number of reasons.

First, there is an issue of two separate story lines that never come together in any significant way. They mingle and have common themes and characters, but they never merge. That, I assume, will happen at some future point in the trilogy.

In an unidentified middle age-inspired fantasy land where magic is lost and those who call themselves magicians are fakers and charlatans, 17-year old farm girl Sadima joins a couple of...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Emily May rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Emily May by: Tatiana

Shelves: ya-na, fantasy, 2012

This book is not going to please fans of nice, twinkly, all-ends-well fantasy, that's for sure. Kathleen Duey has written a very dark and disturbing tale about the pains undergone for the sake of magic. Young boys are starved, intimidated and abused in a school of magic that intends to separate the potential magicians from those destined to die because they are unable to magically produce their own food.

The story is actually split, alternating between the life of Sadima in a time centuries befo...more

This book is not going to please fans of nice, twinkly, all-ends-well fantasy, that's for sure. Kathleen Duey has written a very dark and disturbing tale about the pains undergone for the sake of magic. Young boys are starved, intimidated and abused in a school of magic that intends to separate the potential magicians from those destined to die because they are unable to magically produce their own food.

The story is actually split, alternating between the life of Sadima in a time centuries before we are introduced to the horrors of Somiss' magic academy. In Sadima's time magic is outlawed and it is only through the aid of Franklin that Sadima comes to realise the strength of her gift for mentally communicating with animals. But Franklin is just one half of a team hoping to resurrect magic, the other being the malicious and obsessive Somiss.

Then comes Hahp's story. He's a boy sent to Somiss' magic academy by his cruel father and there he discovers that he must learn to master the skills being taught to him or die. As boys around him slowly waste away, Hahp struggles with guilt when he alone manages to create food, and fear of what the wizards plan to throw at him next. In the dark dingy corridors of the academy, Hahp even starts to wonder if his sanity is still with him.

This is not the kind of novel that you can read by itself and gain any sense of fulfillment or resolution, it is clearly intended to be read as part of a series and the lack of answers means that I will be unable to do anything else. I really enjoyed this book, I often find that I can't resist a dark, disturbing story - not sure what that says about me, but oh well. I could see immediately what wouldn't appeal to the masses: the failure of the two stories to meet, the unresolved feel of the novel, and the abuse of the boys above all else.

But I found this a very refreshing change from the same old "nice" fantasy novels. Not a crowd pleaser but a good book for those readers who are looking for something different.
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Nov 09, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Natalie Tsang for TeensReadToo.com

Despite what the cover may say, Kathleen Duey's SKIN HUNGER, first installment of her fantasy trilogy A RESURRECTION OF MAGIC, is not a novel. It's a third of a novel. Or maybe it's two novels. Maybe it's a sixth. But anyway you slice the cake, it's not enough.

The book alternates chapters narrated by Sadima, a farm girl, and Hahp, a second born son of a cruel merchant. The catch is that they live several generations apart. One in a world that desper...more Reviewed by Natalie Tsang for TeensReadToo.com

Despite what the cover may say, Kathleen Duey's SKIN HUNGER, first installment of her fantasy trilogy A RESURRECTION OF MAGIC, is not a novel. It's a third of a novel. Or maybe it's two novels. Maybe it's a sixth. But anyway you slice the cake, it's not enough.

The book alternates chapters narrated by Sadima, a farm girl, and Hahp, a second born son of a cruel merchant. The catch is that they live several generations apart. One in a world that desperately needs magic and the other in one saturated and corrupted by it.

The story opens on the night Sadima is born. Her family is cheated by a fake magician, who instead of assisting in the birth, steals their valuables and lets her mother die. Unsurprisingly, Sadima grows up in a family that hates magic and she is forced to hide her gift of understanding animals. Franklin, a servant of a young nobleman named Somiss, finds her and tells her about his belief that magic will solve all the problems of the world. Together, the three try to rediscover magic. Hahp is sent to an academy of magic. There are nine other boys. Eight of them come from wealthy families and the ninth, Hahp's roommate, is a mysterious peasant named Gerrard. Unlike Franklin's lofty ideals of teaching everyone magic, here everyone must earn the right to learn. And those who do not or cannot will die.

I think this book will appeal to both boys and girls. Initially, each protagonist seems to represent the traditional story of their gender. For Sadima, the girl, it is a love story and for Hahp, the boy, it is an adventure story. At first, I thought the sweetness of Sadima's part was a nice balance to Hahp's grittier and darker part. Over time, the two stories blur together. What Sadima does is now inextricably connected to Hahp's outcome and the future explains the past.

The book is extremely vivid and well thought out. Kathleen Duey creates many unique, strong, and complex major characters. It is undeniably a very dark book, but the main characters are too optimistic and hopeful to make it depressing. Even though it is 357 pages, the font is larger than normal and I finished it in one sitting. And as hinted in the beginning, (and I hope I'm not giving too much away), the story ends with a teeth-gnashing cliffhanger.

I really like how the story is aimed at ages twelve and up, but does not dumb down or gloss over the grittier aspects of life, such as the death of a loved one and the difficulties and consequences of making your own decisions. At the same time, I hesitate to recommend this book to grade school and possibly junior high students. If it were a movie, the violence would probably give it an "R" rating. However, the blood and gore is never gratuitous and always serves to improve the story. I have seen more graphic writing in historical fiction aimed at this age group, such Donna Jo Napoli's STONES IN WATER. It also has the same amount of emotional turmoil in any of the later HARRY POTTER and HIS DARK MATERIALS books. Not for the faint of heart, but still a great first book in what seems to be an addictive trilogy. (less)

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Jul 05, 2012 Maya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark-fantasy

Skin Hunger is like Harry Potter gone bad. Imagine Hogwarts instead of a gorgeous castle with moving stairs as an endless labyrinth of caves and tunnels in complete darkness. Add Voldemort as the headmaster and food being available only as a reward once the student has mastered the requested magic exercises. And if he fails, no one will help ...

Kathleen Duey has created a very innovative work, with a fresh (and grim) take on the "magic academy" setting. I was quite impressed by how she deals wit...more Skin Hunger is like Harry Potter gone bad. Imagine Hogwarts instead of a gorgeous castle with moving stairs as an endless labyrinth of caves and tunnels in complete darkness. Add Voldemort as the headmaster and food being available only as a reward once the student has mastered the requested magic exercises. And if he fails, no one will help ...

Kathleen Duey has created a very innovative work, with a fresh (and grim) take on the "magic academy" setting. I was quite impressed by how she deals with the issue of abuse and the relationships between the abuser and abused. A child abused by his father still wants that same father to be proud of him, to acknowledge him at least once. An unequal friendship can be very hard to overcome when the weaker one does have affection for his abusive friend, who can have some instants of gentleness. Skin Hunger also deals with fanaticism and egoism and I'm looking forward to find out how these problems will be resolved.

I was also happy with the rather realistic love story. Sadima doesn't fall in love because Franklin is so handsome and cool and mysterious, but because he understands her. But once she realizes that she can't get through to him, sad as that may be, she is also prepared to go on with her life on her own.

Skin Hunger is dark and depressing and not romantic at all. And I enjoyed every page. Well, I wanted to kick Somiss in the face so much and I'm despairing of the possibility that apparently whatever Sadima will try to do, she will fail, since he is still around in the present torturing children, but I loved the oppressing atmosphere and the suspense made me finish the book rapidly.

I can't say a lot about the story yet. This is the first book in a trilogy and it cannot be read as a stand-alone, because there is absolutely no closure at the end. Skin Hunger asks the questions that will be answered only in the later volumes, mostly in the third one, I suppose. So if you're one of the more impatient readers, it's maybe better to wait for the series to be completed.

Skin Hunger is worth reading if you're looking for something different and enjoy stories with a dark and oppressing atmosphere that do not focus on the love story. And you should be able to deal with children being abused. Even if this abuse is never approved of in the story, quite on the contrary the characters struggle to overcome it, as the reader you still witness children dying. If you need a comparison, Skin Hunger in that aspect isn't as bad as Hunger Games or Battle Royale, but there is more to stomach than in your average YA work.

I will definitely pick up the second book soon, but does anybody know what happened to the third one?
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Feb 20, 2009 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

Skin Hunger is the first installment of a new magic-based trilogy called A Resurrection of Magic. The book alternates chapters between the stories of two separate protagonists- Sadima and Hahp.

Sadima is a farm girl whose family is betrayed by a false magician during her birth. She grows up with a father who is completely broken inside and is unable to enjoy much even in her rural life. She has an unnatural connection with animals, and feels as though she can communicate with them through her th...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Elizabeth P rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy

I can't deny that this book has excellent, beautiful writing. Or suspense and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter that made me frantically think "must keep reading until the book is finished." However, I was distressed by all of the abuse.
Abuse was a disturbing trend in this book. Within the first 5 pages there are three instances of abusive behavior. The rest of the novel doesn't get better. There are many instances of abusive behavior, most notably between Hahp's father and Hahp, between S...more I can't deny that this book has excellent, beautiful writing. Or suspense and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter that made me frantically think "must keep reading until the book is finished." However, I was distressed by all of the abuse.
Abuse was a disturbing trend in this book. Within the first 5 pages there are three instances of abusive behavior. The rest of the novel doesn't get better. There are many instances of abusive behavior, most notably between Hahp's father and Hahp, between Sadima's father and Sadima, between Somiss and Franklin, between Somiss and Sadima, and even (at one point) between Micah and Sadima.
Perhaps even more troubling is the implication that it's the women's fault (Micah's father was fine before his wife died, and he in part blames Sadima because if it hadn't been such a hard labor his wife would have lived; Micah was fine before Sadima said she was going to join the magicians; Somiss tells Sadima that he will punish Franklin if she leaves). And when a woman is abusive (the magician from the first chapter toward Micah), she's portrayed as pure evil (letting Micah's mother die, stealing their belongings, leaving Sadima to die, even her appearance suggests "pure evil"). But when men are abusive it's okay- the abused just have to take it, bear it, and get on with their lives.
The circumstances at the magician's academy are just as horrible- the students are pitted against each other to see who will survive and become a wizard. All of the "tests" that the students have to take are pointless and cruel. In almost every fantasy book, the tests are there for a reason- to help the hero become a better person. But these tests did not have a purpose. I found the idea that starvation is supposed to clear the boys' minds especially disturbing. The fact that the teachers at the academy let boys die made me sick.
I guess that these types of "edgy" books are meant to show teens that life isn't fair, that death and pain are random (and sometimes cruel), and that the best people (as in, people who should succeed) don't always succeed. But really, teens having to kill each other is extreme. Perhaps I'm too sensitive, but it does worry me that these books are so popular. Abuse is NEVER okay. And do we want to teach teens "do whatever you have to in order to succeed at life; it doesn't matter who you hurt because you only need to think about yourself"?
All in all, although the book is well written, I would not recommend it at all. In fact, I would discourage people from reading it because this book condones abuse, which I find unacceptable.(less)

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Dec 06, 2007 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fantasy fans looking for something different

Shelves: fantasy

Interesting book with two alternating stories that at first appear unrelated, but then start to be connected to each other. One story is about a girl, Sadima, whose mother dies when she is born. She is raised by her father and older brother on a farm, very poor and isolated from the world. Eventually she moves out to the city, to find a helpful young man she met only once, and try to make a living working as a maid for him and his master. Meanwhile, you read about a young boy, Hahp, who is being...more

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Dec 22, 2007 Jess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, national-book-award-finalist

While the parallel stories are compelling, the world is fascinating, and the characters complex, I just didn't click with either of the main characters, and that took the story down a notch for me. Still, it's a strong book with a cliff-hanger of an ending and lots of unresolved bits and pieces that will definitely have me picking up the next installment. Although fantasy, the fantastic elements are almost beside the point, with the learning of magic centered more around almost-forgotten rhymes...more

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Feb 16, 2008 Laura Gardner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, scifi, fantasy

I really wish the second book in this series was already out. I hate having to wait!!

The book follows two different characters, Sadima and Hahp, who live in different time periods but whose stories are intertwined. Sadima's world is one almost devoid of magic; the kings banished and killed the magicians long ago. In Hahp's world, magic has been restored and is used for everything by those who have the means. Hahp is chosen to go to a special Academy along with 9 other boys. One of them will gra...more

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Nov 24, 2007 Nicola Turner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ya fantasy lovers

Skin Hunger is the first book in the trilogy A Resurrection of Magic.It was short-listed for the National Book Award and should have won...but I haven't finished Sherman Alexie's winning novel yet, so I had better reserve judgement. When I got to the last page, I kept turning it in disbelief that the book was over. I mourned for about a week and then forced any sixth grader who reads fantasy to read it so they could mourn with me. Yes, it is irritating that there was no resolution, but isn't tha...more

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Feb 18, 2009 Glenna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a finalist last year for the national book award. It is another fantasy story of magic and young people. This is the first in a trilogy and the only one out so far. There are two different stories going on, that start to overlap part way through the book. The story line is different than most of this genre and time will tell whether it will be great or not. Unfortunately near the end of the book, someone felt it necessary to throw in the "f" word. Just once, and it is the only swea...more

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Nov 21, 2007 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

This is a beautifully written and constructed fantasy that takes a clever twist on the world of magic. Her take on magic reminds me of the world of magic portrayed in the Magic or Madness trilogy. Both show the evil and power hungry sides of magic. They both show magic destroys as much as it creates.

The alternating stories balance each other quite nicely: female voice alternating with male voice, optimism about magic alternating with pessimism about magic, etc. I can't wait for the next book in...more

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May 12, 2013 Oscar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Skin Hunger is about two different characters in two different times, connected by one thing, magic. The first character introduced is Sadima, a girl born with supernatural powers in a society that rejects her for it. She lived in a society where the gap between the rich and poor was great and magic was shunned, even by her own family. Her family was poor and strict on her, for that she wanted to run away. Along the way she meets a wizard that gets her in a whole magical ordeal. Hundreds of yea...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: winning-is-for-winners, your-reality-alarms-me, but-wait-theres-more, the-sparkles-mean-its-magic, ust-ftw, whodunit, this-must-be-what-pain-feels-like, read-in-2013, i-find-you-strangely-disturbing, anecdotalicious

Oh God. Oh no. What… have I done?

I’ve made a terrible mistake.

Hang on for a second while I try to find a gif that adequately expresses my frustration with myself, here.

Okay. This one’s not perfect, but it’ll give you an idea:

Now you might be asking, “Monica, what is your damage?”

Friends, I made the fatal error of picking up a series book without confirming that the series was completed/well underway.

I’m usually so good about checking. Ever since poor Grade-School Me was burned as a child by Bruc...more

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Nov 30, 2012 Synger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: older teens, adults

I agree with many other reviewers that this book is difficult to read because of the harsh treatment of the students in the Academy of magic. That being said, I could not put it down. The writing is dynamic and fast-paced; the chapters are short enough that you feel like you can read "just one more."

The split between points of view from chapter to chapter gave relief to what could have been too dark if we just had the academy story. Switching to the past, where we see what the founder of the Ac...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Jess rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book because of all of the great reviews, but now I'm not sure that I agree with them. First of all, I found many parts of the book to be disturbing. The book contains numerous examples of abusive relationships- physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, I would skip this one. It is a dark and gritty book, with very little good ever happening to any of the characters. My other complaint was that the characters were slightly flat. Franklin just...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Baba Yaga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those after a darker tale and tired of the otherwise regurgitated fantasy genre

Sadima lives in a world where magic has been banned, leaving poor villagers prey to fakes and charlatans. A "magician" stole her family's few valuables and left Sadima's mother to die on the day Sadima was born. But vestiges of magic are hidden in old rhymes and hearth tales and in people like Sadima, who conceals her silent communication with animals for fear of rejection and ridicule. When rumors of her gift reach Somiss, a young nobleman obsessed with restoring magic, he sends Franklin, his l...more Sadima lives in a world where magic has been banned, leaving poor villagers prey to fakes and charlatans. A "magician" stole her family's few valuables and left Sadima's mother to die on the day Sadima was born. But vestiges of magic are hidden in old rhymes and hearth tales and in people like Sadima, who conceals her silent communication with animals for fear of rejection and ridicule. When rumors of her gift reach Somiss, a young nobleman obsessed with restoring magic, he sends Franklin, his lifelong servant, to find her. Sadima's joy at sharing her secret becomes love for the man she shares it with. But Franklin's irrevocable bond to the brilliant and dangerous Somiss traps her, too, and she faces a heartbreaking decision.

Centuries later magic has been restored, but it is available only to the wealthy and is strictly controlled by wizards within a sequestered academy of magic. Hahp, the expendable second son of a rich merchant, is forced into the academy and finds himself paired with Gerrard, a peasant boy inexplicably admitted with nine sons of privilege and wealth. Only one of the ten students will graduate — and the first academic requirement is survival.

This is the official introduction for Skin Hunger, a book I find myself drawn to both literature wise, and, non-surprisingly, by the gritty, entrancing artwork that graces the cover of this particular volume. It is one of the many reasons I finally dragged myself from the house, down the block that separates my part-time lover from me, and ordered the entrancing creature before the cold front settled in like a grotesque bird once more.

When it finally arrived a week later, I was entangled further in its web. No longer was I surrounded by fanciful, talking hats and scarred, pretentious boys, but by the dark tale of Kathleen Duey's magical world. As the cover promised (and oh so much more), this is a dark tale, twisting the way you see magic into something that should be feared and shunned.

Scars glisten, bellies cave, madness sets in. This is the world that I have been searching for for years, and hadn't found until now. Though it lacks a significant climax, I thoroughly enjoed it and its sequel Sacred Scars.

Though at times you can find yourself nodding off, wondering just what are you doing with this, it all but makes up for when the "action"-if you will-jumps into play. The characters are intriguing, to say the least, and you find yourself plodding on after them wondering just what are they going to do with the situation playing out before you. It was nigh impossible to sleep with this book in the room, for I found myself going back to it again and again, particularly when Hahp's chapter came up once again.

But I will let you make your own decision, though I say in all honesty that this book is something that should be read a hundred times over, for Ms. Duey has that certain spark that lends the life so few authors nowadays lack. I couldn't recommend this series any more strongly, and urge you to take the time to sit down with this series.

Do svidaniya, my friends,

Baba Yaga(less)

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Aug 13, 2011 Alice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 10, 2011 DelSheree rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this was a really interesting book. ryan and i really enjoyed it, but it was incredibly slow through most of the book. i had no idea how old the kids were until we started book two. turns out they're like 10 or 11, which explains why the MC got so whiney and cried every five minutes, but at the time we thought he was 16 and the whining and crying got really annoying. Sadima's story was really good as well. my biggest complaint about this and the second book, which we're halfway through, is that...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Laura Sibson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I grabbed this book last July when two different people (one of them Holly Black) recommended it. I admit -- it took a couple of tries. The first two times I started it, it didn't grab me. But this third time - I was pulled in and couldn't put it down. As Black notes on the blurb, this book is fierce. Duey doesn't pull any punches. She puts her characters through incredible pain while the reader watches, helpless, hoping that they'll find a way out.

The book is written with alternating narrators,...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Lady K rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

http://antredeslivres.hautetfort.com/...

Ce qui est bien c’est qu’on rentre vraiment dans l’histoire dès les premières pages, enfin plutôt, dès le premier paragraphe, et on en ressort pas avant d’avoir lu la dernière page. C’est le genre de livre qui vous trotte dans la tête tout au long de la journée, vous pousse à vous poser plein de questions, celui qu’on veut absolument continuer alors qu’on doit travailler ! C’est une histoire vraiment prenante, très mystérieuse aussi. On ne comprend pas tou...more http://antredeslivres.hautetfort.com/...

Ce qui est bien c’est qu’on rentre vraiment dans l’histoire dès les premières pages, enfin plutôt, dès le premier paragraphe, et on en ressort pas avant d’avoir lu la dernière page. C’est le genre de livre qui vous trotte dans la tête tout au long de la journée, vous pousse à vous poser plein de questions, celui qu’on veut absolument continuer alors qu’on doit travailler ! C’est une histoire vraiment prenante, très mystérieuse aussi. On ne comprend pas tout de suite où l’auteur veut en venir, qu’est-ce que les deux personnages principaux (oui parce qu’on suit Hahp (cf résumé) et Sadima, une jeune fille) ont en commun ? Et puis petit à petit ça prend forme, on devine peu à peu, beaucoup d’indices sont intégrés (je trouve), et pourtant on doute toujours, du genre : « Non, est-ce que c’est vraiment ce que je pense ?! ».

Les personnages sont très attachants. Ils ne sont ni pathétiques, ni exécrables ... juste comme on les aime ! Ce que j’ai aussi beaucoup apprécié c’est que le sexe n’a pas sa place dans ce livre (enfin 1 ligne sur 352 pages … je pense que ça ne compte même pas !). Je ne suis pas contre le sexe, mais c’est bien aussi de trouver des livres qui s’intéressent plus à l’histoire qu’aux autres choses. Ça devient rare … Je pense donc que tout type de public peut le lire, même s’il y a peut être un peu de vulgarité (mais bon, ça se limite à « Merde » dans mes souvenirs …).

Le style de l’auteur est agréable fluide et son choix de faire un chapitre par personnage en alternance est pas mal. En plus on arrive bien à suivre car Hahp parle à la première personne du singulier, tandis qu’on suit Sadima de l’extérieur.

La fin est peut-être un peu brutale, dans le sens où on n’a pas vraiment eu de réponses à toutes les questions qu’on a pu se poser durant la lecture. Mais c’est plus un livre où on attend impatiemment la suite sans vraiment rester sur ça faim. Car le livre se termine d’une manière spéciale, cette fin promet bien des rebondissements et futures aventures … en gros ce n’est que le début !

En conclusion un véritable coup de cœur pour moi. A la sortie du Tome 2 je sauterai sans aucun doute dessus. Je vous le recommande vivement. On ne s’ennuie pas, au contraire on est scotché, on le dévore littéralement. Il n’y a, pour moi, aucun point négatif. Si ce n’est qu’on ne connait pas la date de sortie du second tome !

Encore merci pour ce partenariat. Un beau début pour les éditions Castelmore !(less)

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Jul 02, 2010 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to this book over a year ago, and I didn't remember that I had until I was ten or so pages into the print version. Since I didn't bring that many books with me for our mountain trip, I went ahead and read it again in part because I couldn't for the life of me remember how it ended. Now I know why I didn't remember the ending: It was rather a non-event. Such a cliff hanger that there really isn't quite sufficient resolution.

That notwithstanding, it is still a nicely crafted fantasy of...more

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Apr 17, 2010 Reading Teen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I do not understand where all the awards came from. This book was sloooooow, hardly anything ever happened. It was so very depressing also. Reading about all those boys starving day after day was not pleasant. It was slow - as I mentioned - lacking plot, flat characters and from what I hear... NO ending! I did not get to that point, I stopped after 250 pages. I could not get myself to read the last 100. It makes me quite angry when I have to set a book down midway through it. I actually get angr...more

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Jan 23, 2010 Cindy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-reads, adult-fiction-shelf

This is a wonderful story that weaves together the stories of two teens, Sadima and Hahp. They live in a world where magic effects both of their lives. Sadima, whose mother dies giving birth to her, live out her life with a father bitter who is bitter about her mothers death. Sadima, a young woman who can communicate with animals, meets an interesting young man while helping her goat give birth. He figures out her unique gift and tells her to come visit one day. After her father passes away, she...more

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Jan 04, 2010 April Hochstrasser rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Skin Hunger is absolutely mis-titled. The only skin to skin contact is a handshake at the end between Gerrard and Hahp. The book alternates chapters, one about Sadimaand one about Hahp. Sadima was born under the direction and danger of a false magician who was in the bedroom with the mother and baby, but was busy stealing all the goods instead of helping. She left the mother dead and the baby, Sadima, on the floor, cold and almost dead. Sadima grows up with magical abilities, but because of her...more

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Nov 22, 2009 Katie M. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fantasy fans, teens, adults, dark fantasy fans, disillusioned Harry Potter fans

Shelves: young-adult, high-fantasy

Skin Hunger is a dark and compelling fantasy novel. It alternates chapters of two separate stories set centuries apart, though some connections manifest in the novel and more are promised in the sequels. In one, a girl named Sadima grows up poor on a farm, hiding her ability to communicate with animals. She moves to the city to help Franklin, servant to the brilliant and disturbed young nobleman Somiss, in their efforts to rediscover magic. The other story is set much later, in a world where mag...more

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May 18, 2009 Shawna rated it 5 of 5 stars

This double-narrative fantasy book begins buy working it's way up to where it deepens into a potent and affecting story of struggle. First, a small farm boy begs a magician (healer) to help his mother through childbirth, but the magician's corrupt and leaves the baby on the floor and the mother dead. The baby is Sadima. Sadima grows up able to read animals' minds and eventually seeks the city, where she joins two intense young men: tempestuously abusive Somiss, madly trying to capture ancient l...more

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May 01, 2009 Wealhtheow rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fantasy fans of Octavian Nothing; think_galactic

Shelves: fantasy

Take any of those twee stories about wizarding school and then shove bleak, black despair down its throat. That's this book. It starts out sweet and cliched: a little farm girl can commune with animals, but her father hates magic; a little boy is about to enroll in wizard school. The chapters are short, without much to them. As the characters get older and the story grows more complex, the chapters cease being little cute snippets of their lives and become longer. With time, as more of each situ...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Maki Kotone rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This series came highly recommended to me by my youngest brother. There wasn't a Kindle edition, so I had to find a place that sold used books, and wait for them to be shipped in. It was very much worth the wait. Thanks for telling me about these books, Dude! (You know who you are.)

I was given the warning (and the spoiler) ahead of time that the book is actually two alternating stories. You find out about halfway through the book why it's written like that. The alternation between stories really...more

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Sep 05, 2010 Sean Wills rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

I like to be fairly analytical about why I do or don’t like a book, but in the case of Skin Hunger I’m going to be brief. I didn’t enjoy it, and I can narrow in on two very specific reasons why.

The book is composed of two alternating narratives: Sadima lives during a period where magic is outlawed (according to the back cover…it’s never made entirely clear in the story itself) while Hahp lives an indeterminate amount of time later, when magic has been restored. Herein lies the book’s downfall. T...more I like to be fairly analytical about why I do or don’t like a book, but in the case of Skin Hunger I’m going to be brief. I didn’t enjoy it, and I can narrow in on two very specific reasons why.

The book is composed of two alternating narratives: Sadima lives during a period where magic is outlawed (according to the back cover…it’s never made entirely clear in the story itself) while Hahp lives an indeterminate amount of time later, when magic has been restored. Herein lies the book’s downfall. There’s nothing inherently wrong with telling a story this way, and in fact it was one of the reasons why I was looking forward to reading Skin Hunger for so long. I love it when an author can use a technique like this to weave two narratives together in a way that enriches both of them.

Unfortunately, the tapestry is undone by the fact that the twin stories feel as if they were originally intended to inhabit separate books. This becomes particularly obvious when you realize that their pacing is going to be wildly divergent: Sadima’s tale begins on the day of her birth before giving us snapshots of her life up to the age of seventeen, while Hahp’s story opens just before his arrival at a draconian Academy of Magic before moving along in something approaching real-time. We’ll get a few pages covering about an hour of his time before jumping back to Sadima to find that five years have passed since her last chapter, then it’s back to Hahp where things continue from the point we last saw him…it’s disorienting, to say the least, and takes up far too much of the beginning of the novel.

My second problem had to do with the characters themselves. Sadima starts out interesting as a child – right up until the moment she begins an incredibly tepid romance with Franklin, one half a mysterious wizard duo. I stopped caring about either of them as soon as the coy ‘Does he like her the way she likes him?’ nonsense kicked off and never recovered my interest. (I should also point out that Franklin’s characterization is a bit…odd, to say the least. He seems to be your ideal Fantasy-Land Gentleman upon first meeting Sadima, but then he starts coming on to her heavily and kisses her on the forehead after they’ve known each other for all of five minutes. This is while she’s about fourteen, if I remember correctly. I still have no idea how this scene was supposed to read, but it just came off as extremely creepy.)

Hahp doesn’t fare much better in terms of endearing himself to the reader. When we first meet him he contemplates suicide in order to escape from his overbearing father, then spends a good long time berating himself for being too much of a coward to go through with it. He continues to be incredibly irritating until about midway through the book. Compounding this problem is the fact that he has almost nobody else to interact with. His room-mate at the Academy, the enigmatic pauper Gerrard, is a complete non-entity for far too long and comes across as something of an asshole on the few occasions he and Hahp actually talk to each other. With nobody to distract him from the neverending torments of the Academy, Hahp literally has nothing to do for most of the first half of the book except whine to himself. In first-person.

Things do eventually pick up, and the plot is interesting when it decides to show itself, but I had long stopped caring by that point. The writing is patchy at best, with far too many declarative sentences spoiling what could have been serviceable prose.

I wanted to like Skin Hunger, but in the end it’s very difficult to recommend.(less)

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Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic #1)

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