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Dreadful Skin

by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 284 ratings · 57 reviews

I ducked into a niche between a cabin and the pilot house and hiked my skirt up enough to reach down into my garter holster. I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman. Jack Gabert went to India to serve his Queen. He returned to London a violently changed man, infected with an unnatural sicknes...more

Paperback, 228 pages

Published December 2nd 2008 by Far Territories (first published March 1st 2007)

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Apr 27, 2010 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: literary horror readers, werewolf fiction fans

Shelves: weird-west, horror, werewolf, owned-copy, nun-monk-minister, kickbutt-heroine, favorites, favorite-or-autobuy-author, heroine-i-adore, epistolary-narrative

I am so glad that I found out about this book. It was just what I was looking for. This book is an excellent journey into the heart of darkness in the American West, with a supernatural twist. And to top it off, the protagonist is a woman of unquenchable will and determination.

Irish nun, Sister Eileen, is small, but her spirit is tremendous. She has made it her mission to track and end a vicious werewolf disguised as a man, Jack. She's followed his trail of rampage and blood over several contine...more I am so glad that I found out about this book. It was just what I was looking for. This book is an excellent journey into the heart of darkness in the American West, with a supernatural twist. And to top it off, the protagonist is a woman of unquenchable will and determination.

Irish nun, Sister Eileen, is small, but her spirit is tremendous. She has made it her mission to track and end a vicious werewolf disguised as a man, Jack. She's followed his trail of rampage and blood over several continents. Never giving up, never relenting. Until her mission has been accomplished.

This book is told in three parts, each with a different sort of narrative that effectively tells the story. I couldn't hardly stop reading this book. I was enthralled. The final showdown in the middle of the desert in a town on the Texas-Mexican border held me breathless. This is the kind of horror that sneaks up on you. You don't see scene after scene of rampage and gore. Instead, you come to feel for the narrators, with no guarantee of their survival. And when some don't make it, you feel the loss with the same enormity that Sister Eileen feels.

Ms. Priest could not have created a better protagonist. This tiny, fierce woman of God couldn't have endeared herself more to me. She's real. Her faith might be shaken, but never broken. This endless hunt has hardened her in the ways that makes her even more of a weapon against a creature of cruel, soulless evil.
This quote shows some of her mettle:

"I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal.

We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman." Enough said.

Werewolf fiction has become one of my favorite genres. I continue to search for good stories that provide a new vista to this arena of supernatural fiction. Coupled with a tale in the Old West, I was overjoyed with this novel. This setting fits so well with this tale of the hunter and the hunted. Even more powerful a touch is the fact that the hunter is a seemingly frail and mild-mannered woman, a nun of all things. But the prey will realize that he should not have underestimated this woman hunting him so relentlessly. This powerful story is told via a distinctive narrative that consists of various narrators speaking in some parts, and written letters and diary entries in others; and it has a realism and gritty vitality that spoke to me.

Short, yet powerful beyond words, I cannot recommend this story enough to readers who are looking for a horror story in an atypical, and underutilized setting. Actually, it's difficult to classify it as a horror story. Truly it's a story about humanity, and the force of will that drives people to fight unwinnable battles. Because our natures as humans don't allow us to easily give in. We fight because we must. When it ended, I took a deep breath and savored the experience. Highly recommended.(less)

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Mar 03, 2011 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dreadful Skin is the literary version of potato chips: edible, went fast, but left me unsatisfied and wishing for something either more substantial or tastier.

A number of factors contributed to my dissatisfaction, and the sum of the whole was greater than the individual problems.

First, there was the disjointedness. The book hops from head to head as if it can't stand to hang out in any particular one for more than a few pages. In the first part, where the narrator isn't immediately identified,...more

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Feb 18, 2011 MB Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Finished reading Dreadful Skin (2008) by Cherie Priest yesterday. According to “The Internet Speculative Fiction Database” (www.isfdb.org) Dreadful Skin is a collection of three works of short fiction: “Part One: The Wreck of the Mary Byrd”, “Part Two: Halfway to Holiness”, and “Part Three: Our Lady of the Wasteland and the Hallelujah Chorus” all which have only been published in Dreadful Skin. Sounds more like an episodic novel to me; although each story could probably stand on its own, they ar...more Finished reading Dreadful Skin (2008) by Cherie Priest yesterday. According to “The Internet Speculative Fiction Database” (www.isfdb.org) Dreadful Skin is a collection of three works of short fiction: “Part One: The Wreck of the Mary Byrd”, “Part Two: Halfway to Holiness”, and “Part Three: Our Lady of the Wasteland and the Hallelujah Chorus” all which have only been published in Dreadful Skin. Sounds more like an episodic novel to me; although each story could probably stand on its own, they are much better together.

Dreadful Skin is a novel in three parts, starting Eileen Callaghan, and featuring her battle against monsters external and internal. Eileen is a somewhat unlikely monster hunter (although most monster hunters these days are somewhat unlikely).

I’m not a big consumer of monster hunter horror fiction (Cthulhu Mythos aside), and even less so of werewolf stories. However in spite of this, or maybe because of it, I found Dreadful Skin very entertaining. The three parts of the novel are all have a different feel.

The first part takes place in 1870 on a river boat on the Tennessee River. It’s a first person narrative, where each chapter is narrated by one of the five main characters. The second is your standard third person narrative, from Eileen’s point of view and takes place in 1879 in Holiness, Texas. And the final part combines some epistolary chapters and first person narratives again switching between the main characters. It takes place mostly in 1881 in Mescalero (New Mexico, one assumes, although I don’t remember a state (or I suppose a territory given the time of the novel) being explicitly stated.

Priest is an interesting writer. I’ve only read one other of her books, Fathom (2008), which was quite good, perhaps a little more to my liking than Dreadful Skin. Her most recent books, parts of her “Clockwork Century” universe, appear to be quite a departure from both Fathom and Dreadful Skin. Where both Fathom and Dreadful Skin are horror novels the “Clockwork Century” appear to be Steampunk. They share the basic era with Dreadful Skin, but the world is much different. All three are on my book shelf waiting to be read, and I just printed out “Tanglefoot”, the first “Clockwork Century” story, available on Subterranean Press’ web site.
(less)

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Aug 07, 2009 Zephfire rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book of Cherie Priest's that I've read, and it won't be the last! A wonderfully gothic werewolf tale that starts in 1870 on board the steamboat Mary Byrd as it makes it's journey up the Tennessee river, bound for Chattanooga . It is divided into three tales, the first tale taking place on the boat and from varying points of view as some of the passengers tell you about themselves and their fate on that tormented night.
The second tale is set in 1879 and starts in Texas, and come...more

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May 10, 2010 Jeff Young rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are so many elements of this book that I really like- but its the overly creative methodology of presentation, the over abundance of "telling" and drop off the edge ending that stop me from rating it higher. So werewolves, in a not overdone fashion, in interesting backdrops: a Mississippi River Boat, a tent revival and a western end of the line town. All gold as far as I'm concerned. The book is broken up into three portions, the first of which consists of bouncing between several view poi...more There are so many elements of this book that I really like- but its the overly creative methodology of presentation, the over abundance of "telling" and drop off the edge ending that stop me from rating it higher. So werewolves, in a not overdone fashion, in interesting backdrops: a Mississippi River Boat, a tent revival and a western end of the line town. All gold as far as I'm concerned. The book is broken up into three portions, the first of which consists of bouncing between several view points, which identify themselves initially and then it is up to the reader to figure out who's head you are in from context. Don't have a real big problem with that, especially when the viewpoints start declining due to the danger. But this mostly telling, which is inevitable from the first person point of view. The break leaves several points wide open that are resolved but not viewed in the next portion which is third person limited. This is probably the easiest read and rolls along smoothly at an even pace. The third portion starts as a series of letters and eventually devolves in third person. Again by nature, the letters are primarily telling. Finally in the last 4 pages the final battle runs right off the page. There's one last stroke and we're on to- what? Another book? The last event was so climactic anything else would have been a let down? Who knows, difficult to say. So from my point of view, in the way the piece was written, if the entire book was the first part on the river boat and the action was prolonged further - I would have loved it. The development of the action in the first book is well done and intriguing. There simply isn't the same style in the following portions. Now that's me being picky- at 228 pages Cherie creates an interesting backdrop where about half the characters are ones that draw you in and encourage you to read on. The more I think about there is a similarity here in the way the action flows to From Dusk Till Dawn (someone, somewhere right now is cringing that I said that...). Here I mean that we have an event that leads disparate characters to another locale where they become involved in something that is beyond their expectations and leads to a big show down battle. (You can, if you've read the book and the movie even equate Love Machine with Leonard - now you're really cringing...). What else did I like? I've always had a fondness for the Springheeled Jack stories and here's a totally new look from a different angle. Also the lycanthropy comes from a very unexpected source. So good choices there Cherie and good backdrop choices as well.(less)

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Mar 06, 2010 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From my point of view, it’s hard to do a werewolf story well. They turn out silly, or are just gory. I mean, most are pretty predictable- moon gets full, person turns into wolf and kills people. Turns back to human, doesn’t remember anything.

This one is different. They lycanthropes aren’t all cut from the same cloth, and they don’t lose their wits completely when then transform. During their human times, they have plans and carry them out methodically. Some are good, some are tormented, some ar...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This was an interesting book. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, Cherie Priest does an excellent job of making me think I'm going to be getting one thing and then turning around and tweaking it just enough that I'm stunned by how it turns out. She did that to me in Fathom also. On one hand it can be disconcerting and yet ... she's never predictable. I can't complain when an author leaves me thinking.

Narrative-wise, the book is divided into three separate stories that span years and miles. T...more

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Nov 26, 2010 Jammies rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: werewolves, bookmooch

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

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Dec 24, 2008 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: horror lovers

Recommended to Jessica by: Juushika

Shelves: werewolf-reads, favorites

A little known book that I think deserves more shelf time, I wish I had the power to stock it in the horror section where I work. It's a refreshing addition to the werewolf genre and should be a staple of reading lists on like subjects. Violent and gothic without romantasizing, I still found the text to be beautiful. The characters are unique, the settings southern and lush.

Why it did not get raised to five stars, was the format of three sections. I saw the author's intent in splitting to illust...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Duckie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: werewolves

Four stars, not because it's great but because so much else in the genre is crap. One major problem is that in the first short story, the point of view shifts between chapters but the chapters aren't labeled with the characters' names, so for a couple of pages each chapter you have no idea who's talking. The writing is good, as Cherie Priest's usually is, but despite what the author says in the Introduction this isn't really a light story. There also isn't much here that's a new or different tak...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Finished the first two stories. Very fun! Priest's attention to detail (such as the different sounds the various characters hear on the boat in the first story) elevates this to something more than your average "werewolf on a boat" story (because if there's a more overcrowded genre than werewolf on a boat stories, I haven't found it).

-----(edit)

The main problem here is that the extreme disjointedness starts to just get weary as the book goes on. The pacing suffers, too. Some of the individual sc...more

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Nov 06, 2010 David Schwan rated it 3 of 5 stars

A story about a catholic nun chasing a werewolf through the central and western US. This book raises some interesting questions about good and evil. The main character Eileen Callaghan (female Dirty Harry maybe) starts out as an Irish catholic nun, and later is still catholic, but not a nun any more. She carries a deep secret, which compels her actions. Curiuously interesting read.

The author gives us a different mythology of werewolf's, not unlike Anne Rice did with vampires. In a sense the auth...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Netanella rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: western-romance, shifters, fantasy

Cherie Priest has just catapulted to the top of my must-read authors list with this book of three short stories about Irish nun Eileen Callaghan's hunt for a werewolf in Dreadful Skin. The stories are set in the last half of the 19th century, in a variety of locations: a steamboat on the Tennessee River; a religious revivalist camp in Holiness, Texas; the burnt-out town of Mescalero in the arid western desert. The shifting first-person narratives of the characters on the steamboat the Mary Byrd...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Whitney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, horror

I love books that take a real-life mysterious event and give it a much cooler explanation. Cherie Priest pulls that off quite neatly with Dreadful Skin, a novel in three parts starring an Irish nun and a werewolf. I know, I know, who hasn't seen that pair used in a really good book?

The story opens on the Mary Byrd, a small ship that actually did disappear somewhere on the Tennessee River between Knoxville and Chattanooga in 1870. On board the story's version is a tipsy captain, a former slave, a...more I love books that take a real-life mysterious event and give it a much cooler explanation. Cherie Priest pulls that off quite neatly with Dreadful Skin, a novel in three parts starring an Irish nun and a werewolf. I know, I know, who hasn't seen that pair used in a really good book?

The story opens on the Mary Byrd, a small ship that actually did disappear somewhere on the Tennessee River between Knoxville and Chattanooga in 1870. On board the story's version is a tipsy captain, a former slave, a professional gambler, a secretive nun named Eileen and the cursed man she has tracked across two continents, John. Who is also known as Jack. Who, it's deftly noted, also has a lot of spring in his heels. Hey, sounds like that fellow in Whitechapel...

I don't want to give away too much about part 1, so I'll just skip along and say that Eileen returns for part 2, Halfway to Holiness and Jack reappears with her in part 3, Our Lady of The Wasteland And The Hallelujah Chorus. The action moves westward to a traveling revival group in Texas, whose leader is possessed by something I'm pretty sure revivalists aren't clamoring for.

The slightly dusty, historic feel of the story and the struggle between Jack and Eileen reminded me of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Instead of "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed", we have "the monster scavenged across the American west and a nun kept showing up." He wasn't exactly fleeing, though if he'd known just one more thing about Eileen, he might have hauled some serious wolfy ass. I do wish it was illustrated like The Gunslinger; there were several scenes that would have made great art.

Compared to Priest's other books that I've read thus far, Dreadful Skin is a pretty quick read (a couple hours versus about four). I did a little digging on the Mary Byrd (no pun intended) but internet findings were slim; it was not a particularly big story. My props to Cherie for choosing something that wasn't major headline fodder.

Favorite quotes:

"And in this way, too, I was reminded that Heaven watches (...) even the frightened little monsters who work so hard to be good."

"I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman."(less)

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Oct 28, 2010 Erika rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Mary Byrd is a steamboat known to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the late 19th Century. For her latest round of passengers, this will be their final voyage along the Tennessee—all but two will find the muddy waters of the river their new home. The only question is: which two? And which of four vivid voices will perish in their desperation to subdue the Mary Byrd’s opportunistic attacker? Their outcome will be determined by the rise of the moon, the depth of the waters, an...more The Mary Byrd is a steamboat known to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the late 19th Century. For her latest round of passengers, this will be their final voyage along the Tennessee—all but two will find the muddy waters of the river their new home. The only question is: which two? And which of four vivid voices will perish in their desperation to subdue the Mary Byrd’s opportunistic attacker? Their outcome will be determined by the rise of the moon, the depth of the waters, and the skills of an Irish nun with a revolver nestled within the easy reach of her garter holster.

Dreadful Skin is one of Cherie Priest’s earlier novels, but retains the gritty richness and daring prose that survived to make her Clockwork Century books incredibly successful. The varied cast of distinctly bold personalities helps to tell the story through alternating points of view for the first part of the book, but they do so in the first person. The results are intimate and wretched confessions from each character as they indulge us with insight into their past, but awkward transitions between chapters ruin the balance between story and momentum (although this remains my favorite section). Sometimes it was not easy to identify who was speaking until a page or two into a new chapter. That was more frustrating than I realized and not at all what I have come to expect from the author of Boneshaker and Clementine (two books with characters so indistinguishable from one another as to never cause confusion).

POV aside, the story itself is an interesting mixture of urban legend and paranormal horror thriller. The cover, which is wickedly alluring in a nightmarish sort of way, makes it clear this is a tale about werewolves. I don’t usually indulge in vampire or werewolf stories; the sheer quantity of that type of supernatural tale in existence today denotes it’s popularity and also how rare it must be to find a truly original, non-derivative version of either. My hesitation doesn’t come from a well-read and tired background of werewolf tales, but rather from a long-standing and marked disinterest in the beasts themselves, an apathy for howling fur on two legs with inexplicable transformative abilities. If I’m going to read about werewolves or vampires, I don’t want to just read what I can easily theorize in my head from popular media. Choosing to read Dreadful Skin was equal parts wanting to read everything I could by Cherie Priest and discovering that this is not a book that’s “just about werewolves.” This is a tale of Spring-Heeled Jack.

For those of you who don’t know, Spring-Heeled Jack is a Victorian-era English urban legend. With differing opinions and (supposedly) second-and third-hand references changing his appearance and modus operandi, the main thing to understand is: Jack can jump really, really high. And he’s always up to no good. Ravaging women, wreaking havoc—that sort of thing. No one knows who or what he was, or even if he really existed. That’s the beauty of an urban legend, after all. And the beauty behind Dreadful Skin is Cherie Priest’s marriage of these two disparate elements: werewolves and Spring-Heeled Jack. Don’t ask me how she does it, but it is there and is one of the only things that saved this novel for me.

The characters were bold and intense, fully formed into demanding voices that drew my attention with the confidant vernacular of their Southern tongue until I was queerly charmed with their disgraces. Aside from drawing sympathy over their impending death, their backstories have little affect on the main plot: Eileen chasing down the elusive Spring-Heeled Jack. But you want to keep reading because, even if you don’t like these characters, you’re drawn to them in the way only flawed characters can do. And I believe Cherie Priest does flawed well. In this case, the strength of her characters is weakened by disjointed sections and an unsettling time gap.

Not that I don’t believe Eileen hasn’t been trying to chase Jack down during the years between sections, but as with Jack’s initial introduction (or rather, lack of one; surprisingly, he was the only character who I learned more of from the jacket copy than from the inside of the book), there’s something lacking in Eileen’s transition from the Tennessee River to the Texas desert. The intervening years are lost, as if to imply how she got from Point A to Point B is irrelevant. Although in the long run we understand she survived; she never stopped hunting. The final section improves, however switches tack completely. Part three alternates with epistolary conversation between Eileen and Leonard Dwyer (a minor character from part two), diary entries, and confessions into an interesting mixture never entirely predictable and always fascinating.

This is particularly engaging because we finally get to see Eileen’s slow transformation. Her Nun persona sloughs off, as if through the rough years on the hunt it has stopped being effective. While Eileen is clearly the protagonist and Jack clearly the enemy, there is an urgency to Priest’s prose that delivers a story beyond horror and werewolves. It’s a blend of Fairy Tale (with recognizable and sometimes blunt references to Damsels in Distress and Knights in Shining Armor) and Monster Tale unafraid to broach subjects like God and religion or fear. There are undercurrents of predator vs. prey, good vs, evil, and the internal struggles of the day-to-day of humanity. If only navigating our daily lives were as easy as avoiding the werewolves.

Of course, manipulative, greedy, and harmful individuals are sometimes hard to distinguish, but Priest acknowledges this with a bloodthirsty relish. Descriptions of carnage might offend those of certain dispositions (i.e. if you’re a major wimp, like I am). I bravely soldiered on and managed to get through the entire book without feeling scared so much as a little sick to my stomach and slightly disturbed. There are no great insights into the Spring-Heeled Jack legend, but it was an interesting pairing. And she did make the jumping rather sinister. Dreadful Skin is a Cat and Mouse Tale of revenge perfect the for Halloween season, or for any time you want an unnerving pick-me-up.(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

If you like werewolves, and you like the Old West, then Cherie Priest's short story collection Dreadful Skin is a decent way to spend your time. We've got three interconnected stories here, featuring the werewolf Jack Gabert and the woman who hunts him, Eileen Callaghan, an Irish ex-nun who's tracked him all the way to America.

The characters are sketched in with Priest's usual deft touch, though due to the length of each story and to the propensity to change points of view with each scene change...more

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May 04, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: werewolves-are-awesome, fantasy-historical

So a nun with Colt gun, a gambler and a werewolf sat down at a table on steamboat.

No, it's not the start of a joke; it actually happens in this book. More important, it's not stupid.

I've read my fair share of urban fantasy, and I'll admit, I'm getting very tried of the tormented good guys. You know what I'm talking, the poor vampire who is looking for his true love, and finds her embodied in the heroine of the series. I'm not saying I don't enjoy a story where the vampire or werewolf is good guy...more

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May 04, 2010 Caressa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

So, so sad. "Boneshaker" was such an amazing book, and "Dreadful Skin" is, well, dreadful. Cherie Priest excels at describing lush, gorgeously foreboding settings that send shivers down your spine while seducing you to come closer. That being said, she sucks at first person narrative. In "Dreadful," Priest switches POV between five characters; an Irish nun, London veteran, freed slave, and Southern gambler should each have a very distinct voice and internal monologue, right? Not so much. It took...more

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Sep 11, 2008 Juushika rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: status-borrowed

An Irish nun pursues an English werewolf through the American southbut in order to kill a monster, she may have to become a monster herself. The story is told in three sections, each with a distinct narrative stylea choice which holds reader attention but fragments the book. Dreadful Skin is not a unique addition to the werewolf genre, but it does feature realistically brutal violence and an unique, haunting Southern gothic setting. The thematic elements of justification and prey could be bett...more An Irish nun pursues an English werewolf through the American southbut in order to kill a monster, she may have to become a monster herself. The story is told in three sections, each with a distinct narrative stylea choice which holds reader attention but fragments the book. Dreadful Skin is not a unique addition to the werewolf genre, but it does feature realistically brutal violence and an unique, haunting Southern gothic setting. The thematic elements of justification and prey could be better fleshed out, but they add welcome depth to the novel. On the whole, Dreadful Skin is not exceptional, but it is compelling and swiftly readablea Southern flare on a werewolf noveland I recommend it.

I have read three other novel by Priest (the Eden Moore trilogy), and found them competent but not memorable; this novel was the first of hers to truly capture me. Priest knows how to write a strong, detailed storybut often the plot is so tight and so complete that there's not much else, be it characters or themes, to take away from the book. Dreadful Skin is different: the premise and plot are fairly straight forward, and other aspects have the chance to come forward and shine. With numerous narrators and narrative styles, more time is given to storylife stories, back story, and storytelling itself. Running behind the nun's attempt to kill a monster are a number of themesthe nature and roles of hunter and prey, the justification of becoming a monster to kill a monsterwhich add welcome depth to the story. Both aspects could stand to be better fleshed out, but their presences alone make Dreadful Skin a more thoughtful and meaningful book.

The other aspects of the novel are more varied, but on the whole: they are good, but never great. The numerous narratives provide more story and hold reader interest, but they fragment the novel and the reader never has the opportunity to lose himself in the story. The brutal violence that Priest writes so well makes these werewolves frighteningyet they are barely described and seem based almost entirely on clichés. The Southern gothic setting is a hallmark of Priest's novels, and it is both haunting and realistic here, setting the book apart from most of the werewolf genre. The themes discussed above are a welcome inclusion, but they could stand to be better fleshed outespecially at the book's abrupt conclusion, where they dangle, promising but unfinished, when the story cuts off. Finally, perhaps more a matter of personal taste, I didn't enjoy Geyer's illustrations.

This is by far my favorite novel by Priest. The characters are unique, the setting is wonderful, and the plot is strongbut there is more than plot alone: storytelling, character motivation, and themes all serve to make this novel interesting and meaningful. The book has its slew of faults, and they hold it back: it is often good, but it never quite rises to become great. Nonetheless, Dreadful Skin captures and holds the reader with a lyrical narrative and the brutal realities of a werewolf attack. It is an interesting and swift read, and I enjoyed it. I recommend it.(less)

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Sep 13, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, western, historical-fiction

I burned through this just as I burn through most of Priest's writing. The story of a fallen nun with a secret, who hunts a monster from London all the way through to the Southwestern desert of the United States is told in a serious of novella-like segments, each a stand-alone. Priest leaves the ending open to more adventures for the sister, who may have a partner now, in a Texas ranger.

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Jul 02, 2010 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I believe that Cherie Priest is a master of blending the best elements of fantasy, horro, and the fables or stories of the old west. I am always endeared by her flawed charcters, and impressed by her patience in telling a story. I find myself flying towards the end of the tale, desperate to see what happens, but she doesn't rush. Priest let's a story build, and I'm grateful for it!

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Dec 29, 2008 Coki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

very traditional horror story - makes me think of Byron and Shelley. Described as a Southern Gothic but I thought it felt more Western in the sparseness of language and stoic heroes. Almost feels like a serial with the multiple POV and the asides that bring the reader up to speed between parts. Quick read but well done and satisfying.

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May 12, 2011 Lila Brantley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A nun meets trouble on a Mississippi steamboat with fangs, claws, and a blood lust controlled by the moon. You guessed it, a werewolf! Dreadful Skin follows a Irish (Scottish..I can’t really remember) into a America where she hopes to destroy the monster. In her determination, she doesn’t see her own transformation. Fast and decent read.

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Aug 06, 2010 Wendy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the same author who wrote the Boneshaker so I had high hopes. And I did enjoy reading this, I was just kind of ticked at the abrupt ending. I wasn't fulfilled. Anyway, Cherie Priest writes so well that I actually enjoyed these 3 stories about a nun chasing a werewolf back in the "cowboy" days. I don't really enjoy books set in the West, with the exception of Louis L'Amour for some reason. But she made it interesting. There was quite a bit of bloody gore.

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Jul 17, 2009 Jenna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fun fast read. It ended a little abruptly for me. I would have liked to have seen what the characters did with themselves but I really liked how quickly the level of anticipation grew and remained fairly tense until the climax. Hooray for werewolves!

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Nov 03, 2011 Madelon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

With each book by Cherie Priest I read, I become more her fan. Ms. Priest has a unique take on the tropes with which we have all become familiar. Her books do not disappoint.

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Apr 12, 2008 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Werewolf fans, people who love the idea of a gun-toting werewolf-hunting Irish nun.

Shelves: horror

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Aug 07, 2010 Hat of Nikitich rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found I have kind of mixed feelings on this story as a whole, and they are surprisingly hard to put a finger on. I certainly don't regret reading it, but it turned out to be half-not my cup of tea.

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Apr 19, 2012 Scott Vout rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-of-2011, urban-fantasy

A different look a the world of the werewolf.

An author i am so so with.

an all right book but nothing to get overly worked up with.

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Jan 02, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: werewolves, read-in-2008

A renegade werewolf nun with a revolver in her knickers, hunting down other werewolves - you gotta give it points for premise alone.

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Horror

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Fantasy

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Shapeshifters > Werewolves

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Science Fiction > Steampunk

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Fantasy > Paranormal

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Historical Fiction

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Western

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Gothic > Southern Gothic

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Science Fiction Fantasy

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Science Fiction

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About Cherie Priest

CHERIE PRIEST is the author of twelve novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures Dreadnought and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor (Macmillan), and her novellas Clementine, Dreadful Skin and Those...more

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“She'd grown up believing in hell in an abstract nightmare way; but west Texas had given her something more concrete upon which to dread the afterlife.” — 8 people liked it

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