** spoiler alert ** While the plot line and the book's blurb were interesting enough for me to pick this book off of the shelf, the execution was severely lacking. The characters, namely Lia Kahn and her vapid friends, weren't interesting. Lia Kahn had about one personality trait: selfishness. It seemed that everything she did or talked about had something to do with herself. Even once she was downloaded and had supposedly "changed," she was still the same, self-absorbed person she was before. The only thing that had changed was that now everyone hated her. Including me, the reader. But not because she was a skinner or a mech or whatever. Because she was dull and obnoxious, and was a terrible narrator for a story that could have otherwise been interesting.

The only character in the entire book that I enjoyed reading about was Auden. He was different, involved in more than just himself and he didn't really fit in anywhere. I could easily empathize with him and it was clear that he wasn't a flat character like many of the others in this weak story. Most of the time, when I was reading about Lia and her struggle to figure out who she was now, I wanted to be reading about Auden. In fact, if this story had been about Auden, it would have been much better. But, of course, because he was an org (organic) and didn't even fit into the initial plot line, he had to be axed out of the story.

Then there are the mechs led by Jude. The one problem I had with them, and probably the only explanation I need to support my utter dislike of them, is this: they hated everyone who wasn't like them. They hated orgs, of course. They hated mechs who couldn't let go of the past. In fact, I'm pretty sure they just hated mechs who weren't in their group, and who weren't exactly like them. Remind you of anything? Even Jude's background story, which was told to us by Ani because Jude and his brainwashed followers don't discuss the past, wasn't enough to redeem him for all of the terrible things he had done throughout the book. Sure, it's great that he can engage Lia in a battle of wits and cleverness, but that doesn't really count for anything.

Honestly, this book was just an utter disappointment for me and I think I liked the blurb better than the book. Will I be reading the books following Skinned? No, absolutely not.