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Under the Skin

Michel Faber

3.73 · Rating details · 22,840 ratings · 2,658 reviews

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"Isserley always drove straight past a hitchhiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up."

In Michel Faber's suspenseful first novel, Isserley, an unusual-looking woman with strangely scarred skin, drives through the Scottish Highlands both day and night, looking for just the right male hitchhikers. She picks th

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ebook, 306 pages

Published July 16th 2001 by Harper Paperbacks (first published 2000)

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Sep 27, 2007 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

UPDATE!

This is a very unusul situation for me, but this is a very unusual book. I'm actually looking extremely forward to seeing the movie. The director Jonathan Glazer doesn't do many movies but he did do Sexy Beast which is a must-see, and he did do this amazing advert :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ut_2...

So bring it on!

And now, the original book review.

******

Things I love about Under the Skin

- the heroine is really creepy
- the whole situation is really mental (that's a literary term coin ...more

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Oct 26, 2017 Adina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sf, 1001, australia, horror, w_sf-and-fantasy

I was supposed to write this review a month ago but life happened and the right moment did not seem to materialize. I wanted to write a detail and spoilery analysis of the themes present but time passed and I don't feel capable to do it anymore. However, I feel obliged to write a few words.

I will begin with the strong recommendation not to read any blurb before starting Under The Skin. The plot it is better to be explored without prior knowledge of the main mystery. Unfortunately, most blurbs an ...more

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Apr 08, 2021 Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended, adult

After reading this, I have completely lost my taste for eating vodsels.

Holy hell.

I knew very little about this book (and even less about the film adaptation) when I began it, only that it began with an alien woman picking up hitchhikers in rural Scotland. The agonizingly patient unfolding of the premise is part of what makes the novel excellent and terrible, so I'm not going to say much more than that Under the Skin is a brutal, heartbreaking, well-paced allegory that demands the reader reconsid ...more

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Oct 05, 2016 Kevin Kelsey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-it-again, read-2016

Posted at Heradas

Literary science fiction that is compulsively creepy and disturbing in all the right ways. Orwellian by way of Ursula Le Guin or Octavia Butler. More Animal Farm than 1984. I think fans of Jeff VanderMeer's style of New Weird fiction would have a lot to enjoy here.

It's a moral story, without particularly taking any one side, mostly just intended to provoke some discussion I imagine. It could easily be interpreted as an animal rights activism novel, but I'm not so sure it actuall ...more

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Apr 26, 2014 Carmen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone

Recommended to Carmen by: Movie

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, he-says, traditionally-published, dutch-author, horror, published2000

ALL SPOILERS FOR THIS BOOK ARE HIDDEN UNDER TAGS

Isserley, too, often ventured out at hours of such prehistoric stillness that her vehicle might have been the first ever. It was as if she had been set down on a world so newly finished that mountains might still have some shifting to do and the wooded valleys might yet be recast as seas.

Okay. This book is not what you are expecting at all. I am going to put the general (non-ending, non-detailed) description of the plot under a spoiler tag, because ...more

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Jul 18, 2013 Kinga rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pub-2000, special-place-in-my-heart

Sometime in March Craig posted on our book group Facebook page the following message:

“Hello Group,
At the risk of sounding alarmist, I want to alarm you all.
I am currently rereading Under The Skin for about the sixth time, and I noticed today from tube adverts that the film adaptation is out March 14 or 15. Now, I utterly hate it when things are oversold to me, but if you ever want to experience this novel - which is among the most extraordinary I've ever read - in the manner in which it was inte Sometime in March Craig posted on our book group Facebook page the following message:

“Hello Group,
At the risk of sounding alarmist, I want to alarm you all.
I am currently rereading Under The Skin for about the sixth time, and I noticed today from tube adverts that the film adaptation is out March 14 or 15. Now, I utterly hate it when things are oversold to me, but if you ever want to experience this novel - which is among the most extraordinary I've ever read - in the manner in which it was intended, I beseech you to read it within the next 4-6 days, before the hype machine amps up and partially spoils it for you.
I may have spent a portion of this afternoon drinking 15% beer, but I assure you, you should not allow Hollywood to ruin this for you.
Well, I tried.
Regards.”

See, I’m not normally the one to go out and buy a book right after someone’s recommend it to me. Usually I just add it to my never-ending to-read list where it sits waiting to be chosen like a puppy in a dog shelter. But then, Craig is not normally given to being dramatic, so I thought maybe I should heed his warning and to my amazement I dropped everything I was reading, went and downloaded ‘Under the Skin’ and started reading it right away.

Craig was right, ladies and gentlemen. Now all I want to do is tell you nothing about this book but somehow convince you to read it. Maybe I will say that it’s about a woman who drives around Scottish frontiers and picks up hunky hitch-hikers. The opening might be erotically charged but the irony of it will hit you later. It’s a book that asks the readers for their definition of what it means to be human and then forces them to take sides.
Nothing new here but presented in a such mind-bending way that we just have to admit that our claim to evolutionary superiority is very weak. Our arguments are arbitrary and self-serving. We’re all animals.

While including as few graphic details as possible, it manages to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. At some point I really wanted not to want to read it anymore. I think the greatest twisted strength of this book was that it made me form alliances with the characters before I knew the whole story, or at least all the sides to the story. Once all is revealed, you can’t get out of it without exposing yourself as a hypocrite. And yet, in all of this, there is somehow room left for gentle emotions, melancholy, evocative descriptions of the landscape and a hint of a love story.

The descriptions in this book are superb. You can see clearly all the characters, sense something off about some of them but at first can’t quite lay your finger on what it is. You see Isserley, the main character, through the eyes of different hitchhikers and it is quite amazing how different their impressions are but in the end they form in your head a cohesive picture of the woman. I don’t know what Scarlett Johansson is doing starring in the adaption of this book. This makes no sense whatsoever. Read the book.

It might or might not be a coincidence that some time after finishing this novel I had this genius idea: hey, maybe I should try to be vegan for a while. Of course, the message of this book not subtle but somehow I had no problem with it at all. Michel Faber is currently the best thing you can find in Scotland. ...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Cassy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-own, 2011, fiction-scifi-fantasy-paranormal, region-europe

Since you asked for my opinion on hitchhiking, don’t do it.

My grandfather was on his way to pick up my uncle for the Christmas holiday when he stopped for two male hitchhikers. They forced him to an abandoned house, beat him with a two-by-four, and drove off. Police found his cold, naked body two weeks later. My mom was eleven years old.

Clearly, picking up hitchhikers is a big no-no in my family. Now this book warns me against the other side of hitchhiking: standing by the road with your thumb Since you asked for my opinion on hitchhiking, don’t do it.

My grandfather was on his way to pick up my uncle for the Christmas holiday when he stopped for two male hitchhikers. They forced him to an abandoned house, beat him with a two-by-four, and drove off. Police found his cold, naked body two weeks later. My mom was eleven years old.

Clearly, picking up hitchhikers is a big no-no in my family. Now this book warns me against the other side of hitchhiking: standing by the road with your thumb in the air. Again, don’t do it.

This book is all about The Reveal. It starts with a chesty woman on the look-out for hunky hitchhikers. Thereafter, Faber slowly releases clues about what does and does not motivate her. I would encounter words I didn’t understand, such as vosdel, and think, “If only I knew this word. I bet it is the key to everything!” I considered pulling out the dictionary, but was either stuck on a plane or too toasty in bed to bother standing up. Now I can take comfort that the dictionary won’t have helped. The words are made up and duly explained as the plot unveiled itself in those excruciating increments.

If you have absolutely no intention of reading this book and just want to understand the hoopla, here goes: (view spoiler)

Maybe 60% into the book, you understand the big secret and the plot falters. I kept waiting for reactionary measures, but the action remained quite subdued. Sometimes Faber was just a damn tease - hinting at the potential of huge drama, taking me right to the edge, only to back away. Part of me admired his restraint while the other part was bored and frustrated.

There were several discussion questions at the end of the book that made me wonder if I had read too superficially. I’ll admit I checked out a little after The Reveal, but ultimately, no. I think the author and/or publisher took the “message” of this book too seriously. It wasn't that effective for me. Except, of course, for reinforcing my thoughts on hitchhiking. Don't do it.

Overall, I’d recommend this book, if only for Faber’s masterful execution of The Reveal. And it is an interesting mix of several genres: thriller, horror, and social commentary, as well as (view spoiler).
...more

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Jan 04, 2014 Hanneke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-read

A very interesting and nauseating book. For a long time, you have no clue whatsoever what is going on, but you have strong suspicions it is not going to be pleasant at all to find out. You are disoriented but intrigued about the strange hitchhiking adventures of the main character Isserley. Still, you are unprepared when it hits you on the head. The discovery is so fantastic that it stops you in your tracks. I really liked how Michael Faber shows us a view of our world from a very different pers ...more

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Jul 05, 2014 Maciek rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, own-in-paperback, read-in-2014, owned-books

Under the Skin is a reviewer's nightmare - it's literally impossible to discuss this book without touching the plot, and the whole thing hinges on mystery that surrounds it. This is a novel which is all about the big reveal, and Michel Faber delights in teeeeeeasing the reader with the smallest of hints and nudges.

All I can tell you, spoiler free, is this - an attractive, lone woman, Isserley, drives on the A9 motorway through the Scottish Highlands, searching for hitch-hikers. She drives along Under the Skin is a reviewer's nightmare - it's literally impossible to discuss this book without touching the plot, and the whole thing hinges on mystery that surrounds it. This is a novel which is all about the big reveal, and Michel Faber delights in teeeeeeasing the reader with the smallest of hints and nudges.

All I can tell you, spoiler free, is this - an attractive, lone woman, Isserley, drives on the A9 motorway through the Scottish Highlands, searching for hitch-hikers. She drives along the A9 all day long, every day, looking for specific type of travelers: male, with lots of muscle mass. Isserley often drives past the same person twice to decide if he is worthy of picking up, and if he is she takes him into her car. Why is Isserley picking up the hitch-hikers? Who is she, and who are they? What is going on?

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive! This quote, wrongly attributed in the book to William Shakespeare (it's from Marmion, an epic poem by the famous Scottish poet, Sir Walter Scott) is a perfect summary of the book - which is a tangled web of deception, where nothing is quite what it appears to be. Faber throws a hook straight into our curiosity, but never explains anything directly - he only implies and insinuates, pulling us in more and more. At the beginning, when we know nothing of Isserley and her road trips and yearn to learn more, it works wonders - the book is compelling and few readers will be able to resist the call of its riddle.

But once the puzzles begin to fall into place it runs out of steam amazingly quickly, and by the time the big reveal finally happens it's more embarrassing than clever - as it literally makes no sense , and doesn't hold up to any close scrutiny. Long explanation follows in the spoiler section:

(view spoiler)[

Throughout the book, Faber made a big deal of keeping Isserley's true identity shrouded in mystery. Is she a part of some sort religious cult, or a a sexual deviant, who keeps the poor men in her basement? Is she conducting some bizarre experiments on the hitch-hikers? The hints are there, right on the first page - puny, scrawny specimens were of no use to her - but they don't reveal anything conclusive, so it's obvious that Isserley's character is purposefully made secret, and that he will keep it so to build up suspense. Faber describes over and over again how Isserley works - how she selects the hitch-hikers, tranquilizes them, and them turns them over to a remote farm, inhabited by men whom Isserley knows and apparently works for. There the hitch-hiker is taken to an unknown fate, and Isserley drives out to look for a new one. What is this conspiracy? Who are these men, and what is going on at that farm?

It was aliens all along! It turns out that Isserley is an alien from some distant planet, surgically modified and fitted with big boobs which are deemed to make her appear more attractive to human males (must have taken the aliens a millennium to research this). The hitch-hikers she picks up, tranquilizers and brings to the farm are nothing more than cattle - after they are castrated and have their tongues removed they are fattened, butchered and sent off via spaceship to the Alien Burger King. It's a cookbook!

This is where the problems start to mount. Fat is no an alien delicacy, so the men Isserley brings to the farm must have low body fat - hence the need for well-muscled specimens. But why are their testicles and tongues removed?
This is never explained - we can speculate that testicle removal serves as elimination of testosterone, which could either make the men more willing to make trouble or spoil the taste of their meat, but it's never stated. But why do they have their tongues removed? Most captured hitch-hikers are imprisoned in a secure basement, where they can't be neither seen or heard from the outside. Faber makes it clear that while Isserley understands human language other aliens who work at the farm don't, so they couldn't possibly communicate with the aliens to beg for their life.

Details about the alien work on the farm don't make much sense either. Some captured hitch-hikers apparently undergo some surgical (?) procedures which force them to walk on all fours, and are drugged to remain calm and obedient in their cages. But when Isserley asks to see a hitch-hiker be butchered before her own eyes, it's done almost immediately - he's stripped and cut open before her eyes while he's still unconscious from the tranquilizer. Why do hitch-hikers need to be kept in the pens, if they always arrive one-by-one on an amply staffed farm and slaughtering them takes seconds, and can be done by one alien?

The whole farm, which Faber takes a delight in shrouding in mystery as well, does not make any sense whatsoever. Please remember that we are dealing with an advanced alien civilization, which possesses the technology to go very far in space in seconds. They think of themselves as "Humans", and consider people who inhabit Earth as "Vodsels" - cattle animals for slaughter and consumption. So why in the world would aliens, who have technology vastly more advanced than ours, have a need for all this charade?

Consider: Isserley is constantly worried about being exposed - she always talks to the men to learn if there will be anyone who will miss them if they're gone, and makes sure that no one noticed her picking them up. She wears glasses and tries to diverge the attention from her scars by pushing her breasts forward, and always obeys the speed limit. She even has a special button in her car which will literally blow it up - along with her inside it - if she is ever captured, which is exactly what happens at the end of the book. But why is it all this even necessary?
Why is Isserley posing as a compassionate driver on a lonely road, and why do aliens even have a need need to maintain a farm in a remote region in northern Scotland as their butchery? Let me remind you that we're talking about a civilization technologically vastly superior to ours. Why not skip all the risks and dangers of being found out, and simply capture the men and beam them up to their home planet, where they could be fattened and prepared just the same? Why does Isserley know next to nothing about human culture,significantly lowering her chance at succesful conversation which could result in more captured men? Most importantly, why do the alien civilization even cares about being exposed by those whom they consider to be simple animals? They are shown to be physically and technologically much more powerful than we are, and could easily change the site of their operations to another part of the world, or simply exterminate/alter the memories of potential witnesses. For all their disregard for humankind they sure do care a lot about what we see or don't see! People go missing all the time, in broad daylight and crowded cities, people with families who actively look for them, sometimes for years. Many of them are never found, and for all we know they really could have been abducted by extraterrestrials - in fact that's what many people believe to have happened. Faber's whole plot - Isserley, hitch-hikers, the farm - makes no sense at all, and is there only because the author needs it to be there. This isn't even poor science fiction, it's just poor fiction, and it's why the book ultimately fails.

(hide spoiler)]

With what begun as an eerie and compelling novel, Under the Skin quickly became unimpressive and turned into unbelievable, logic-defying mess. What was subtle becomes heavy handed an obvious, as if Faber became tired of hints and winks and had to literally spell out his message. The novel is not without its merits - there is a chase scene which is particularly chilling and grotesque, and Faber can operate with a scene and create good imagery when he wants to - but ultimately these things are simply not enough to save the book from itself. The Wall Street Journal described it as "an Animal Farm for the new century", but the reviewer who wrote that sentence has probably never read Animal Farm as the only thing that the two books have in common is the physical building. I know that Under the Skin was his debut novel and hopefully he got better with time - I still want to read his historical epic, The Crimson Petal and the White, but now I'm not in such a big hurry as I was before. Fool me once... ...more

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Sep 25, 2019 BlackOxford rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, dutch-flemish

Get Outta My Dreams
Get Into My Car

The woman has a job to do: finding young, fit male bodies and bringing them on back to the farm. It takes dedication and sacrifice on her part; but there are worse jobs. She gets to live in the Scottish countryside, work in the outdoors, and generally be her own boss. And she’s proud of her trade-craft. After so many years, her hunting and seducing skills are sharply honed.

But there’s always more to learn. She’s got the local accents down pretty well. But her ow ...more

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May 18, 2013 Cecily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian

Michel Faber evidently likes writing about the seedier side of life, but with a twist. He wrote the wonderful The Crimson Petal and the White, which I've reviewed HERE about an aspirational Victorian prostitute, and in this contemporary novel, a rather strange woman picks up hunky male hitchhikers for nefarious, but initially unspecified purposes. The assumption that this would be an unpleasantly graphic account of sex crimes was unfounded.

This is also about alienation, which was an even strong ...more

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Jan 06, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, western-europe

Caution, spoilers! A modern fable on any number of potential issues—animal cruelty? corporate greed? human brutality?—set in a version of the Highlands where multiple people hitchhike each day (I go frequently to the Highlands and I’ve never seen no hitchhikers—maybe Faber ate them all?) The story begins with our big-breasted heroine Isserley picking up a series of unemployed assholes and stabbing them in the buttocks with a stun chemical activated via her dashboard. She drives her victims, know ...more

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Feb 12, 2011 Shannon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, speculative-fiction, thriller, favourite

Now here's a book that went from an intriguing premise, to gripping me at the first page, to totally taking over my mind - it's definitely going to be one of the best books I've read this year, I can tell you that now. I read this back in March and itched to write a review straight away, but made myself wait till it was next in line - I wish I hadn't now, because my thoughts were so buzzing at the time it would have made a more interesting and energetic review!

It's also a tricky one to review, o Now here's a book that went from an intriguing premise, to gripping me at the first page, to totally taking over my mind - it's definitely going to be one of the best books I've read this year, I can tell you that now. I read this back in March and itched to write a review straight away, but made myself wait till it was next in line - I wish I hadn't now, because my thoughts were so buzzing at the time it would have made a more interesting and energetic review!

It's also a tricky one to review, or summarise, because part of the allure and the utter absorption is in the gradual reveal of the truth, in the not-knowing, in the speculation right from the beginning. So I can't tell you what it's really about, only give you much the same outline the blurb does (which, as I re-read it now, knowing the true story, is actually quite cleverly written in the way it acts upon our assumptions - playing with language is key to this novel, but I'll get to that). Which was enough to pull me in, but others might pass it by due to lack of information.

This is the story of Isserley, who drives back and forth along the Scottish highways looking for hitchhikers. Male, large, preferably unattached hitchhikers. With scars and large hands, her tiny petite frame is topped off by a pair of obviously enhanced breasts that are prominently on display. As she probes her male hitchhikers with casual questions and gets them talking, she quickly assesses whether anyone would really notice - or care - if they suddenly disappeared.

If that doesn't make you wonder about what Isserley's deal is, then you probably wouldn't care for the book. For me, the notion of a woman driving around looking for male hitchhikers to kidnap, is definitely an intriguing one - if Isserley were male, looking for young women, we'd know exactly what to think. But a tiny woman who seems nervous no matter how many times she does this...? I didn't know what to think, and that was part of the initial fun. As the story unfolds and more and more clues are carefully, smoothly revealed, my mind went nuts coming up with theories. Normally, I never make an effort to predict where a story is going - I love the reveal in the hands of a skilled writer, and I don't see reading as a race to be right and outwit the author. I certainly didn't want to outwit Faber; I loved the excitement, the not-knowing, the guessing and revising of said guesses, as the truth became apparent. And "excitement" is just the word for it: it was more fun than being on a roller-coaster! I got a kind of adrenaline rush and found it extremely hard to put the book down, even after the truth came out.

Even after every last truth is out, that's only half the book - by then you're hopefully hooked and in an odd way, sympathetic - at least, I was. I had no trouble identifying with Isserley, if I can use that word. I love being confronted in fiction, and having assumptions turned on their head. While the second half is quite different from the first - and I can't use the genre name I'd like to because that would be leading! - it was equally, if vastly differently, fascinating. I itched to know more and more, and without a doubt by the end I was sympathetic, despite it all. And that only adds to my fascination, because on a reasonable level, I shouldn't be. (Then again, I even found Humbert Humbert strangely sympathetic - in a disturbing way - in Lolita . I actually enjoy being pulled out of my comfort zone, seeing a different perspective - even if it's ultimately "wrong" - and trying to understand a different way of thinking.)

Not being able to "reveal" what's really going on in the novel does make it hard to talk about all the things this book makes me so eager to discuss, especially language. I'm chaffing at the bit here! Under the Skin is such an intelligent novel, hugely thought-provoking and fascinating. I loved the way Faber used language to present an alien - to us - perspective, a different view of things, and turn our own comfort zone, assumptions and sense of righteousness on their head. I've read Fantasy novels (with blends of Sci-Fi) that do the same kind of thing, and they're some of my favourite books in the genre (sadly there aren't many of those around; most are disappointingly generic). For instance, the play on the words "human" and "animal" are hugely confronting and rather mind-bending, and really highlight the power of words, language and our ownership of them.

I wish I could go into it in more details but always when I write reviews I'm conscious of wanting to give others the opportunity to experience books the way I do, to start a book with a sense of anticipation and wonder and let the story tell itself, rather than have a reviewer's words tell them what to think and expect. So as much as I want to keep talking about this fantastic book - which, I must emphasise, is truly weird and not everyone's cup of tea - I will stop here. ...more

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Sep 03, 2016 Jen Campbell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars. Will talk about it in my next wrap up :)

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Aug 21, 2020 Michael || TheNeverendingTBR rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A story about a mysterious woman called Isserley who drives along the highways of Scotland and picks up 'suitable' male hitch-hiker's and those men are never seen again.

Very disturbing and unsettling read.

Also it doesn't reveal much, by saying that I think you'd only understand what I mean if you've read it.

I prefer the adaptation with Scarlett Johansson playing Isserley, which is actually so different to the book but the book is still a 4/5 rating because it's very clever and superbly written; ...more

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Apr 21, 2017 Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I used to pick up hitchhikers. Alone and starved of conversation on long-distance trips I'd stop for anyone short of an obvious axe murderer. Most of the people I picked up were guys in their 20s - fit, healthy men who would have been perfect targets for the protagonist of Under The Skin.

In Michael Faber's novel a lone woman named Isserley cruises the backroads of Scotland, picking up healthy, muscular male hitchers. She chats awkwardly with her new passengers, determining their health, their le I used to pick up hitchhikers. Alone and starved of conversation on long-distance trips I'd stop for anyone short of an obvious axe murderer. Most of the people I picked up were guys in their 20s - fit, healthy men who would have been perfect targets for the protagonist of Under The Skin.

In Michael Faber's novel a lone woman named Isserley cruises the backroads of Scotland, picking up healthy, muscular male hitchers. She chats awkwardly with her new passengers, determining their health, their level of connectedness to their friends, their family and society. Then, with the flick of a switch on her steering column she sedates them and delivers them to a mysterious backwoods farm.

Isserley’s days are spent driving, her nights trying to sleep through the torment her surgically altered body inflicts upon her. And the surgeries that have left her so pained were profoundly altering. Isserley is not a normal woman, and the things done to her so she can pass as a regular person have left her a mess of physical and psychological scars.

This is a suspenseful story, filled with tantalising mysteries that will pull you through the novel like a jet-skier behind a boat. Why is Isserley abducting people? What happens to them on the farm? Who, or what exactly is our protagonist? Under the Skin slowly reveals the answers to these questions and I stayed up late with this book, caught up in Isserley's pained and conflicted life to the point where the novel consumed my thoughts all the following day.

This isn't a book for the easily triggered. There is genuine horror in what is revealed. Some of the darker stuff has lodged in my mind - a disturbing mental burr in my psyche that I can’t quite pluck free - and I find myself involuntarily recalling it while reading other books.

(view spoiler)

My only real gripe is that, in the early parts of the book at least, Faber pulls the rather tired trick of deliberately obscuring the appearances of his characters (or at least, parts of them) by simply not giving any details about how they look, when any observer on the scene would see them quite clearly. While this increases the sense of mystery it felt a little artificial.

This annoyance aside under the Skin is a standout novel - a thoughtful, poignant and sad story with a strong message. It left me with a lot to think about, and I while I'm still happy to pick up hitchhikers I'm now doubly sure that I'll never risk thumbing rides myself. ...more

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Apr 08, 2018 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-for-blog, horror, science-fiction

This was the perfect book for reading on rainy Scottish highways last week. I’m so glad I decided at the last minute to bring it along on our trip to Wigtown.

Isserley drives along Highland roads picking up hitchhikers – but only the hunky males – to take back to her farm near the Moray Firth. It’s likely that you already know the setup of this even if you haven’t read it, perhaps from the buzz around the 2013 film version starring Scarlett Johansson. It must have been so difficult for the first ...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Agnieszka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, reviewed, 1001-books, dystopia, own-a-copy

It's an uncanny novel. Although it starts out as a classic thriller, Faber from first pages is playing with readers and misleading them. Repeating for The Times here nothing is what it seems and you become more and more disoriented, for this book is nothing like you had ever read before. At the same time engaging and repulsive. Unsettling. Disturbing.

I'm not sure what I expected but was absolutely suprised. Faber consistently builds tension and leads us out of the atmosphere of horror in total ...more

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Mar 10, 2011 K.D. Absolutely rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, guy-lit, suspense-thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, crime

Surprisingly good. The book will keep you turning the pages because of the slow tease. In the end, I was expecting something like The Silence of the Lambs but Faber probably anticipated it and he brought me to a place I've never been before. That's despite that I already have 700+ books in different genres in my read folder. Definitely my first time to have encountered and read something like this.

It is a story of a pickup lady named Isserly. She drives back and forth in a Scottish highway looki Surprisingly good. The book will keep you turning the pages because of the slow tease. In the end, I was expecting something like The Silence of the Lambs but Faber probably anticipated it and he brought me to a place I've never been before. That's despite that I already have 700+ books in different genres in my read folder. Definitely my first time to have encountered and read something like this.

It is a story of a pickup lady named Isserly. She drives back and forth in a Scottish highway looking for beefy young hitchhiking men. When she sees one, she assesses him first by passing through them and when she is certain, she makes a U-turn and picks the young man up. Then... I will not go on as this is a highly spoilable book. I will not even dare to put a spoiler (hide/show) because I have friends here who does not know how to behave and they just click on them. Just trust me when I say that, if you are any of the following, you will love this book:

(1) A lover of good storytelling that uses slow-tease. The reason why Isserly picks the beefy young men and what do "they" do with those men;

(2) Mystery/suspense/sci-fi/fantasy aficionados. The twists are just not easy to predict so I just lumped all those genres in there so as not to reveal too much. What I am trying to say is that if you love one of these genres, there is something in this book for you.

(3) A writer who is interested on how to play with POVs. The bulk of the book is told in Isserly's point of view but every time there is a hitchhiker who has just got in her car, the POV shifts to him and I just loved knowing what the young man thinks of Isserly. I did enjoy these parts.

(4) If you are a meat-loving person. I had the same feeling while reading Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Remember the talking giraffe?

I think I have to stop now. Otherwise, I will spoil your fun! One last note (so I can remember if someone asks): the title comes from Amlis saying "We're all the same under the skin" when Isserly says that she does not really doubt if there's much similarity between the way he and she (Isserly) live and breath. (p. 164).

This is a proof that not all 1001 books are serious or literary. This one is just different. The variety is one of the reasons why I am sticking to that list. It provides me with an unbelievable breath and width when it comes to reading experience. Just great! ...more

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Jun 01, 2014 Paquita Maria Sanchez added it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, black-mirror

Annnnnd now I can see the movie, whose trailer is the reason I read this book in the first place. The whole book-to-screen experience should have some degree of order to it, even if nothing else does in life. Especially if nothing else does in life. Book first 4 eva!

On the film's trailer/synopsis/general promotion, just a couple of things: 1) There's a spoiler innit concerning the who-what of the main character that the book opted to slow-reveal, which creates this weird situation where the tra Annnnnd now I can see the movie, whose trailer is the reason I read this book in the first place. The whole book-to-screen experience should have some degree of order to it, even if nothing else does in life. Especially if nothing else does in life. Book first 4 eva!

On the film's trailer/synopsis/general promotion, just a couple of things: 1) There's a spoiler innit concerning the who-what of the main character that the book opted to slow-reveal, which creates this weird situation where the trailer makes you want to see the movie which makes you want to read the book, while also ruining the book a little, a book which you (me) wouldn't even have known about had it not been for that book-spoilering trailer, so it's not that big of deal because it was kind of a necessary sacrifice in order to know about the trailer about the movie about the book, but still. Ya follow me? This is a wordy warning. 2) I guess you aren't playing when you say something is "loosely based on the novel." Vulgar, juvenile joke about how loose it is. That movie that I haven't even seen yet can't possibly be much like this book that I actually have read, just based on these imagery buzzwords: hotchick, cityscapes, sexyclothes, at-the-mall, out-in-public, seduction, lipstick, no-glasses, no-scars, normal-naked. <---Not featured in this book. Isserly, our main ladymam, does/is/experiences none of these things. On the contrary, her profound social awkwardness and startling appearance, her total dependence on her prosthetic tits and only her prosthetic tits to lure in her prey are major contributors to her inherent creepiness, and to what creates the feeling of panicked claustrophobia in all the "doomed hitch-hikers in her car" scenes in what is otherwise a sort of "Taxicab Confessions from Purgatory" tale. Oh yeah, I am so actually talking about the book all the sudden. Betcha didn't see that coming.

This novel moves along pretty swiftly for one so technically slow-paced. At times, the metaphors at play feel a little ham-fisted, or long-winded, or both. Slivers of clever here and there, a few really great, really disturbing scenes. The romantic sub-plot reads like sloppy afterthought. The ending feels like a cheat. The animal rights theme is as subtle as a 10 car pile-up.

*** I liked it. ...more

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Aug 15, 2018 Edward rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, 2018

I thought I knew what to expect, having seen (and enjoyed) the movie. But the book is entirely different, taking the story of this lone woman who picks up exclusively male hitchhikers in very creepy, bizarre and surprising directions. Faber does a good job at slowly lowering the curtain into Isserley’s life and motivations... but the less said about these, the better: so much of the fun is in the revelation. Under the Skin certainly has its weak points, but overall I found it so strange, unexpec ...more

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Jun 02, 2019 Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller

5.0 Stars
One of the weirdest stories I have read. Ever.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/Vu4nIERHIeI

From the synopsis, I went into this book with preconceived ideas that ended up being completely wrong. Initially, I expected a fun little thriller, but I quickly realized that this was something else. Thankfully, I loved that “something else”.

Blending together elements of horror, suspense and speculative fiction, this is the kind of book that blurs the lines between genres. First and foremost, this ...more

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Jul 05, 2016 Es Summer rated it liked it · review of another edition

“ISSERLEY ALWAYS DROVE straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her.”

*Minor spoilers*

Disturbing, strangely compelling and original: Under the Skin is unlike anything I have ever read before.
The story follows, Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers for secret purposes. She needs a certain type of guy: big muscled, tall and fit. What her reason is ...more

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Jul 29, 2014 Leonard Gaya rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I have been drawn to this book after watching the striking film, inspired by Faber’s novel and starring Scarlett Johansson. My account of the book is based on my reading half of it only. I have to admit that it just jumped out of my hands.

This book is a very unsettling, even sickening one. The story is rather casual at first, eventually horrifying: a young woman, who drives around in the Scottish Highlands, takes hunky hitch-hikers in her car and, after a short interview, decides whether to take I have been drawn to this book after watching the striking film, inspired by Faber’s novel and starring Scarlett Johansson. My account of the book is based on my reading half of it only. I have to admit that it just jumped out of my hands.

This book is a very unsettling, even sickening one. The story is rather casual at first, eventually horrifying: a young woman, who drives around in the Scottish Highlands, takes hunky hitch-hikers in her car and, after a short interview, decides whether to take them out or let them go. We later discover that she is of an alien race and that her victims are drugged and submitted to some sort of force-feeding in a remote farm. The result is described in a rather explicit way: “The thought of a shaved, castrated, fattened, intestinally modified, chemically purified vodsel turning up at a police station or a hospital was a nightmare made flesh.” This premise is atrocious enough not to delve further into it.

This literary nightmare made me think of some of Poe’s imaginations (the Antarctic race discovered by the sailors at the end of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym). It is an inversion of sorts of the classic fairy tale theme Girl-eaten-by-Wolf. It also carries some distant echo of the mythical Valkyries, who retrieved heroes from the battlefield.

Faber’s style is rousing in some strange way: the thoughts, the details of the girl's day-to-day life are described with an almost surgical fastidiousness. Each of the male characters she encounters has their distinct personality, accent, perception, inner monologue. The suspense is vivid, at least until it reaches the repulsive imagery of human livestock farming. Once the horror is revealed, the plot starts to go round and round in circles.

The element of sexual drive is not as pervasive as in Johansson’s movie. But somehow, and in a more abstract, less matter-of-fact fashion, the film conveys an even subtler and higher horror than the novel.

Edit: The influence of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine and the dynamic between the Eloi and the Morlocks is quite obvious as well in Faber’s novel. ...more

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Oct 06, 2017 Bill Khaemba rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This will haunt me for awhile, I need to go sit in a dark corner & contemplate 🙂

"Most distracting of all, though, was not the threat of danger but the allure of beauty"

In this speculative tale we follow Isserley, a woman who is obsessed with picking up well-muscled hitchhikers on the backdrop of a Scotland Highway. Why she's picking them up and asking them personal questions, is a mystery that will unfold as you flip the pages.

“The word troubled her, though. ‘In

This will haunt me for awhile, I need to go sit in a dark corner & contemplate 🙂

"Most distracting of all, though, was not the threat of danger but the allure of beauty"

“The word troubled her, though. ‘Indispensable.’ It was a word people tended to resort to when dispensability was in the air.

This was eerie, unsettling and downright fascinating, one of those haunting tales that creep up on you as you flip the pages. For such a slim book (280 pages) Faber crammed so much and managed to seamlessly weave into the plot. I will vaguely speak about the overall story because I believe this is a story that one dives in blindly and just gets f*cked up.

Image result for Under the Skin illustrations

The exploration of the main character's identity, her interactions with the male hitchhikers and her workmates opens up the discussion surrounding gender powerplay & objectivism. Showcasing how uncomfortable she feels with all the masculinity surrounding her and losing herself in the process as she rarely encounters a female character in her work or day to day life. It was a topic that captures the feeling of isolation and addresses certain stereotypes. (Side Note: Trigger Warning for violent abuse)

Also, an underlying topic on animal breeding was done well, it had a twist that made me question my eating habits. This one of those that I could spend hours thinking about and the whole idea of placing the reader with this woman on a lonely highway felt personal and fascinating especially when a hitchhiker comes along. Why it reminds me of the Handmaid's Tale was the story structure, the reader is slowly immersed into this disturbing world and the horrific scenes happening that shine the light on certain social issues.

Some of the small issues I had was the pacing, it felt a bit off towards the middle and at times I couldn't picture certain characters well but the overall experience was still worthwhile. ...more

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Jul 14, 2010 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This is one of the creepiest books I've read in years. It's also terrific - all kinds of props are due Michel Faber. He not only has the creative imagination to come up with such a bizarre, mesmerizing story; he also has the writing chops to execute it brilliantly. I can't think of any story I've read in the last several years that ratchets up the horror quotient so steadily, and so effectively. He's in total control throughout (hard to believe this was his first novel), writing in a style that' ...more

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Feb 11, 2014 Joe Valdez rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Hitchhikers, carnivores, lonely hearts

Shelves: sci-fi-general

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I came to Michel Faber's Under the Skin after I went to see the elliptical, provocative and unsettling film adaptation starring Scarlet Johansson. With context and character names completely stripped from the movie, I was curious what a literal version of this story would be like. I got a lot of answers and a few more questions.

Stop reading unless you want the surprises spoiled.

The novel introduces a woman named Isserley driving a battered red Toyota Camry up and down the A9 in the Highlands of I came to Michel Faber's Under the Skin after I went to see the elliptical, provocative and unsettling film adaptation starring Scarlet Johansson. With context and character names completely stripped from the movie, I was curious what a literal version of this story would be like. I got a lot of answers and a few more questions.

Stop reading unless you want the surprises spoiled.

The novel introduces a woman named Isserley driving a battered red Toyota Camry up and down the A9 in the Highlands of Scotland. She's on the prowl for male hitchhikers, brawny men only, and never women. Isserley engages the hitchers in conversation, assessing what types of employment they have, whether they live in the area and whether they have a wife or girlfriend.

Faber insinuates that Isserley might be cruising for sex, or possibly murder victims, until she sizes up a proper candidate and using a switch concealed in the Toyota's steering wheel, plunges two needles hidden in the passenger seat into the hitcher, drugging him. She returns to a farm compound where her co-workers await. They are not of this earth.

Isserley has been surgically altered to resemble a "vodsel", an alien term for the crude inhabitants of Earth whose flesh, in the world of the "human beings" where Isserley is from, is consumed as a delicacy. An employee of the Vess Corporation, Isserley is in constant pain from her operation (one of the hitchers asks if she's been in a car accident). She lives on the farm with a manager who has also been altered, while the laborers who toil underground processing the vodsels walk on all fours, are covered in a pelt, have long necks, six fingers and powerful tails.

Isserley keeps herself in a bitter mood, her only enjoyment coming from the trees, tides, snow or clouds of Earth, natural processes which have disappeared from her world. Her mood changes for the worse when farm receives a visit from Amlis Vess, the wayward son of the corporate honcho. Amlis believes eating flesh of an animal that breathes the same air they do is wrong and has a theory that vodsels possess a crude form of language. Isserley says nothing to confirm this. The longer she remains in her new body, the more she struggles with her own identity, unable to ever go home or make earth her new one.

Under the Skin draws uneasy parallels between livestock farming and environmental decay, skillfully suggesting it might not be possible to have one without the other. The treatment of the "cattle" certainly stretches the limits of humane. The paragraphs revealing how the vodsels have their tongues and testicles removed, are shaved, artificially fattened over a month in pens and finally slaughtered are nightmarish. These revelations are nicely drawn out by Faber, who gives the book space rather than dumping information on the reader.

I admired that Faber refused to force a Book of the Month plot onto the reader. No love interest for Isserley. No police detective on Isserley's trail. The lack of a plot does make the book feel like a novella padded out to novel length. I found myself skipping over paragraphs, wanting to get past the author's descriptions and fall into a story; that never really happens. I didn't find myself nearly as unsettled over Isserley's remorseless or the infinite unknown of her being as I did watching the movie. In many ways, she's not much different from a disgruntled mailman.

That said, the last paragraph has a haunting finality that will be with me for a while. With a great deal of composure, Faber was able to stretch my imagination and make me feel something. Three and a half stars rounded up to four stars. ...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Palmina Briggs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

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

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Dec 18, 2010 Shovelmonkey1 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: any sci fi fans and vegetarians

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list

Shelves: bookcrossing-books, read-in-2010, 1001-books

A lonely stretch of road. A ribbon of slick tarmac stretching into the distant Scottish Highlands. There are few people around and every hitch hiker has to take their chances. After all what could possibly be dangerous about the young woman with the large eyes?

Beware of dark roads. Beware of the kindness of strangers. Evocative and well written, this is a difficult book to review without spewing forth spoiler after spoiler in a big frothing pool of spoiler vomit. Therefore I will not write too ...more

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Mar 18, 2016 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: big-white-square

I've thought about being a vegetarian ... one of my arguments has been how shameful it'll be when aliens land and see what we've done. "Yeah, for several centuries we've been breeding and breeding this living thing and now it looks like this. We've kept this one in a cage for its entire life. Now we're going to kill it and eat it. Sausage roll?" Yuck. Can you imagine how embarrassing it's going to be?

Fabulously, however, "Under the Skin" has aliens doing to us what we do to animals.

And it's ab ...more

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About Michel Faber

Michel Faber

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Michel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch writer of English-language fiction.

Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University of Melbourne, studying Dutch, philosophy, rhetoric, English language (a course involving translation a ...more