Sky Tongues

by Gina Ranalli

The True Hollywood Story of mue celebrity Sky Tongues, the biracial hermaphrodite with tongues for fingers. Most people know Sky Tongues as the wise-cracking, gum-chewing angel from the smash-hit dramatic series featuring an all-mue cast, Exquisite Afterlife, but Sky has had a turbulent rise to stardom that has been kept secret from the public ...until now. In this tell-all autobiography, you will learn more about the abusive childhood at the hands of a racist shark-skinned father, the early acting gigs, the illegal birth with love interest Rabia (a mue with transparent skin), the kidnapping, the murder, and the fight against mue-oppression. Plus a behind the scenes look into the relationships between the actors on the set of Exquisite Afterlife. The life of Sky Tongues is a rags-to-riches success story that will give you a deeper understanding of this controversial super star.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy

136 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2009

About the author

Gina Ranalli is the author of several novels, including Mothman Emerged, Rumors of My Death, Praise the Dead, House of Fallen Trees, Suicide Girls in the Afterlife, Chemical Gardens, Wall of Kiss, and Mother Puncher. Her collection, 13 Thorns (with Gus Fink) won the Wonderland Book Award for Best Story Collection of 2007. Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications including Bits of the Dead, The Beast Within, Horror Library Volume 3, and Dead Science, among others.

Gina lives in Washington state where she is working on her next novel. You can communicate with her online at www.ginaranalli.com and on twitter at http://twitter.com/GinaRanalli

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was not the planned book for today, but here we are. And it was such a quirky, strange story. We have a world with all these deformed, unique, and strangely beautiful humanoids living together in a society somehow similar to what we have in our current world. And Sky, our lead, goes through terrible abuse during her upbringing, having to face difficulties during her unexpected acting career, etc. I thought the writing was on point, the premise was unique, but the creative decisions were quite off. With such a bizarre set of characters and such, I thought the world it all took place in was insanely underwhelming and downright terrestrial. And the story did a rather hard pivot after the halfway point, making it into a hard family drama with all these sudden, odd occurrences popping up out of nowhere that amounted to nothing. And the fact that our main character had tongues for fingers suddenly became a side point by then. Much like the world here, the great set up for these mutants never fully took off, which was a huge missed opportunity. The story just felt choppy and like there were so many missed opportunities, with some great plot points glazed over, while others were overly focused on. I understand why so many readers didn’t fully embrace this book, and while I didn’t totally dislike it, there was just a ton that could’ve been improved upon.

[Danger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent bizarro world building and a sympathetic main character make the pseudo-autobiography of Sky (the famous actress born with tongues for fingers) a pleasant and engaging read. And as the novel unfolded itself episodically (as any biography might) we follow Sky from her traumatic beginnings to her heights of fame and back to where it all began, giving us readers a character arc as simple and enjoyable as they come. I had a lot of fun reading this.

[David Barbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gina Ranalli’s brand of bizarro is refreshing. With all the poorly-executed genre fiction out there, it’s good to see a story that’s not only wickedly weird, but unflinchingly human. Some scenes are very touching and heartfelt, and some are vulgar and brutal. That’s because Gina Ranalli knows that even in a bizarro world of genetic freaks, the worst atrocities are the things that really happen in our everyday world.

The world of “Sky Tongues” is one of Mues, who are genetically different from humans due to the world’s pollution. Some have weird skin or parts of themselves that are inside-out. Our lead character, Sky, has tongues instead of fingers. The story itself is written like an autobiography, where Sky relates her life to us from her perspective. We see her childhood with an abusive family structure, her time as a teenage runaway, her personal quest to be an actor, and the creation of her own family.

It’s an interesting approach, and it never felt to me like a “True Hollywood Story”. It was just an account of a person’s life, a person who just so happened to be an actor. It’s a story about family, and it feels a bit more like a Lifetime movie (ironic, since Sky performs on a TV show that seems like a weird version of “Touched by an Angel”) than a scandalous tell-all. But there’s just the right balance of drama and weirdness, and it’s always brutally honest. Despite a few typos here and there, “Sky Tongues” has something frank and rebellious and downright passionate going for it, so do yourself a favor and check it out.

[Brennon Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rags to riches story of a girl who just happens to have tongues for fingers, experiencing a Bizarro surreal Hollywood of the future.
This story is great and proves that the Hollywood dream is there for anyone. Even if you do happen to be the unwanted mutant offspring of abusive parents.
Sky's story is painful, sweet and charming. The reader can't help but love her, rooting for her every step of the way. And the colorful characters she meets along the way add to the tapestry of this vivid world.

I liked this world that author Gina Ranalli has crafted here and I would love to visit it again.

[Christy Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A celebrity tell-all autobiography about a TV/film/stage star who happens to be a hermaphrodite and have tongues for fingers and toes. Based in a world where there is social unrest between those "normal" humans, ones who have mutations (and between those distinctive types of mutants), and ones that are synthetic.

Great book; personable and socially relevant enough to appeal to those who might shy from Bizarro and still weird enough to set the book and author apart at the top of the genre itself.

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the writing was good. It just felt like I was reading a biography disguised as a bizarro read with characters that had see-through skin and tongues for fingers. Sky was never a normal child and was abused. It became worse after her parents had a second child. Eventually she was kicked out of the home and had to fend for herself. First in a carnival and then acting. She didn't hear from her family until she made it big. They felt that she owed them. A rather unsurprising ending. Just an alright read.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun book to read - very touching, funny and inventive. Child abuse and child adoration, love and loss, hardships and happiness, funk and fame. It's all here. All glued together with wacky body parts in a society that reflects the same resentment and intolerance that abounds today. Great book and a stunning cover.

[Stefanie Von Guest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book on my TBR list for awhile now and finally got it on KU. I've been a fan of bizarro for quite awhile now and this one is now definitely up there with my favourites, it had substance, interesting characters and was very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed following the story of Sky and in some cases I empathised with her.

I wouldn't say this one is "out there" like some bizarro can be but that certainly doesn't make it any less enjoyable and for being only a short read it certainly felt in depth and packed a lot of emotion from the characters.

5 stars!

[Valezka Nashira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Esto fue lo más raro que e leído en corta vida 🧍🏻‍♀️

[Juan Vizcarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting cover for a book filled with heart (and skin).

We follow the story of Sky, a very peculiar girl who has tongues for fingers in a world where that condition doesn't make her the strangest woman on earth.

Mues might be a paralell to opressed groups such as LGBTQ+ community or minories or all of them at once. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, however it hits hard.
Also a good portion of behind the scenes hollywood drama and a revenge story are a nice addition too.
Everything in a surreal bizarre alternate reality filled with mutants with strange Cronenberg-ish conditions? Yes please.

[caracal-eyes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll give this one 2 stars, plus an invisible .5 stars. The 2 stars are for the fact that, while it was short and managed not to piss me off in any major way, this story did not live up to my expectations re the premise. The extra .5 stars are for the premise itself--I mean, we have here as protagonist a tongue-fingered hermaphrodite (unusual even among Mues) who becomes a famous actor. But the rest failed to impress. First off, there's the disappointment when a story isn't quite as awesome as I expected it to be. Though the genetic mutations and pollution-poisoned world made the story superficially interesting, they only thinly disguised the well-know, even cliched plot of 'protagonist overcomes shitty childhood, follows dreams and works hard, gets fame and fortune.' Which could be intentional on the author's part, playing with those familiar tropes; but even so I didn't find it very enjoyable. The writing was okay, but simple prose works best when the plot and characterization are in themselves compelling--but the plot was, as I've noted, nothing ground-breaking, and the characters lacked development/depth.
In short: 2.5 stars--not a must-read; but not a mustn't-read, either.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bizarre and unique story that wraps issues that happen in every day life in a futuristic time where mutants and humans try to co-exist Sky is a Mue(a mutant) with tongues for fingers. Beaten and rejected by her own family Sky set off to achieve her dream of being an actress. Basically this is an autobiography of Sky in which Gina Ranalli nailed perfectly.

Being my first book in the Bizzarro genre, at first I was taken back and slightly confused. Sticking with it though I was rewarded with a story filled with love,hate,sex,abuse,and some adult themes. I'll be checking out more of Ranalli's works after reading "Sky Tongues"

[Erica Lindquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. Short and sweet and very unique. My only complaint is very minor: Sky's assessments of everyone is always spot on, so the characters never really surprise. They always do pretty much what Sky thought they would. But the story is excellent and the characters good.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember vividly reading Chuck Palahniuk's TELL-ALL over a decade ago. I had flashbacks to it as I read SKYTONGUES, in a good way. This one has a lot of heart and a great voice. Cannot recommend it enough to people ready for a sick romp with generally messed-up characters.

[Rose O'Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a hell of a lot of fun to read. My favorite part is the character who has see through skin and becomes pregnant so you can see the baby growing inside her.

[Trisha Arrowsmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow...talk about weird and this is supposed to be a teenage book? Not in my house...

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant way of exploring racism and prejudices. Gina Ranalli certainly has a knack of making her characters real and believable.

[Shh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast, light read. I liked it enough to read others from this author, but it was in no way sock knocking or anything. I liked it, that's all.

[Dan'Yelle Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When do i get to read this book