#(s)kin

[tanyasreading]

(S)kin by Ibi Zoboi 2.5 Stars rounded to 3

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

[read-alert]

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

This is a YA contemporary fantasy following half sisters Marisol and Genevieve, both daughters of Lourdes, a soucouyant- a creature that sheds their skin every full moon to turn into a fiery witch that sips life force from others. Marisol grew up with Lourdes in Haiti, knowing what they were and learning how to change but dealing with the exploitation of tourism economies. Genevieve grew up with her white father and stepmother, never feeling connected to her culture and never knowing why her skin burns, but benefiting from the privilege of wealthy Americans. The girls come face to face when Genevieve's father gets Lourdes into the country so he can study soucouyant and her stepmother hires Lourdes as a nanny to her new children.

Mixed feelings on this one. It uses the girls' relationships with each other and with their skin to examine many different themes- racism and colorism, identity and assimilation, family and connection, racial fetishism, and more- and weaves them all together beautifully, creating a tapestry exploring the interconnected nature of these topics, as well as family trauma and the exploitative nature of the US's relationship to the Caribbean. Everything about the themes here is on point and working together fantastically. I do recommend the novel on that basis.

However, I don't care at all about the characters. I like Marisol more than Genevieve because she's less whiny and far more socially aware, but I still never cared about her. I also don't love how unresolved their relationships with Lourdes feel at the end. I will say though that I listened to the audiobook, and Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles did a fantastic job with the characters and illustrating how they become more and more enmeshed with one another as they yearn for what the other has. The mixing of the audio also did some really fun things with that- I'm very curious as to how it was represented in the physical and e editions, but it was phenomenal here.

The writing style and the message of the book are both really well executed and leave me glad that I read the book, even if I never really connected with it, and it makes fantastic use of its format. 4⭐️

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

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Voting ended onApr 16, 2025

[rosepetals1984]

Review: "(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

Initial reaction: I’ll have to get back to y’all on a rating for this book, but it was terrible. Ohhh, rant review incoming. The colorism, petty hate/motivations, haphazard representation of lore. Whew. Also think it being in verse didn’t help it. The cadence was uneven and didn’t help it for flow. If I had to give one from my gut: 1.5 stars. And mostly because of Jaden. But even how the author…

Review: "(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

[the-final-sentence]

Our skins are light and dark, sunrise and sunset, day and night—sisters under the same sun, moon, and stars.

Ibi Zoboi, from (S)Kin

[sembenjamin]

Today the final product of my project came in the mail. I am very happy with the results and thought I’d share some photos of the book itself. It was a lovely experience and I want to thank everyone for opening up their homes and thoughts. I hope you all like it! I will post some of the photos of the project the following days on here and I will post all photos of the book on my Facebook. So if you want to see them all just follow me on there xx - Pim Sem Benjamin Tumblr | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook