Under the Skin

Both the book and its film adaptation get the same rating from me. A female serial killer who sends the men she targets to a dreadful fate is a terrific inversion of the bog-standard female-as-victim trope that I am mortally sick of. It's telling that the only way this is allowed to happen is if the female in question is an alien. A human female serial killer? Unthinkable!

My eyes finally rolling back to the position where I can see to type, I'll say this for Faber's now -23-year-old novel and its ten-year-old film adaptation: the thoughts each provokes are deep and discomfiting ones about the nature of our unquestioned place as the apex of all things, as males and as humans.

'Under The Skin' is a bleak, unremittingly grim book that's as hard to look away from as a car crash in progress. The writing grabbed hold of me and never let go. Geri Halligan's narration perfectly captured the mood of the piece and the pace of the plot. It was a memorable and disturbing read that I still find myself thinking about weeks later.

I'm not going to reveal the plot because I think that part of the power of the book comes from trying to work out who Isserley is and why she spends most of her time driving on the A9 in Scotland searching for well-built male hitchers to pick up.

'Under The Skin' has a lot of the attributes of Speculative Fiction Thriller. It's clear from the beginning that this is not a tale of everyday folk show more who cruise Scottish roads looking for men. There is something off about Isserley and that sense of not-what-she-seems-to-be grows as the reader spends more time with her. She is on some kind of mysterious covert mission that seems likely to involve violence and yet is something that Isserley regards as routine.

Yet, for me, 'Under The Skin' is not a genre read. It doesn't share the intent of a thriller to produce tension for tension's sake or of speculative fiction to present a What If? thought experiment. It sets out to do something darker, more serious and more disturbing. The genre trappings are there to disrupt the readers' everyday expectations and make them look at things with fresh eyes.

A lot of the book is about Isserley's rage. She has been betrayed, abused and forced into hard choices that have fundamentally and irrevocably changed her into someone she barely recognises. Isserley's rage isn't on the surface. She tries to suppress it, to make the most of her situation, to convince herself that she has found the best form of freedom available to her and to lose herself in small moments of peace. None of this abates her rage, and the stress on her increases when the routine that she uses to numb herself is disrupted by the arrival of a member of the elite who Isserley had once thought herself protected by. Isserley's pain, physical and emotional soak the pages of this book and stay in the reader's nostrils long after the last page.

What makes this darker is that Isserley is a predator as well as a victim. Being a predator is part of what lets her sleep at night. It's not that she takes pleasure in it but rather that it gives her a purpose and a sense of being in control. That Isserley's experiences of abuse and pain do not translate into any form of empathy for the people she preys on felt plausible to me. Isserley and those around her are able to do what they do because they compartmentalise their thinking. They make no links between their own experiences and needs and those of the people that the prey on. This felt very real to me.

With one exception, the story is told from Isserley's point of view using the close third-person. This was a very effective way of giving the reader intimate access to Isserley's thoughts and emotions while still keeping her at arm's length, inviting the reader to analyse and judge rather than immerse and empathise 

The exception to the close third-person applies to the hitchers that Isserley picks up. The reader gets an unfiltered interior monologue from each hitcher as they assess Isserley once they get in the car. I thought these monologues were wonderful. Apart from being large, fit and male, the hitchers had very little in common. Hearing their thoughts, each with its distinctive idiolect, made them real to me in a very short time. It created more intimacy with them, whether they were likeable or not, than I was given with Isserley and helped me to see how little Isserley understood about the men she picked up.

Meat is central to this story. I've been a vegetrarian for three decades now but if I had been a carnivore thee are scenes in this book that would have made me reconsider my food choices.

The book took me to places and thoughts that I hadn't expected. The ending was a surprise but a satisfying that did nothing to relieve the oppressive bleakness of the story.

If you're in the mood for something dark and different that does more than entertain, then I recommend this book to you. show less

Possibly one of the better satirical science fiction novels that I've read. It reminds me a great deal of Philip K. Dick's Three Stigmata of Palmer K. Eldritch and George Orwell's Animal Farm in varying degrees, yet at the same time it is unique and different from anything I've read before.

The story is told in a third person close point of view, we are in Issery, the protagonist's point of view throughout the majority of the novel. The only times we veer out of her point of view is when she picks up hitchers. And only when the hitchers are sitting beside her, and only to the degree that they are thinking about Issery.

Issery drives the lonely highways of Northern Scotland picking up muscle bound male hitch-hikers, only the best show more specimens will do. She calls them vodsels, animals, not human. Issery herself is described as tiny, so tiny that her chin is barely above the steering wheel. She has massive breasts, a child's cherubic face, and huge glasses that magnify her pupils. Her hands, neck, arms, and face are deeply scarred as if she has been in an accident.

Various clues are provided throughout the first 100 or so pages of the novel indicating who and what Issery is and what she is doing with the various male hitchers she picks up and deposits at Ablache Farms. The plot centers on the mysterious arrival of Amilis Vess, the son of the owner of Vess Enterprises which in turn owns Ablache Farms.

In Under the Skin, Faber much like Philip K. Dick before him discusses the contemporary world gone insane. Where corporations and bottom line take precedence. And the myriad of justifications we make each day to either survive in this world or to obtain pleasure.

Towards the end of Under the Skin, a hitcher asks Issery what she believes in. And she retorts, where she came from religion is dead. Humans in Issery's world believe only in themselves. They are the Gods of their universe. Yet instead of acting like caretakers, they are more akin to locusts...destroying everything they touch, including themselves, for the pleasures of the rich and the elite - a dark dystopian ride a la Adolus Huxeley's Brave New World.

Faber's writing is top-notch. One of the few writers who can tackle dialect and made up words without losing meaning. His use of dialect pulls the reader deeper inside Issery's point of view and inside her head. And it remains consistent without.

But this is not a tale for everyone. It is gross in places and creepily erotic in others. A disturbing book in much the same vein as Philip K Dick, Jonathan Swift, Sherri Templer, and George Orwell.

The ending however was surprisingly hopeful. show less

I had never heard of this book, but caught the author talking about it on Radio 4. Although he managed to avoid giving away any spoilers, there was enough said to give me the idea that it might be delicious. And so it was. If you like a bit of sick horror with a really clever story running through it, then this is the book for you.

An odd looking woman drives a red Toyota around the Highlands picking up hitchhikers. Always men. Always strapping fellows. And they are never seen again… Peculiar, weird, compelling and highly enjoyable. Full of themes that really make you think, but without moralising or detracting from a really good yarn.

Under the Skin by Michael Faber is a strange story that grows progressively weirder as it develops. Set in the Scottish Highlands the story slowly reveals that the main character, Isserley, spends her time driving around the roads of Northern Scotland and picks up hitchhikers. She doesn’t pickup women, and only stops for well developed, muscular men. After getting them into her car she guides the conversation to have her passenger reveal what ties they have and who would miss them if they don’t show up at their destination.

As the story moves along, the reader eventually discovers the purpose behind Isserley’s quest. The story grows ever darker and more terrifying. As more of Isserley’s character is revealed, the harder it is not show more to feel some empathy for her, although she certainly shows none for her victims. In truth, Isserley is an extraterrestrial who has been surgically altered to roughly take the human form. Her victims are drugged, mutilated, fattened and then shipped to her home planet for food.

With Under the Skin the author has delivered a beautifully written horror story with touches of macabre humor and, like many classic science fiction novels, this is a satirical novel with themes that revolve around the exploration of issues of humanity and other social concerns. I was totally spellbound by this brilliant, surreal exploration of morality but would caution that this story can be brutally graphic at times. This book deserves it's place on the 1,001 Books List and was a five star read for me. show less

"Shared suffering, she found, was no guarantee of intimacy."

Isserley tours the A9 road in the Scottish Highlands looking for muscular male hitchhikers to pick up. Isserley wears a revealing top leading the reader to initially think that she is looking for sex, but as she sedates them with icpathua through needles built into the passenger seat it soon becomes clear something more sinister is happening.

As the story progresses Faber reveals that Isserley is a dog-like alien who has been surgically re-sculptured to resemble a 'vodsel' (human). Her job is to pick up healthy Earthlings to be fatted up and shipped back to her home planet as food. This then is a modern take on the Hansel and Gretel fairy-tale in which Isserley is the witch who show more lures her victims with the promise of sex rather than 'sugar and spice and all things nice.'

Faber obviously wants the reader to consider whether not it's right for humans to rear and slaughter thousands of animals every day for food but there are also parallels with the modern ‘empowered’ woman debate. Isserley undergoes painful surgery to avoid a life of drudgery on her home planet only to have to use what 'vodsel' men desire to succeed in their world. There is also the slow realisation that there were rooms full of females back home willing and ready to take her place.

You might imagine Isserley to gradually have some compassion for her victims but you would be mistaken. It was only the planet that she loved. She loves to breathe in the Earth’s smells, talks to sheep, and marvels at snow so it's somewhat ironic that she is finally stopped not by a hitchhiker or the police but a patch of ice.

This novel doesn't really seem to fit in either the sci-fi or the horror genres. I had no real idea quite where the story was going but couldn't resist turning over the next page to find out. Unfortunately the ending seemed to suggest that the author had no idea how to finish it either. I found this an odd but strangely compelling read. show less

Oh my god, this is so much better than the movie!!

In defense of the movie, it inspired me to read the book. They are so loosely related as to be almost NOT.

This is dark. And creepy. And I flipped back and forth between who I wanted to survive so many times I started to get a little motions sick.

It doesn't have a happy ending, but it probably has the best ending, all things considered.

Yes, I will read it again.