Skin Folk

I almost missed out on this extremely interesting and imaginative book because I didn't like the first few stories. "Snake," in particular, seemed surfacey and uninteresting. But then I hit the high spot in the middle, with "Under Glass," "The Glass Bottle Trick," and "Fisherman" - all absolutely incredible.

"Under Glass" and "The Glass Bottle Trick" are adaptations of fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson and Charles Perrault. Like Angela Carter (but, I would venture, even better), Hopkinson shapes the raw material into something utterly new and wildly imaginative. "The Glass Bottle Trick" turns into a story about internalized racism (to painfully oversimplify) and "Under Glass" is about how pain can make love turn cold.

"Fisherman" is show more really good erotica about someone who has been hiding who they are. I was genuinely touched by it. show less

Hopkinson's eerie and haunting collection of short stories influenced by her life and roots, both her Caribbean cultural heritage and her experiences living in Canada. With powerful, vivid prose, Hopkinson unveils strange, unsettling worlds in which an ordinary eggs give birth to strange, deformed monsters, glass storms cut up everything in their path, and trees take flight. Many of these stories explore darkness. "Snake" is an absolutely terrifying tale from the point of view of a child molester and killer, "Tan Tan and Dry Bone" tells the story of a girl weighed down and burdened by not only her own guilt, but by a horrible creature bent on sucking out the last of her happiness, while my favorite, "The Glass Bottle Trick" is a show more Caribbean spin on the bloody Bluebeard folktale. But no matter how unsettling or terrifying, the stories are bolstered by beautiful imagery and prose that slips between the surreal and the realistic. A fabulous collection. show less

Hopkinson's writing goes down like unsweetened cocoa, made with solid cream. Too rich to take in fast, but ultimately satisfying.
These short stories would probably get called "magical realism" in a lit class. If like me you're wary of that title, be assured there's no coyness or pointless rambling here. There is a chilling revisit of the Bluebeard myth, a strange sort of cockatrice, and some genuinely erotic fiction.

4.5 really. Clear and compelling and so much that I've never really seen before (in large part due to the limitations of my previous reading--I have read very few books by Afro-Caribbean authors in general). A really fun mixture of folk and fairy tale retellings/reimaginings, tinged with horror and a queer sexual sensibility.

These short stories are marvelous, sexy, scary, speculative. Ms. Hopkinson explores what it means to be human and what it means to be a woman using folklore, science fiction, and her experiences as an immigrant to Canada from the Caribbean. This woman can write!

Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson is a collection of short stories focused around the theme of bodies. All of the stories are rooted in the afrocarribean and/or immigrant perspective, but the reader does not have to be of the same ethnic background to find meaning in her stories.

The stories are unrelated, but I recommend reading them in order as they build on each other exploring different aspects of the overarching theme. I enjoyed how different each story was stylistically with different settings and types of characters.

Hopkinson is often labeled as a fantasy writer, but these stories also fit the genres of Afrocarribean folklore, lgbt+, literary fantasy, afrofuturism and body horror. Recommended Age 18+

Nalo Hopkinson never fails to capture me with her writing. The stories and characters in Skin Folk are fully fleshed out (I couldn't help the pun).

Although I came to this book after reading her novels, this would be an excellent introduction to the flavor and texture of her work. I highly recommend it.