New Skin

by Miranda Nation

A powerful debut about first love and second chances from a stunning new voice in Australian fiction.

Alex and Leah meet at medical school and form an immediate and intense connection. Over the course of four years, they are caught in the push-pull of passion and betrayal, longing and reunion. Neither can quite give up the relationship, even as they question whether they are good for each other.

Years later, when Alex and Leah are drawn together once more, will they make the right choice?

New Skin evokes a coming of age in the 1990s and charts the course of first love and its power to shape who we become. Spare and compelling, this powerful debut introduces a dazzling new voice in Australian fiction.

'A testament to the transformative power of love, New Skin delivers a brutally passionate and profoundly heartfelt love story with characters that will stay with you long after the final pages.' – Amy Taylor, author of Search History and Ruins

'For anyone who has ever been young, this book is a time machine. If you have ever been complicatedly in love, it's a ballad. If you are like me and you were young and in love and at uni in Melbourne and it was the 1990s, it's a bloody documentary. Capturing each surge, halt, spin and derangement of youthful romance, Miranda Nation's beautifully attentive nouveau grunge novel offers us two people, their innocence and instinct, and all the ways they can pull each other apart—and together.' - Kate Holden, author of In My Skin

Genres: Drama

Paperback

Published June 3, 2025

Reviews

[Hannah Ware · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute rubbish, it seems like the author read ‘normal people’ and thought she would do her own Australian spin on it. The problem is her characters have absolutely no development, they begin as horrible people who constantly inflict pain and misery on each other and every time they get back together they just to the same thing. Every few chapters is the same cycle…get together…have lots of sex…say or do something horrible to each other…break up…meet up again and get together etc it got boring after the first four cycles
I also cannot stop rolling my eyes at the idea of someone having a narcotic overdose being capable of talking a person through the administration of Narcan. What an absolute joke.
Anyway this story was bleak and miserable and had absolutely no redeeming factors, the idea of calling it a love story is complete laughable. if you’re a masochist then go ahead and have a read and don’t say I didn’t warn you

[Elsie Drewett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read in ages. A love story of two people with their own issues/ trauma and how they weave in and out of each others lives over 20 years. I was intrigued til the end

[ABel Bainger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much sex and not enough hope. Wasn’t the book for me.

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this book very much. These two young people lead such bleak lives and I couldn’t understand the lasting attraction they had for each other. They dragged each other down rather than lifting each other up.

I didn’t read it as a story about lasting love, just codependency and I found it really depressing.

[Candra Maung · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book makes me feel like i just swallowed a pack of rusty nails

[el · Rating 1 out of 5]

“what are you thinking? leah says after a pause.
i’m going to kill you for making me love you, alex says.”

who needs romcoms anyway, this is the pinnacle of romance.

[Taryn Sheehy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t say I enjoyed this. It wasn’t what I was expecting and took a direction I couldn’t connect with, despite being a student and experiencing first love in the 90s myself. There is a lot of drug use, and the main character has complex mental health issues, bringing in heavy themes I wasn’t prepared for. The back cover doesn’t really present the story in that light.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like any of the characters, which made it hard to stay engaged. Having known and lived with medical students during the late 90s, it didn’t feel authentic that these characters were such heavy drug users. Art students, maybe, but medical students? That didn’t ring true for me.

In the end, this one wasn’t for me, and I gave up at page 183.

[Jordie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toxic relationship with alot of substance abuse, self harm and eating disorders habits but with no trigger warning? Similar to normal people but I was very disappointed, I wouldn’t say this is a love story at all

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like someone surgically removed the intellect and interiority from a Sally Rooney novel.

[Tania Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re a fan of compelling stories about addictive and turbulent love, you might want to check out ‘New Skin.’
In ‘New Skin’, Miranda Nation creates an incisive portrait of the complex relationship between two young people caught in an intense attraction to one another - while neither is yet fully able to love or be loved. Medical students Alex and Leah both have their own demons (an abusive family background and an eating disorder respectively) adding further obstacles to the potential happiness that we feel could be theirs - if only they could figure themselves and each other out and communicate on a deeper level.
The alternating viewpoint of the narrative reveals the stinging failures of their communications - the things wrongly assumed, misunderstood, and never said - as successive chances to get it right over the years slip through their fingers in the whirl of their evolving lives and careers. Yet there is always hope that the next time might be the right time...
Fast-paced and spare, the novel evokes a grungy 1990s world of such immediacy we feel we could walk into it – shabby university dorm rooms, inner city pubs and suburban streetscapes - familiar and in some ways nostalgic, but too painfully gritty and sharp-edged here to ever seem a rose-tinted view of the past.
One qualm I had was the lack of quotation marks - it does affect clarity in places. But this is perhaps a stylistic choice that others won't mind.
A moving and brave story confronting often difficult subject matter – including mental health challenges, suicide, drug abuse – it leaves us wondering about the choices not taken and the connections that endure despite life’s vicissitudes. It is ultimately though a story about resilience. Leah and Alex’s evolving story makes us consider the chances we have to start again, to grow, to reinvent and develop ourselves and our relationships through all of these adversities: finding the new skin under the scabs formed by our old wounds.

[Kristyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

**3.5 rounded up

[Yasmin Amin · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW what a rollercoaster
besides this being a complete rip off of normal people, i loved it
it was sooooo depressing and hard to read at times, watching two people waste their lives over one relationship like ugh
but i liked the way they had their own journeys and struggles seperate to each other
another melbourne novel which i loved
also so sexy hehe i love toxic smut

[Yaani · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like an Australian version of Sally Rooney's Normal People set in the 90s. The relationship between the two leads is messy, raw, and easy to get swept up in the back and forth and it had me hooked for a while. The premise had real promise, but for me it leaned too heavily on sex scenes. Every few pages was another one and instead of adding depth, it started to feel repetitive and unnecessary. I pushed through because I wanted to see where it landed, but the ending let me down. High potential, but ultimately fell short. 2/5 stars.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars!! Normal people vibes but in Aus in the 90s. A gut wrenching invisible string story that comes full circle. Has some raw themes exploring the complexity of these characters. Definitely only read if you’re in the right headspace

[Samantha (thebobtailbookclub) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So. I read this book in two days. It was addictive and raw and brutally dark.
Alex and Leah are two med students who are drawn to each other over and over despite the complexities of their lives.
I found this story gripping and the writing format was interesting. And how their lives unfolded over time was intriguing. The realness of the codependency and how messed up real life can be is one of the reasons I kept reading - real life isn’t perfect and not everyone has happily ever afters.

This story is full of some very real and dark themes, so I recommend checking the trigger warnings before reading.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing is the best word to describe this book. Leah and Alex have an intriguing relationship over a number of years. The book goes through their relationship and the way they continue to search for each other in a sense over the years. Whilst the storyline was very detailed at times I put the book down due to how the characters became as it got very deep and intense during parts of the book.

[Kaitlynne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly shocked someone would write a book about such horrible things and call it a love story.
Self harm, suicide, drug addiction, rape, sexual abuse, miscarriage. This is what the book is about, I can't actually say there was any joy in it and shocked I read the whole thing.
Binned my copy so no one else reads it.

[Jess Brooker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really disliked this book until about half way through, and then it turned around. I didn’t really feel the love / connection between the characters, rather than a love story they were just weirdly obsessed with each other, despite having not a lot of chemistry.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got about halfway through. I was finding Alex's work life the most interesting part of this novel. Didn't strike me as a romance or erotic story at all, just a depressive story about drugs and an underlying eating disorder.

[Rosie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly triggering - such a long situationship should be criminalised.

[ladri ౨ৎ]

soo triggering

[Mell Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Allen & Unwin for my copy in exchange for my honest review!

New Skin is addictive, raw, and brutally dark. It dives headfirst into heavy themes like trauma, addiction, and the tangled mess of codependent love. If you’re thinking of picking it up, definitely check the trigger warnings first as this book covers a lot.

What kept me reading was how real it all felt. The portrayal of emotional chaos, self-sabotage, and the complexity of human relationships was confronting but authentic. I also really appreciated the long timeline, watching Alex and Leah’s story unfold over several years. There’s something powerful about seeing how people grow and change, even when the outcomes aren’t neat or happy.

That said, I think I would have connected more if the characters were a little more likable. They’re complex and deeply flawed, but it made it harder to root for them. The ending felt realistic rather than satisfying. I found myself hoping for a glimmer of hope or happiness, but that just isn’t the kind of story this is.

The writing itself is sharp and emotionally charged. My only gripe was the lack of quotation marks, which is a personal pet peeve that made the dialogue harder to follow at times. Still, by the end, I could see the bigger picture and appreciate what Miranda Nation was trying to say.

Definitely one to read when you’re in the right headspace. If you’re in the mood for something emotionally layered, uncomfortable, and deeply human, New Skin might just be what you’re looking for.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn’t go where I expected at all, but I was completely hooked from the first page. I tore through it in two days — it absolutely consumed me - although at the end I felt a bit wasted by it.

My initial thoughts were positive, although with reflection I feel a bit differently.

I’m always drawn to relationship dramas that span decades, and this one felt especially unique. It was gritty, often dark, and deeply uncomfortable at times — definitely one for a long trigger warning list. There were very few moments of light - and it felt like it was teetering on depressing the reader into thinking it had significance.

Alex and Leah really took the miscommunication trope to another level. Normally that would frustrate me, but their personalities were so well-drawn that it actually made sense — I genuinely believed these two could spend 20 years failing to communicate properly.

I kept tapping at my eReader hoping for more pages. I would’ve loved just a few more, but I have to admit — the ending was the only one that made sense.

As a Victorian, I especially appreciated all the local references. It’s rare to read something that feels so grounded in familiar places — it made the whole experience hit even closer to home.

Mixed feelings about this one and can't say I'm confident I would recommend it.

[Ginger Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book resparked my love of reading. I have not read in many years and picked up this book from readings Carlton and finished it in 2 days.

It is all enrapturing romance that shows the true desires of love and how we cannot control who we love and whether we were even meant to be with them long term.

As a student at unimelb myself I love the references and accuracy of the book I feel like I am living inside the novel.

The other reviews don't do it justice yes it is back and fourth and you may question why they keep going back to each other but isn't that what love is when you can't get someone out of your head?

[Farah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex and Leah meet at med school and this story follows them as they weave in and out of each other's lives over twenty more years. If the characters were more likable I think I would have enjoyed this book more. Each time the two met, they would fall into their old ways and it would be back to them getting together, regardless of whether they had partners of their own. The storyline was a bit too repetitive and the ending abrupt. It was an easy read though and as the author shows promise, I will read what she writes next.

[Caroline O'Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have seen this book doing the rounds and was very excited to finally pick it up.

Sadly, this book was more of a miss for me than a hit, I just couldn’t connect to the characters and found them kind of dull.

We first met the two main characters at Leah’s 19th birthday party at her family home. I thought a uni party would have went off, however the party didn’t seem fun at all and sadly I felt that set the tone for the whole book.

The storyline consisted of them breaking up and getting back together, a complete will they, won’t they saga of two people falling back into a doomed relationship that they know won’t work out. Lots of sex, lots of drugs and lots of the same.

I do enjoy a storyline where we watch the characters over a long period of years so that was a good aspect and I found it to be a very quick read.

Not for me sadly.

[Mary Mckennalong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dialogue in this book was so well written. Not surprised it was written by a screenwriter. Really liked this book. Gritty and believable Aussie fiction. Poignant, dysfunctional love between students that never goes away into adulthood The story of their student days was so real. Messy, illogical times. The book just went on a bit and there were some gaps where it jumped around without an adequate link, again, a screenwriter might be guilty of that. 3.5 stars.

[Harriet Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally could not put this down - read it in 2 days which must be the fastest this year. I have to say I found it hard to buy into the 'romance' in the beginning, because the characters were always at arm's length, but by the middle I was completely hooked. This book is everything I need in my novels (except a happy ending eeep) and is going to have me in a chokehold for the next fifteen business days.

[Happy Snapper · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book in a raffle, I was given a proof copy. Read it all hoping it would get better, it didn't. Just repetitive sex scenes and drug use by the characters, no real point. Don't even want to donate to Salvos and can't rip up to use for art journal projects as the language is too inappropriate on nearly every page.

[Courtney Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book but it’s not a light one at all!! It’s much darker than I anticipated but the AU version of normal people line is probably quite accurate, with some more intense subject matter and themes. Covers drug use and disordered eating throughout. I can see why the reviews are quite opposite but I personally loved this book and would recommend it.