Skin and Bone

Tooth and Claw #2

by Stephen Moore

The sequel to "Tooth and Claw". There is a vicious drought, and dogs and cats are united in their misery. As a brave band of dogs head off into the wasteland to look for food, back home an evil enemy is left to take control - Shrinkle the fox. The starving animals are easily deceived by her lies.

Genres: Dogs, Cats, Fantasy

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

I'm a British author who's written several successful fantasy novels for older children, young-adults and adult readers. The very first book I wrote, a fantasy adventure called SPILLING THE MAGIC, was published in 1996 by Hodder Children’s Books. Its sequel, FIDDLESTICKS AND FIRESTONES, quickly followed. My most notable success came in 1998 with the publication of the highly acclaimed TOOTH AND CLAW and its sequel SKIN AND BONE, both gritty, 'talking animal' fantasies. THE BRUGAN followed in 1999. DEAD EDWARD, a fantasy ghost story, in 2001, and FAY, an urban fairy tale, in 2006. Finally, 2015 saw the appearance of my first fantasy novel for adults when Harper Voyager published GRAYNELORE, my ‘grown-up fairy tale’. Along the way I’ve had books translated into Hebrew, Italian and Russian. I live in the North of England, a landscape which has been a strong influence on many of my fictional worlds. However, I have no plans to write more. That said, I'm definitely not dead; life's big adventure goes on…

Reviews

[Heather Cawte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, the sequel to "Tooth and Claw", is an altogether darker story than the first. The abandoned animals have been stricken by drought, and are in a very bad situation indeed. A few brave souls decide to follow the river upstream to find more water and food, but instead find more suffering and peril. Meanwhile, the animals back in the town have fallen for the devious wiles of Skrinkle and his clan. Skrinkle is a shape-shifting fox, who lures the animals in with supplies of food and water, only to turn on them and terrorise them in an even worse way than the bogeyman of the first novel. But a new character offers hope - can they really defeat Skrinkle if they do as he says?

Stephen Moore is particularly skilled at communicating the atmosphere of resignation and fear which pervades this book. He creates and deepens the characters very subtly, making them utterly believable. Although this is a YA novel, it would probably be better for the top end of the age group - Moore doesn't shy away from the suffering and death of some of his cast which, while upsetting for the reader, makes the entire story so much more plausible. The novel is not without hope, especially in the ending, and celebrates resourcefulness and friendship. Highly recommended.

I received a free ARC from the author, in return for an honest review.

[Thistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sequel to Tooth and Claw, it followed the same characters, dogs and cats who had been left behind in a town when the humans were forced to evacuate.

While the writing itself was worse than in the first book (more typos/grammar issues -- how does that happen?), I still enjoyed the story a lot. The animals were completely believable as animals; even though they could talk, they had no more knowledge than any dog or cat would.

Unfortunately, like the first book, this one had a supernatural element. I wish the author had chosen to have his world be as realistic as his animal characters were. But, even with that element, I was quite happy with the story.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.

Skin and Bone was a chilling read, and certainly not a book I would recommend for children.