La muta

by Aliya Whiteley, Olimpia Ellero (Translator)

Immaginate un mondo in cui si cambia pelle ogni sette anni, e con la pelle vengono via i ricordi, le sensazioni, gli amori. Se c'è chi brama il cambiamento, c'è chi invece vuole tenersi stretto il passato e l'identità che gli appartiene. Ora questo è possibile con un nuovo farmaco, il Suscutin, che previene la muta e permette di mantenere la propria pelle. Rose Allington, di professione guardia del corpo, soffre di una malattia rara. Le mute per lei arrivano improvvise, stravolgendo completamente la sua vita, eppure ha dovuto farci l'abitudine. Invece il suo ex amante e datore di lavoro, il celebre attore Max Black, ha una dipendenza dal Suscutin: sa che la muta potrebbe fargli perdere tutto. E quando una delle sue pelli viene rubata dalla preziosa collezione che custodisce gelosamente, per risolvere il caso ingaggia la migliore, Rose, anche se ormai non è più la stessa donna. Tra salti temporali, visioni ardite, colpi di scena, un thriller coinvolgente che è anche una riflessione sull'amore: quanto si insinua dentro di noi, quanto è parte integrante della nostra vita? E una volta perso, si può riaverlo indietro? Un romanzo spiazzante, visionario, che ridefinisce il concetto di fantascienza e si fa specchio di una nuova generazione.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Speculative Fiction

217 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2018

Reviews

[Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea what to say about this yet, except that I thought it was very good. It’s fragmented, or at least oddly shaped, like a novella that grew an extra limb or two (which, given the acknowledgements, sounds like exactly what happened). This makes it hard to get a handle on: it makes structural and thematic use of its lack of cohesion, its lack of synthesis. I read it avidly though, because it has an ease of movement that I remember from The Arrival of Missives. It isn’t as good as that in my view but it’s provocative in all the right ways.

[Lulu [at] Reckless Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I just start by saying, if you haven’t read anything by Aliya Whiteley before, do it now. The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley is such a hard hitting novel that reaches you on so many levels. You read the synopsis and think, boy, this is weird, but honestly, it makes the most sense. It feels like what The Time Traveler’s Wife should have been — a more realistic version with much better writing.

In this new dystopian world Whiteley builds, humans shed their skin regularly. When they do, all of their emotions go with it. You literally start a new. A physical manifestation of changes that normally happen to us on a microscopic level. People grow and change and grow apart. Yet here, everyone is on a ticking clock. Seven years, you know a relationship can last seven years. You have seven years maximum to love as hard as you can, create as many memories as you can before every piece of affection you held is torn from you and the person you’ve created a life with is nothing but a stranger you’ve a memory of. Sometimes, memory alone is enough to keep the relationship going.

Yet, it isn’t the case for Rose who suffers from a disorder that causes her not only to shed her skin sporadically, but also produces intense disgust and revulsion. She can’t bare to have any reminders of her past life. So what happens? What happens when you love and love and love and it’s suddenly gone? And the person you loved can’t stand to be near you and you can’t stand to move on? It’s just so incredibly heart-wrenching and before I could even realize what Whiteley had done, I was in tears with that feeling and knowledge that had caught me unawares.

What Whiteley does so amazingly well is not only to create a love story with sadness, in fact there are multiple love stories and one is not so sad! What she excels at is creating relationships that are complex and real. Relationships that can endure a change and relationships that cannot. She creates characters that you love and feel so heartbroken for but also despise and recognize they would be a creep in real life. This book, though it doesn’t read like it and doesn’t sound like, it truly an amazing commentary on relationships and what it takes to be sustainable through the different facets every person goes through.

I wholeheartedly encourage every reader to pick up The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley. It’s the perfect introduction to an amazing author whom I’m frankly quite upset is still indie and not adored by legions of readers.

// I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this title. //

[Lukasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

A brilliant but challenging read. In Whitey's world people shed their skins every seven years losing their feelings and emotions in the process. A new skin equals a new life - the old one simply ends. And with it all relationships and love. The story's protagonist suffers from a rare condition that makes her moult more often than average. She has lots of experience in turning into someone else. She loves no one, but things get complicated when her ex-lover, Max, employs her to track down an old skin that has been stolen. An interesting discovery leads to a surprising twist and drama.

I don't know how to describe it - a weird thriller? Maybe. The thing is Aliya's book is less about the plot than about the examination of love, attachment, and self-discovery.

[Carl Bluesy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a beautiful written book, but unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get into this one. I think it may be because I was suspecting different. To me this would fit better in the thriller category than in the horror. The way the story jumped around timelines made it a bit confusing to follow at times, which may also have affected my enjoyment of this book.

I’m glad I own a paperback at this one because I will definitely be rereading this one in the future. I think going in with the proper access as what the book is about and the style of which is what really help me enjoy the story next time around.

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a horror book at all, I would say a sci-fi set in a world where people shed their skins every 7 years and you can feel their memories by touching their shed skins. But with this shed they also shed their love for their loved ones which creates a market for people to buy skins to feel the memories of what love used to feel like. Really interesting concept that talks about what is love and why isn't it deeper than just the skin.

[Ellis ♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recensione apparsa su Leggere Distopico!

Leggere dell’uscita di un nuovo libro di Aliya Whiteley – merito della Carbonio Editore che spero continuerà a portare la sua produzione in Italia - mi mette sempre di buon umore, so già che mi aspetta una storia totalmente diversa dalla precedente, espressione della poliedricità stilistica dell’autrice.
Con “The loosening skin” (pubblicato per la prima volta nel 2018) infatti si avventura sul genere mistery, ma contaminandolo con le sue peculiarissime atmosfere fantascientifiche e viranti al new-weird.
È il suo terzo romanzo che mi trovo a leggere e sembra quasi che il leitmotiv di ognuno di essi sia il corpo ma declinato in diverse configurazioni: se in “La bellezza” assumeva contorni fungini e orrorifici e in “L’arrivo delle missive” seguivamo il percorso di crescita - a partire dall’età pre-adolescenziale - della protagonista, con “La muta” - titolo scelto per l’edizione italiana e su traduzione di Olimpia Ellero - si sale ancor più di livello poiché ad esser posta al centro è la pelle in quanto tale…
In tutto questo spicca la nostra protagonista: Rose Allington, dalla personalità dirompente e tranchant, che dovrà continuamente barcamenarsi fra gli strascichi devastanti, tanto a livello emotivo quanto a livello fisico, di una rara malattia di cui è affetta e la decisione di intraprendere un’indagine, sulla base di una manciata di indizi, cercando di ricomporre i tasselli di quello che fin da subito si rivela non essere un normale furto.
È un romanzo insolito costruito come un meccanismo a orologeria denso di confessioni, inimicizie e drammaticità.
Il setting designato è il mondo come lo conosciamo oggi, ma con una particolarità inquietante: all’incirca ogni sette anni gli esseri umani mutano pelle e in essa lasciano i ricordi collegati all’eventuale relazione di quel periodo. Tuttavia le pelli preservano i ricordi della persona e già al semplice solo tocco essi vengono rievocati, eppure tutti (o quasi) scelgono di bruciarle e semplicemente andare avanti. Il “quasi” di cui parlo riguarda una percentuale di consumatori che scelgono volontariamente di sottoporsi a un trattamento farmacologico che va ad ostacolare la muta e che permette loro di preservare la relazione con la persona amata.

I serpenti fanno la muta quando lo strato che li ricopre comincia a stargli “stretto” e allora lo rigettano e lo sostituiscono con una pelle più adatta alla nuova fisicità, ma se la stessa prerogativa appartenesse all’uomo? In questa nuova fatica letteraria viene messo nero su bianco. Mutare pelle diventa per l’essere umano un vero e proprio cambio di identità, scoprirsi diversi, rinnovarsi e gettarsi a capofitto in una nuova esistenza; via la pelle “vecchia” e cancellato con un colpo di spugna anche l’amore legato a quella pelle.

“[…] Prima indossiamo, e poi di dosso ci strappiamo, noi stessi. Più e più volte cambiamo. Quant’è strano, ciò che diventiamo, e ciò che buttiamo. […]”

Un fanta-thriller di graduale tensione, ma al cui interno viene altresì tratteggiata una dualità di amore e disamore che viene fuori utilizzando l’espediente narrativo del flashforward poiché il romanzo si sviluppa in un arco temporale che spazia dal 1986 al 2022 e grazie all’alternarsi di prima persona e narratore esterno questa sequenzialità risulta ancora più efficace.
Non li considero dei veri e propri difetti, ma visto che i gusti letterari sono MOLTO soggettivi vi anticipo che l’ambientazione non è approfondita; ciò che ci è dato sapere è visto con gli occhi e le esperienze dei personaggi e la presenza di questi repentini salti temporali potrebbero scombussolare e confondere un lettore poco avvezzo alla loro presenza.
Aliya Whiteley manipola la realtà come pongo, gioca con essa e la plasma a suo piacimento tirando fuori un modo del tutto nuovo di narrare i rapporti umani quasi a volerci insegnare a tendere l’orecchio e ascoltare davvero noi stessi. Servendosi di una prosa tagliente ci racconta in maniera trascinante la potenzialità simbolica del concetto di amore, un amore che ottunde i sensi e ottenebra le menti, parla di quei rapporti umani confusi e dove talvolta gli errori sono decisivi e trattenere a ogni costo una relazione destinata a finire è controproducente anche per la salute. Alimentate da questa visione distorta data dall’impronta fantascientifica l’autrice offre riflessioni che possono essere contestualizzate nel quotidiano. Consigliato!

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting idea!

One of my favourite types of story is the "It Follows"-style central metaphor (or symbol or whatever.) It's almost clear what the symbol means, but it's elusive enough for audience interpretation.

For a fiction version, Naomi Kritzer's "Field Biology of the Wee Fairies" is a good example (and a short, easy, compelling read):
https://www.apex-magazine.com/field-b...

The fairies almost stand in for something in reality, but they juuuust don't. And of course they shouldn't: if there was a 1:1 transference of symbol to reality, there'd be no need for it. It's just enough of a departure from reality to reveal reality to the reader, for the reader's own interpretation. That's no mean feat.

And Whitely has happened upon one such symbol: people shed their skins and in so doing, shed their love. Some shed skins more frequently than others, due to stress or anxiety. Shedding one in adolescence is a rite of passage. Pills of shed skins promise to help people hold onto their skins longer. Some are desperate to get back into their skins and some hold onto skins for their sentimental value. It all almost sounds familiar, but it also isn't.

I really liked the clear prose style. I find this more common with female authors, more care/respect for the reader and more confidence in the ideas. Less frequently obfuscating for fear that the ideas aren't complex or interesting enough. There's really nothing I prize more in writing these days than readability. I'd easily take a more readable story with a weaker concept than an obfuscatory "genius" one. Who has the time anymore, honestly? Just tell me what your point is, now!

There are many different ways in which the skin-shedding could've been used. I'd venture to say there are probably more ways of looking at it than were explored in the book, which was, as the author writes, padded up from novella length. At one point, for example, the protagonist makes a list of the occasions on which she shed her skin. Later we jump back in time for exposition of how exactly these sheddings happened, but it's info we already know and it doesn't drive the story forward.

But there's a great novella in here and it's still definitely worth a read :)

[Stephen Curran · Rating 2 out of 5]

A superb idea but, frustratingly, not a superb novel. In an alternate reality, the end of love happens with a literal shedding of the skin: the memories of devotion remain but the feeling is cast away. Some people burn the discarded cutis, some people bury it or hide it, but afterwards they are all irreversibly changed. Sadly, the author struggles to find a single engaging story to spin from this premise and ends up constantly switching focus and skipping impatiently between time lines, making for an unsatisfying read. Don’t get me wrong, though: Aliya Whitely is one of the most exciting new voices out there and I intend to read whatever she publishes. THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES is an absolute belter. But for me at least, this is a small misfire.

[Owlphabetical · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was (as ever with Whiteley) an unsettling read. What is love anyway? How much does it shape who we are? Not an easy question to answer, but this book is preoccupied with it. Love, loss, friendship; are they worth chasing? At what cost? If you're interested in these themes then give this a read :)

[Runalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine a world where every few years you aged your skin and became a different person

This is an amazingly thoughtful and unusual story you should give a try from a brilliant writer

‪ https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...‬

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover of this makes it look like horror, the blurb suggests it's a thriller... I don't think it's either of those things. It has an odd premise, sure enough (every adult person sheds their skin every 7 years or so, and with them, their romantic attachments) but it wasn't very deeply realised; too obviously a vehicle used to say some stuff about love. Not that weird, not quite sci fi - it's barely speculative, but perhaps I've been spoilt. Not giving up on Whiteley, but was disappointed with this one.

[imyril is not really here any more · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what I think of this odd little reflection on the fleeting nature of love and the things we hang on to. It's one of those reads that I liked less the further I got. It's my first Aliya Whiteley and I loved her prose - deft, emotionally evocative - but the second half with its unexpected shift in narrator left me completely at sea.

I'll let it settle for a few days, but currently considering it a curiosity rather than a new favourite.

Full review to follow.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting. It ended up being surprisingly boring.

[Marika Salvatori · Rating 3 out of 5]

La mia videorecensione: https://youtu.be/r3-RjU5phvc

[Erika Pizzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo è, sinceramente, uno dei libri più strani che abbia mai letto.
In questo particolare racconto ucronico, ogni 7 anni circa gli esseri umani cambiano la propria pelle attraverso un vero e proprio processo di muta, tra l’altro doloroso e quantomai strano.
Assieme alla pelle, tuttavia, essi perdono o mutano anche alcuni dei propri sentimenti, le sensazioni e le ambizioni personali, come se questi elementi fossero intimamente legati allo strato epidermico perduto. Anche l’amore muta o si perde con esso, rimanendo legato all’epidermide in maniera indissolubile.
Nel libro i protagonisti si chiedono come possa essere vivere in un mondo caratterizzato dalla mancanza del processo di muta, e di perdita dell’amore. Io mi chiedo la cosa opposta: come sarebbe vivere in un mondo in cui ogni 7 anni saremmo costretti a rinnovarci completamente sotto quasi ogni punto di vista, anche sentimentale?

In un senso più ampio, questo potrebbe essere un libro centrato sulla ricerca del significato dell’amore, che talvolta arriva in modo repentino e se ne va altrettanto in fretta. Vale la pena innamorarsi, se quell’amore è destinato a finire?

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: Whiteley cuts to the heart of love in this emotionally powerful futuristic tale, where changing the way you feel about someone is as easy as peeling off your old skin.

Aliya Whiteley writes very odd stories, but now that I’ve read three of her books, I look forward to that “oddness” because her stories all have wonderful layers to them. The Loosening Skin is now officially my favorite of her books, and I anticipate seeing it on some award lists soon. I’m a bit late reviewing it, since it was released in 2018, but as the saying goes, “better late than never!”

The concept is an unusual one. In this world, people shed their skins every seven years or so, and with that moult comes a loss of the relationship that person was in. When the story begins, a woman named Rose has been in love with famous actor and director Max Black for the past two years. Even though the two have been taking an experimental drug that is supposed to delay the moulting process, Rose realizes one day she’s getting her moult early, and as her skin peels off, she leaves Max and everything they had together behind. Eight years later, Max comes back into Rose’s life when his collection of skins is stolen, and he asks her to help track them down.

In addition to having a unique idea, the story also has a very different format than I’m used to. It’s divided neatly in two halves that feel very different from each other. The first half deals with what happens when Max and Rose reunite and the horrible, self-serving act that Max carries out, despite the fact that Rose wants nothing to do with him. And the second half takes place years later and is told by a man named Mik Stuck, who was one of the Stuck Six, a famous group of six men and women who all fell in love with each other at once and managed to keep their relationships going for years. In this section, the woman who helped Max try to “recondition” Rose against her will is dying of a disease caused by a drug called Suscutin, and before she dies she wants to track down Rose and ask her forgiveness. All the chapters jump around in time, so it’s sometimes a challenge to keep track of what’s going on. But in the end, I loved this method of storytelling because all those jumps reveal very important information that’s critical to understanding the overall story.

Whiteley often writes about body horror and how emotions can affect a person’s physical being, and even though in this world, shedding one’s skin is as normal as getting your hair cut, Whiteley’s descriptions of the moulting process, well, made my skin crawl! The title of the book refers to the beginning stages of the moult, when your skin starts to loosen and itch uncontrollably. But it’s the emotional toll of moulting that is heartbreaking. Moulting is a metaphor for change and loss. You’re not only losing your skin and starting over fresh, but you’re sloughing off your feelings of love for a person as well. It’s a terrifying idea, that emotion is controlled by a bodily function, something you have no control over. No matter how much in love you are with a person, when your moult starts, your feelings inevitably change as well. You’ve heard of the “seven year itch,” right? Well, Whiteley has taken this idea, that after seven years you start to lose interest in a spouse or lover, and gone so far as to craft a chilling world in which it makes perfect sense to leave someone.

Even stranger, although many people burn their old skins, some hang on to them and are reluctant to throw away all those old emotions. Max has saved Rose’s skin, when she moulted and left him, because he couldn’t bear to have their relationship end. The feelings of love are buried deep in a person’s skin and can be felt years later simply by touching that skin. Creepy, yes, but what a powerful idea!

Ultimately, this is an emotional story filled with sadness and regret. Despite the fact that Rose has moulted and fallen out of love with Max, she still clings to the idea of loving him and can never quite let that feeling go. Likewise, the passages that deal with the members of the Stuck Six are especially poignant. After years of successfully staying in love, one of them, a young woman named Nicky, begins to moult and the act is as heart-wrenching as the death of a loved one. In Whiteley’s world, love is tenuous and fleeting, but because of that, it’s nurtured and cared for with exquisite attention. This is a must read for all Aliya Whiteley fans, and a great place to start if you’re new to her work.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Note: This review uses the British spelling of the word "moult" as opposed to the American spelling, "molt." Don't worry, I did it on purpose.This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy

[Artur Nowrot]

A slim book that is densely packed with ideas, always moves forward (much like the main character), and somehow finds the space for several significant shifts in how the story is presented and what the story is exactly. It offers tantalising glimpses of how the premise (people shedding skin every few years, usually leaving behind the things and people they loved in their previous skin) affects the world, and interesting meditations on love, sex, loneliness, friendship, change.

This is exactly what I love to read right now.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cor Blimey.

I love Whiteley’s books, they always give me something to think about. She has an absolute talent for ramming such short books with such astounding ideas, with clear bright delivery that leaves you thinking, thinking, thinking. This book has properly got under my skin and will stay with me for a long time.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

2/20/2021 Sci-fi re-reads are always so fascinating! Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

2/27/2021 I first read this novella over two years ago, courtesy of the lovely people at Unsung Stories, one of the finest British independent purveyors of weird fiction today. I very much enjoyed it at the time, so when Titan Books told me they were publishing it for the first time in America, I leapt at the chance to revisit the work of one of my favorite little-known (for now) speculative fiction authors, Aliya Whiteley.

And it's really weird with a re-read seeing what you focused on the last time compared to what you elided, and how things hit you differently after a span of time and experiences. In The Loosening Skin's alternate universe, humanity moults every seven years or so, shedding with each worn skin the attachments -- primarily romantic, but often to their surroundings and modes of life -- they'd accumulated while wearing it. For most people, this means a redirection of purpose and often a reevaluation of their lives to date; for a smaller number, this means a dramatic shift in lifestyle. It's almost universally acknowledged that couples will split up when one moults: there may be a lingering friendship or sense of companionship, but most find the thought of staying with a pre-moult partner physically revolting. All the feelings of love are gone with the moulting, oddly enough staying in the shed skin and accessible for anyone to touch. Most people burn their moultings because of this. Unsurprisingly, there's also a thriving, quasi-legal market in discarded skins.

Rose Allington has an even more extreme reaction than most to shedding her skin, which she does more often than the average person and usually in times of great stress. After landing a dream job as bodyguard to superstar actor and aspiring director Max Black, she's amazed to find herself falling in love with him, and he with her. Max is determined to keep their love going despite the odds, and resorts to all sorts of dubious medications to keep them both from moulting. Rose plays along until the night she splits her skin and abruptly leaves a devastated Max behind.

Several years later, Max comes looking for her again, having heard that she'd become a private investigator and needing her new professional services. Someone has stolen his moulted skins and she's the only one he trusts to get them back while keeping it all hush hush. But the years and her experiences shutting down stomach-turningly illegal skin trade activities have made her a very different person from the Rose he once loved, which they'll both discover to their sorrow.

Since I already knew where the plot was going this time, my brain was less preoccupied with the shifting time lines, allowing me to better process our characters' complicated feelings and doings as they sought in their own imperfect ways to deal with the end of love. Interestingly the horrifying reveal at the warehouse felt less impactful to me this time around, even as I felt more heartbroken at how Rose and Max's relationship ended for good. I was also far more forgiving of the coda with Mik, the youngest of a group of six lovers whose story captured the public imagination. He was still awful and adolescent, but his bumbling attempts to sort out both his and Rose's lives added even more dimension to an already deep meditation on the seemingly finite arc of love. As with my previous read, I wasn't necessarily suaded to the idea that love inevitably ends, but I did find more to think about this go-round, both in the emotions and in the sci-fi.

This American printing also includes a short story set in the world of TLS, further expanding on the everyday lives, moral philosophies and horrifying criminality of a world with such an intrinsic difference from ours. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of reading TLS, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this, and perhaps giving it a re-read, as I did, after some time has passed. It's just as good the second time around, and impressive in the way it brings different aspects of this life-altering physiology -- and extended metaphor for the lifespan of love -- to the fore.

The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley was published February 23rd 2020 by Titan Books and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop! Want it now? For the Kindle version, click here.

[Julien Mtanios · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Loosening Skin, Whiteley masterfully constructs a world where identity and emotion are fleeting, as people literally shed their skin—and with it, their past attachments. This poetic yet unsettling narrative explores the impermanence of love, the fluidity of self, and the human desire to hold onto what constantly slips away.

With its lyrical prose and speculative brilliance, the novel bridges science fiction and existential inquiry, creating a genre-defying meditation on memory and connection. Whiteley doesn’t just ask what it means to love; she questions what remains of us when love is stripped away.

A haunting and beautiful book that challenges how we define ourselves, paving the way for a new kind of speculative fiction.

[Josée Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This was a strange novel where humans shed their skin periodically throughout their lives. When they do, emotions like love also shed so that they can no longer love the person they're with or even continue in their current careers.
In such a society, shed skins can take on a certain value and some will go to extremes to preserve and seek out love.
This was definitely an interesting read. Even though I preferred Parts 1 and 2 of the book and I think it could have ended there, the last couple parts were still compelling enough.
This is my second read by this author (The Beauty was excellent) and I look forward to reading more by her.

[Thomas Brassington · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. The concept is interesting, but I felt like the novel didn't know what it wanted to be? Part-drama, part-crime, part-body horror, part-feminist exploration of bodily/emotional autonomy, but not quite marrying it all together. Parts 3 and 4 being a completely different story/POV also threw me a bit, and I'm not sure it was necessary or helpful for the narrative? Very mixed feelings about this

[Emma Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - it was just so all over the place and was introducing characters in the last chapter?? So it ended on a point of view that we hadn’t even followed the whole book and was just so random. Super character driven too

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars

[MLE · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

Solidly body horror. Interesting exploration of love and relationships with the premise of moulting every so often.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aliya Whiteley has a way of diving into the climax jarringly quickly, then deftly setting up a whole new unexpected plotline. Also, weird as hell.

[Benjamin Grim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I expected, but in honestly the best way possible.

Dashes of sci-fi, mystery, horror, and drama all come together nicely in this reflection on the human propensity to move through phases & emotions in life.

Absolutely a surprise hit for me, and I'd def recommend it!

[Peter Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an affecting read. From the drawing of the characters to the subtle explanation of the workings of the author's core idea, The Loosening Skin is a forensic yet heartfelt work, which holds up a warped mirror to our wants and needs. Like so many books I love it invites re-reading, once more to admire the fluid yet consistent threading of timeframes into the whole.

[Caitlin Myers · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at about 15%. I know that’s not a lot, but it was so slow and jumped all over. It’s not a story I appreciated the suspense for.