Skin Hunger, by Kathleen Duey (Book One of A Resurrection of Magic)

[rachelmanija]

This is probably the best YA fantasy I've read all year: complex, compulsively readable, beautifully plotted, emotionally intense, and intelligent. I highly recommend it.

It begins somewhat uninspiringly, in the usual medievaloid vaguely-English landscape, with a village girl with a talent. That is Sadima, who can communicate with animals but must keep her talent a secret since magicians are, apparently, all frauds, and one of them was involved in the death of her mother.

Her story alternates with another one which is seemingly unconnected: in a time when magic is easily available to the wealthy, a rich man's despised son is packed off to the wizard's academy. Without any onstage gore or theatrical sadism, this is the single darkest portrayal of the fantasy standard, the school of magic, that I've ever encountered.

A great deal of the pleasure of reading this book involves slowly piecing together the connections between the two stories. One of the most important ones, not made clear within the book itself until about a third of the way in, is given away on the cover; I suggest that you read the book without reading the inside or back cover first.

Though it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, I found it to be a very satisfying read on its own, and the structure of the first book is so cleverly and carefully thought-out that I would be very surprised if the subsequent books were disappointing.

Massive spoilers, only read if you've already read the book. Spoilery comments welcome; don't read those if you haven't read the book.

Though we don't know the details of how and why the future and the horrible magic school came about, the basics seem easy to extrapolate:

Franklin stayed with Somiss to try to ameliorate his horribleness (FAIL, Franklin!), and Somiss brought magic back to the world with the help of his cadre of traumatized street kids, and they used magic to stay alive all these years. The brutality of the academy seems completely unnecessary; I guess that starvation and solitude worked for Somiss, so he figures that's what everyone needs. Plus he probably gets off on it. EW.

The big question is, what happened to Sadima? I hope she's off training her own secret academy of mixed-gender, non-traumatized wizards.

I loved the talking to various body parts. It was so weird, yet convincing precisely because it was so weird.

I wonder if magic actually did improve the world? Horrible poverty and injustice without war is better than horrible poverty and injustice without war. Still, I suspect that all it did was add new and different types of cruelty and exploitation.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I am really afraid Sadima is dead.

I found all the different ways the book considered and presented the different combinations of justifications for and actual ameliorations of abuse--including the way how supportive a family/social background the victims and victim-perpetrators and perpetrators came from--incredibly impressive. It was very thinky.

I don't think this will be one of my favorites because the prose isn't polished, but it was v. impressive nonetheless and I will getting bk. 2 when it's out.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I liked that a lot too. The Franklin-Somiss dynamic is especially convincing and disturbing.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm afraid something horrible has happened to Sadima, as well. (Not sure if it's death or something else, only that it's horrible.)

[bondgwendabond.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I keep wondering if the reason why we get such a lengthy introduction to her brother at the beginning of this novel is because he is going to reappear to avenge her.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

One of the most important ones, not made clear within the book itself until about a third of the way in, is given away on the cover; I suggest that you read the book without reading the inside or back cover first.
I try to do that anyway if I already know I want to read the book. Those things can be stupidly spoilery: the inside cover for The Lovely Bones basically gives away the damn climax of the book.

This sounds really neat, though! Are the other books in the series already out? Maybe I'll look into it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

No, the next one is forthcoming... some time.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

This book depressed me horribly, despite being a good book.

[neile.livejournal.com]

I keep feeling like I'm missing something about this book that so many other readers got but I didn't. I liked it, but it didn't blow me away and isn't on my 2007 favourites list because of things mentioned here: the slow, somewhat cliched start; the to-my-ear often clumsy prose; the bleakness. And while the settings are somewhat clear in my mind I don't have a strong sense of either of the two lead characters. That said, I did end up intrigued enough to be very interested in the next volume.

I really do feel like I'm missing out on something because so many people whose opinions I trust are so enthusiastic about it.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

No answers, but sympathy. This is basically my experience of the book (except that I couldn't stay interested enough to finish the thing).

I also had an awful time with the combination of names.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

:) I love running into you where I don't expect you, Neile

[(Anonymous)]

I was lucky enough to hear Kathleen speak at a writer's conference (she's very inspiring) and this one is in my TBR stack. Hope to get to it soon! I'll keep in mind that it gets better after a slow start.

note: blogger must be down now, because it won't let me sign in but this is my blog: presenting lenore (http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com)