Turnskin

Title: Turnskin

Author: Nicole Kimberling

Publisher: Blind Eye Books (2008)

Genre(s): Fiction, Gay/Lesbian Interest

Length: 259 pages

Synopsis:  Tom Fletcher is a Shifter, born with the ability to changed his physical appearance in remarkable ways.  For the most part, though, he downplays his skills; raised in a rural community of non-Shifters (known as Skins), it seemed prudent to keep a low profile, with one notable exception.  Tom is a playwright and an actor, and his Shifting abilities give him opportunities onstage that no Skin could hope to match.  Unfortunately, his hometown isn't exactly a center of culture.  He knows he's destined for the stage, but he'd have to travel to the city of Riverside to have that chance, and as a Shifter, regulations make such travel difficult.  Opportunity goes hand in hand with danger, however, as Tom learns when he meets the mysterious Cloud Coldmoon.  Before Tom realizes it, he's swept up in a whirlwind romance, suspected of murder, and fleeing to Riverside with little more than his scripts and the name of a theatre run by his cousins.  Tom finds that the city has its own problems, and soon realizes that the person he's been all his life might not be the person who can succeed in Riverside.  He's finally been offered his shot at a life on the stage, but what face will he have to wear to get it?

 

My Rating: 3 Stars

My Opinion:  This book seemed to have so much potential.  It was, to be extravagant with my metaphors, rather like a souffle: brilliant ideas played off one another, rising to unexpected heights and opening the door for everything from social commentary to art criticism.  But...somewhere in its creation, someone slammed the oven door and this particular souffle fell terribly flat.  Tom's voice is disconcertingly young, in ways that  go beyond the naivete of a country bumpkin moving to the big city.  I had to reread the initial pages several times before I could come to the conclusion that he wasn't a teenage boy.  The conflicts arise and dissolve with no real logic.  Major problems present themselves, often quite suddenly, then are pushed to the side, forgotten and unresolved, or resolved unrealistically.  The characters feel sketchy and one dimensional at times, and the romance that ostensibly drives the book forward never really rings true.  Generally, issues like this would have cost the book an additional star in my rating system, but the concept of this novel really is magnificent.  Kimberling's world offers a chance to consider concepts of identity in its extremes.  What does the idea of gender mean to a group of people who can change their appearance completely?  What about the concept of race?   What about sexuality?  Unfortunately, she all too often couches this conversation in terms of extremism, making it almost a satire of itself.  The heart of the story, however, is not satirical in nature, and considering the entirety of the book in such a light would undo the self discovery that's intended to be the true theme.  The book itself seems to morph from moment to moment, uncertain of where it's headed or even where it's been.  Before it can offer lessons on self-discovery, it would first have to take its own advice.