Skin

Rating:
Summary: Best novel ever!
Review: Kathe Koja's SKIN is possibly the best horror novel ever. This book will tear U up. MayB it's not really a horror novel in the classic sense -- no ghosts or vampires, just people being their usual dark unpredictable selves. But when somebody gets hurt in this book, U will hurt. Everything from the setting, characters & happenings to Koja's brilliant, abrupt, feverishly vivid writing style will hook U, involve U, & guarantee U'll have an unforgettable reading Xperience. This woman should be on the best-seller lists. The best novel I've ever read. Also great by Koja: THE CIPHER, BAD BRAINS, STRANGE ANGELS, KINK. Her short-story collection EXTREMETIES also has a few outstanding, visionary items in it. If U're a horror reader, U need to pick up Koja's work.

Rating:
Summary: Flesh and steel
Review: Koja explores the limits of flesh in SKIN,chronicling the
desire to transcend these limits in her own unique style.
This is a great modern novel concerning extreme body
modification and the physiological scars it leaves; it
is also an accurate look at underground culture. Koja is
one of our very best writers,and SKIN is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Using lesbianism to sell horror? Give me a break!
Review: Picked up this book from a thrift shop intending to use the cover art in a collage. Upon reading the book I was astounded that I had never heard of Kathe Koja up to that point. (Several years ago.) She is definitely the most under appreciated author of this generation. Skin is full on masterful prose and while I wouldn't recommend it to my mother, I have recommended it to most of my friends. Needless to say, the book is on my shelf, cover intact.

Rating:
Summary: One of many amazing Koja novels
Review: This was the first Kathe Koja book I ever read, and it was not the last. This book was great on so many different levels. I loved the writing style, long sentences and all. I especially loved the characters, Bibi and Tess, and the secondary characters of the performance troupe - they were presented as true artists of the industrial culture, the ideas at the heart of industrial music and its fans, not poseur whiny kids in cute black clothes. (Aside from Koja, I recommend Poppy Z. Brite and Caitlin R. Kiernan for getting past cliches of kids in subcultures.) This book was real and raw and different. I don't think the author was trying to "push" homosexuality on a reader or exploit it for book sales. What do people want? A label on books that says: Warning: Contents May Offend or Challenge Your Sensibilities? That's what good books are supposed to do! If one wants a label that says the opposite, perhaps one should look for books with Koontz and Rice embossed nice and shiny on the cover.