Rating: 
Summary: Read it!
Review: Read this book. Let me say it again: read this book. I had never heard of Faber until someone gave me this book. Right now I'm going to fall into the reviewers' cliches you're all heard before. A real page turner... couldn't put it down ... kept me up late ...hated to finish it... etc etc. All true. This guy is a compelling writer, pulls you into the world he has created, creates situations and a main character who will stay with you for a long, long time. This is great stuff if you're the kind of reader who is willing to stretch your definition of reality just a little.
Rating:
Summary: Grabbed Me and Wouldn't Let Go
Review: I'm at a [local] bookstore, looking for a book by John Fante. Found it, didn't like it, put it back and happened to see "Under the Skin" by Faber. Had never heard of it or him, but picked it up, read the first page, ordered if from Amazon that afternoon, finished reading by the end of the week. This is an absolutely incredible book. I still think about it. I'm not going to say anything about the story or characters, only that Faber has told a unique story in a thrilling, calculating manner that is distinctive, fresh. I have since bought two more copies for friends. Under the Skin will indeed get under your skin and into your mind.
Rating: 
Summary: X- files lives!
Review: It just took me a couple of days to read this X-filesque novel. Very entertaining, very readable. It is not a Jewel in the History of Literature, but jewels are rare to find: otherwise, they shouldn't be jewels...
That's why I put just three stars, although I liked the style and the plot, and I traveled around Scotland with Isserley, the main character. If you like strange, mysterious arguments; you think that there are mayor works of art and books that just pretend to maintain your interest for two or three days, and if you liked Scully and Mulder's adventures, that's your book.
Now, a little bit of criticism...Do not read the following paragraph if you do not want to get your reading spoiled. Now you have been warned... The reference to the X files is something the author had in mind during all the process of writing the book. I could almost hear the main theme while I read "Under the skin", but I really didn't care, since I was a -moderate- fan of the series, anyway. But, going a little deeper, I found that the author did not dare to explain too much about the planet Isserley and her fellow friends came from. It lacks a bit of description of why life conditions of were so terrible from wherever they came, and how their society was established. The idea of describing herself and her civilization as "human" is original, and the process of letting you discover that she is not as human as you might think, quite good.
A couple of final remarks: gay as I am, I find hard to believe that every hitchhiker Isserley picked up from the road had to be straight. And finally, I am afraid that Scottish roads are crowded with that kind of people, which is certainly an endangered species, at least in continental Europe. I never find a hitchhiker in midwinter in the roads of Spain...Setting the action in springtime or summer would have added a plus of realism.
Rating:
Summary: A chilly masterpiece
Review: "Under the Skin" is a cold and coldhearted novel (its setting is a bleak part of Scotland in late winter) that starts off with a woman named Isserley picking up a hitchhiker (she looks for ("a hunk on legs"). It begins as if it is going to be a straightforward horror thriller, but it soon becomes clear that Michel Faber has something quite different in mind. The novel becomes increasingly strange, revealing its secrets slowly as it spirals toward its end, where one final surprise awaits. It would be a disservice to reveal more. Suffice it to say that along with Caitlin R. Kiernan ("Silk," "Threshold") Mr. Faber is at once reinventing the horror novel while at the same time paying homage to its Lovecraftian past. Despite its grimness, the book is occasionally mordantly funny. It contains elements of the surreal and the satirical, and it leaves you feeling as if the ground were giving way beneath your feet. This insecurity extends even to the 18-question "Reading Group Guide" that is appended to the book. Question 16 reads: "Did your feelings about Isserley change as the novel went on? Can you identify what influenced the way you felt about her?" Yes and no.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive, trivial, predictable...
Review: I finished reading "Under the skin" yesterday nigth and then I entered to Amazon to find out what other readers thought about the novel. I was surprised realising that most of the reviews are favorable. I'm sorry not to share that point of view. In my opinion, "Under the skin" is a novel that could have been told in a third of the pages that actually is written. The sceenes where Isserley takes a hitchicker count for about 60% of the story and those are superficial, repetitive and not neccesary at all to show that she has a neurotic psyche. The trick of using the term "human beings" to describe four leged, tailed beings that call animals to the biped inhabitants of the Earth does not work because, among other things, the author never tells what those "real" human beings are able to do, to think or feel besides eating male, lonely travellers. The "suspense" on the novel does not work either. The novel is full of details that make it obvious and predictable like that strange noise in the car that for a reader must mean that a car accident is going to eventually happen. This book would probably had worked better as a short story or as an essay on vegetarianism.
Rating:
Summary: Original, yet not completely satisfying
Review: Well, it could hardly be more original. I bought this book because I thought what it said on the cover was highly amusing. I was in for a big surprise, and I suggest you learn as little as possible about the book's content before you start reading it. About 50 pages in, just when you thought you had it all figured out so nicely, everything will be turned upside down.
And that was fine by me: I had no problem accepting the turn of events, no problem jumping into the unknown. And the fact that you don't get too many explanations or a full picture also went down nicely with me. However, if any author leaves plenty of things up to my imagination, this will be a problem, once I detect logical problems. Without giving anything away, why would the superior let's call them people hide in the unpleasant sub-world when they would be able to inhabit the natural beauty they strive for?
Also, the ending was somewhat forced on me. A transcendent hope- all of a sudden?
Still, parts of this book are truely ingenious. This alone makes it worthwhile reading.
Rating:
Summary: A new Sci Fi Classic
Review: Riveting and well written, Faber's book ranks with other great Sci-Fi novels (and I have read them all over the past 30 years!). It ranks with the best of LeGuin, Clarke and Heinlein. Don't miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: Unusually Good
Review: This book does not easily fit the normal genres. It is however an unusual treatment that pulls the reader into a very different world. Thought-provoking around what distinguishes a human from other species and how we treat one another. At the same time, it keeps a strong sense of mystery as the reader gradually finds out how Isserley is different from us. Worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-fi? Suspense ? Horror ? or Allegory ? All of the above
Review: Michel Faber's "Under The Skin" (UTS) is an extraordinary novel, one that defies easy classification as it's got elements of suspense, horror, science fiction, and allegory all rolled into one. You're not overly concerned about giving the mixed genre its rightful name because the blend is so seamless and of such fine and captivating quality you're delirious with excitement following Isserley's adventures in her weird world of half humans and mutants. Without giving too much of the plot away and spoiling the experience for other readers, let's just say that UTS isn't what you think it is. Your jaw drops a few degrees with each revelation. In daring to be experimental, Faber's flirts with the bizarre and pushes the boundaries of disbelief to extremities without causing the novel to capsize, lose its balance or coherence. The hitchhikers Isserley pick up are "vodsels". So are the others who live in the "Estate". Are they of the same species ? Who knows ? Isserley's bitterness at her own condition, the outcome of a sacrifice she apparently had no choice but to accept, is contrasted with the naivety of the privileged and sheltered Amlis Vess. The moral centre of the novel rises to the surface in the beautifully felt and heartbreaking encounter between these two. Faber was evidently inspired by and borrowed from the scene between Miranda and Caliban in William Shakespeare's "The Tempest". But there is nothing derivative about UTS. It's a rare original, and one infused with a strange and incandescent beauty that's endowed by Faber's economical yet articulate prose. I have a feeling its appeal will endure. One of the best reads this year. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A real page-turner!
Review: You might be forgiven for making numerous assumptions upon reading the first few paragraphs of this extraordinary work, but I urge you to read on with an open mind. The story unfurls so gradually and so seamlessly that this book is an absolute pleasure to read. You can't describe the action to readers without giving away some of the wonderful and strange plot, all I find myself saying to people is, 'it's really not what you think.' Original, eloquent, masterfully composed, intriguing throughout, and above all, a profound commentary on humanity through characters you would least expect - a masterpiece.
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