Review: Skin Hunger

Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Sadima lives in a world where magic has been banned, leaving poor villagers prey to fakes and charlatans. A "magician" stole her family's few valuables and left Sadima's mother to die on the day Sadima was born. But vestiges of magic are hidden in old rhymes and hearth tales and in people like Sadima, who conceals her silent communication with animals for fear of rejection and ridicule. When rumors of her gift reach Somiss, a young nobleman obsessed with restoring magic, he sends Franklin, his lifelong servant, to find her. Sadima's joy at sharing her secret becomes love for the man she shares it with. But Franklin's irrevocable bond to the brilliant and dangerous Somiss traps her, too, and she faces a heartbreaking decision.

Centuries later magic has been restored, but it is available only to the wealthy and is strictly controlled by wizards within a sequestered academy of magic. Hahp, the expendable second son of a rich merchant, is forced into the academy and finds himself paired with Gerrard, a peasant boy inexplicably admitted with nine sons of privilege and wealth. Only one of the ten students will graduate -- and the first academic requirement is survival.

Sadima's and Hahp's worlds are separated by generations, but their lives are connected in surprising and powerful ways in this brilliant first book of Kathleen Duey's dark, complex, and completely compelling trilogy.

My Thoughts:

When I read the synopsis of this book, I thought it might be a pretty good read. A nobleman restoring magic to all is a good thing, right? Unfortunately, what I was expecting and what I got were two different things.

Sadima
One of the few characters that I liked even a little bit. Despite Franklin's insistence that Somiss is doing all of this for the right reasons, she realizes that what he says and does are two different things.

Franklin
I felt sorry for him most of the book but he is as bad as Somiss if he just lets these things happen.

Hahp
I think this is the one character that I liked the most and that is saying a lot because I don't like any of them a whole lot. He at least tried to help some of the other boys at times, despite his fear.

The Ending
The ending was a bit odd. I expected more things to be settled. Instead, the book just ended.

Overall
I thought the story was very slow to develop. Even so, the characters never developed fully. I honestly barely liked anything about any of them. I liked that Sadima could actually see the truth of what was going on but did she do anything about it? No. A lot of things in the book were just cruel. It was a very dark story with no real ending. Nothing was resolved. I won't be reading more of this series.


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