Butterfly Skin

July 28, 2014
In the arresting opening chapter of this serial killer novel from journalist Kuznetsov, a murderer describes fantasies he used to have as a child, including one involving a “place in the subway where hell seeped through into the tunnel in a thin layer of horror—and the trains passed through it so quickly that only really sensitive people noticed.” Despite this hint of the supernatural, the horrors that follow are all of the excruciatingly physical variety, in particular the graphic images of violence against women that run through the murderer’s mind. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Ksenia Ionova, the news editor at a small online Moscow journal, is into sadomasochism. Those expecting the paths of the killer and Ksenia to cross won’t be disappointed. The fainthearted had best stay away.

September 15, 2014
This Russian cult hit, first published there in the 1990s, proves that Russian sexual obsessives and serial killers aren't much different from familiar American ones. Ksenia is a journalist for a small-time Moscow Internet news site, going nowhere until she finds a story that boosts her career: A serial killer is targeting young women in the city, inflicting grisly sexual tortures upon his victims. A sexual masochist, Ksenia has her own dark side and is drawn deeply into the story as she sets up a popular website devoted to the case. New victims emerge as Ksenia has an affair with a co-worker and tries to make sense of her desires. Her one potential soul mate is an online chat partner identified as "alien"; their virtual affair is both psychologically and erotically charged. They fall in love and edge toward a face-to-face meeting-somewhat improbably, without Ksenia suspecting that her correspondent is the killer. Ksenia's best friend, Olya, tries to keep her grounded, with disastrous results. Billed as a Russian Silence of the Lambs, much of Kuznetsov's debut has a similar sinister allure, particularly in the chapters written from the killer's perspective, in which the descriptions are brutal but somehow haunting. But the narrative is crowded with political digressions and dead-end subplots, including a long glimpse into Olya's family life. And the inevitable confrontation between Ksenia and the killer is so quick and tidy that it feels like a major anticlimax. Even though the plot tends to wander, the creepy atmosphere of this perverse thriller will keep you coming back.

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September 1, 2014
Ksenia, Moscow's hungriest online news editor, is pretty much solely responsible for keeping her news outfit in the ratings. So, of course, when her boss demands a ratings-grabbing story, Ksenia thinks big and pitches a taboo-floutingonline hub dedicated to the serial killer who's been stalking Moscow's young women. When her boss squeamishly passes on the project, Ksenia sets the site up herself and creates a hot spot for serial-killer news coverage, expert commentary, and user interaction. She fantasizes that maybe it will even lure the killer. But Ksenia's playing too close to home with this story; she shares with the killer an attraction to the link between pleasure and pain, taking part in secret BDSM trysts. Readers who prize atmosphere and characterization over breakneck pacing will enjoy Kuznetsov's dark, quintessentially Russian tale. It's richly detailed, steeped in foreshadowing of inevitable tragedy, and offers a poetically twisted take on death. In addition, fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008)will appreciate Ksenia's character, which is reminiscent of that of Lisbeth Salander.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)