In the Skin of a Monster

Starred review from November 1, 2016
A white teenage girl finds herself caught in a nightmare version of her own world in this affecting Australian debut. Seventeen-year-old Alice is haunted by the memory of her identical twin sister, who came to school with a gun three years before and killed seven kids. Guilt-ridden and alienated, Alice skips school and takes long walks into the Outback as a form of self-punishment. On one such walk she crosses paths with a ghostly girl who looks like her sister; when she reaches out to grab for her, Alice finds herself in a bizarre alternate reality, having unwittingly swapped places with the girl. She soon discovers that the alternate reality is a dreamscape in which the nightmares of the townspeople play out each night, filling the dream world with deadly monsters--the deadliest of which is the schoolgirl monster who shares her face. Despite this, Alice finds herself in an uneasy alliance with dream versions of her former classmates and Lux, a mysterious boy who despises her for reasons of his own. As Alice and the gang progress through the dreamscape, the connections between the real world and the dream world are slowly untangled. Told in distinctive alternating perspectives by Alice and Lux, this nuanced story proves as gripping as it is disorienting. A highly original, richly layered debut that will reward patient readers. (Paranormal fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Alice is an identical twin left behind after her emo, edgy 14-year-old sister takes their dad's gun to school and shoots seven people. Alice is now infamous for sharing the face of the girl who brought a nightmare of violence to life in their small town in the Australian Outback. Alice has spent three years in a mental treatment facility learning to cope with the horror, hate, and unanswerable questions. Soon after returning to her damaged hometown, Alice suddenly and impossibly crosses over to a weird dreamscape-a fun house-mirror version of the place that she and her twin once shared. There, what's being dreamed appears as a sort of bubble containing both the dreamer and elements of the dream, such as monsters of the clawed and slavering sort and terrors wearing human faces. Alice's twin has been a regular in this nightmare world, and now Alice has been subbed in for her to navigate with a small band of battle-worn denizens attempting to survive the "nasties." They are helped by Lux, a mysterious humanoid who narrates in alternate chapters, and Ivan, a monstrous beast with a heart of gold. This Australian import features a slowly built parallel world that's held together with a sort of dream logic. It is an inventive attempt to share with readers the confusion and frustration the characters feel about their experiences, but the nebulous plot connections may challenge many readers to stay engaged. VERDICT Some patient teens may find enough concrete narrative elements in the amorphous world of the novel, but many will flounder, as they do in their own nonsensical dreamscapes.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.