Skinned

Skinned
Author: Robin Wasserman
Series: Skinned (#1)
Publisher: Simon Pulse
How Received: library

Lia Kahn was perfect: rich, beautiful, popular -- until the accident that nearly killed her. Now she has been downloaded into a new body that only looks human. Lia will never feel pain again, she will never age, and she can't ever truly die. But she is also rejected by her friends, betrayed by her boyfriend, and alienated from her old life.

Forced to the fringes of society, Lia joins others like her. But they are looked at as freaks. They are hated...and feared. They are everything but human, and according to most people, this is the ultimate crime -- for which they must pay the ultimate price.

On a purely coverwhore aspect: I love this cover. It captures the book really well, not to mention just being pretty itself.

I enjoyed this book. Overall, it's well written, perfectly described, and oh so quotable. The characters were real people - yes, even the 'skinners'. The thing was...

It was the reverse Uglies.

Anybody whose read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies know that those books kick booktastic butt. They're just excellent novels. Lia was everything Tally wasn't - Tally wasn't pretty, but Lia was. Tally wanted to be pretty, Lia wanted her life back. Tally went to live with those who loved nature, Lia went and dealt with the 'skinners'. Tally fell in love with a pretty and a natural - Lia fell in love with a human and had feelings for a 'skinner'.

So, even though I enjoyed Skinned, the similarities it had to Uglies completely distracted me throughout the whole novel.

Overall Rating: 8/10
Skinned or Uglies?: That's the question, isn't it? As much as I thoroughly enjoyed Skinned and look forward to reading the sequels - it's the first of a trilogy - I've always adored Uglies. Both books are excellent, but something about Uglies just makes it that much better.

~N