In the world of The Loosening Skin, people shed their skins every few years. Along with this skin shed is a shed of personality, and often romantic relationships. For Rose Allington, this is a horrifying prospect. She has a disorder where extreme stress causes her to shed more frequently, and in doing so she finds that she no longer can hold onto romantic feelings. This is extremely destructive in her work as a bodyguard, especially as she is guarding the love of her life, Max. However, for the right price shed skins can be collected, and touching them brings back distinctive memories. Max’s move from acting to directing, and Rose’s departure from his life, brings about his fascination and creation of a new film on a group known as the Stuck 6. The 6 are a group of individuals who found themselves all in love with each other. Their love ended up becoming a national obsession. With a recent shed, Rose does what she can to get away from Max, and ends up finding out the hard way that her recent skin shed was not destroyed as she had been promised.
Author Aliya Whiteley is brilliant with body horror. In the past she’s created the world of The Beauty, where men become pregnant from plants and birth plant-like babies. She’s no stranger to writing about the weird and frightening ways our bodies may betray us. The Loosening Skin is frightening in a few ways. After one sheds their skin, they can burn it, but there is also a huge underground trade in skins, including a pretty horrifying trade in newborns. Readers can tell Whitley understands the inner workings of the worlds she creates. This book focuses on the ideas of obsessions, of the importance of touch, and the politics of what our memories mean. I love Whitley’s writing. The book feels very much like a film noir, albeit set in modern times.
The Loosening Skin is a fantastic read for anyone not afraid of body horror. It was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell awards.
