Skin Folk

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By Nalo Hopkinson

Publisher Description

The SFWA Grand Master’s award-winning collection “combines a richly textured multicultural background with incisive storytelling” (Library Journal).

In Skin Folk, with works ranging from science fiction to Caribbean folklore, passionate love to chilling horror, Nalo Hopkinson is at her award-winning best, spinning tales like “Precious,” in which the narrator spews valuable coins and gems from her mouth whenever she attempts to talk or sing. In “A Habit of Waste,” a self-conscious woman undergoes elective surgery to alter her appearance; days later she’s shocked to see her former body climbing onto a public bus. In “The Glass Bottle Trick,” the young protagonist ignores her intuition regarding her new husband’s superstitions—to horrifying consequences.

Hopkinson’s unique pacing and vibrant dialogue sets a steady beat for stories that illustrate why she received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Entertaining, challenging, and alluring, Skin Folk is not to be missed.

Praise for Nalo Hopkinson and the World Fantasy Award–winning Skin Folk

“Hopkinson’s prose is vivid and immediate.” —The Washington Post Book World

“An important new writer.” —The Dallas Morning News

“Her descriptions of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances ring true, the result of her strong evocation of place and her ear for dialect.” —Publishers Weekly

“A marvelous display of Nalo Hopkinson’s talents, skills and insights into the human conditions of life, especially of the fantastic realities of the Caribbean . . . Everything is possible in her imagination.” —Science Fiction Chronicle

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89 Reviews

3.5

Vanessa🐈‍⬛🫖🍄

Created 12 days ago

V.Will

Created 14 days ago

“This was very hard to read. I liked about 4 of the stories. I wanted to try but I’m also really not a fan of short stories.”

Inconsistent Confusing Hard to follow Takes getting used to

R. Schumann

Created 18 days ago

“These stories are filled with so much richness, but none of them were easy to digest. With many of the stories, I found I had to give myself over to not knowing what was happening for the earliest part of the story—this is challenging in the span of a short story. In spite of how challenging many of the stories were for me, there was much to be absorbed—grappling with internalized hatred of the Black body (multiple stories), critiques of technology, folklore and folk culture, empowerment of women in the face of so much violence. Favorite stories: Money Tree A Habit of Waste Warnings (beyond fable’s options): pedophilia.”

Reviewed in:Calypso, Palm Trees & Sazon 🌴

Diverse representation Inconsistent Original Atmospheric Takes getting used to Abuse Child abuse Domestic violence Misogyny Racism Violence

heyitsaugusta

Created 23 days ago

“I love SFF, but I sometimes struggle with short stories. And for such a legendary author, I found this collection surprisingly uneven. I DNF a few of the stories in the collection and had to keep convincing myself to come back to the collection overall. I have a few of Nalo Hopkinson's novels on my TBR, so I will try those. But this isn't a book I'd recommend. I don't feel like I got a sense of her as an author, since the stories were so wide-ranging. What I will say is that there were quite a few stories that seemed (to me, an outsider) very rooted in Caribbean stories and cultures, and that is always an approach I enjoy diving into.”

Reviewed in:Calypso, Palm Trees & Sazon 🌴

Sarah-Ann Mitchell

Created 23 days ago

“I really love how the author utilized Caribbean folklore in her stories. It was such a wide range of stories to keep the brain churning. I feel like fantasy doesn’t quite capture it… there are elements of horror, thriller, comedy. Some stories were uncomfortable to read and others were very immersive. This is not a light/leisure read”

Reviewed in:Calypso, Palm Trees & Sazon 🌴

Memorable Original Takes getting used to

About Nalo Hopkinson

<DIV>Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica and has lived in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada. The daughter of a poet/playwright and a library technician, she has won numerous awards including the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, and Canada's Sunburst Award for literature of the fantastic. Her award-winning short fiction collection Skin Folk was selected for the 2002 New York Times Summer Reading List and was one of the New York Times Best Books of the Year. Hopkinson is also the author of The New Moon's Arms, The Salt Roads, Midnight Robber, and Brown Girl in the Ring. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, and splits her time between California, USA, and Toronto, Canada.</DIV>