(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

e-Audio, 06:15:39
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin & Robin Miles
Release Date: February 11, 2025
Published by: Versify
Read from: January 31-February 1, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this e-ALC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review.)
Content Warning: Racism, Child Death
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Dual POV, Fantasy, Full Cast Audio, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Pre-Ordered, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, YA, Novel in Verse

    From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.
     Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.
     Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.
     But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.

*MY THOUGHTS*

It didn’t take much for me to be excited about this. I LOVE anything about Ibi Zoboi, but when she added the little bit about her culture? Yeahhhhh that pushed it from the Must Read category to the Must Read Now category. And I’m glad I didn’t wait because this was so good!

I’m not a huge fan of novels in verse. I never have been. Only because I feel like they usually leave like a huge chunk out of the books since they’re told in verse. But this one had more in-depth and didn’t feel like it left anything else out at all. I loved it so much. This actually felt less like a novel in verse and more like a regular novel, so that helped me to feel more comfortable with this one. But even still, looking at the pages in the e-ARC, it still does have that healthy amount of white space on the page that the teens love.

The other thing that teens love is the weird factor. And this one doesn’t shy away from that. It’s about soucouyants that are found in Caribbean folklore. And of course, this is crazy to me. I have never knew anything about a soucouyant before, so this was interesting to learn about. I went down a rabbit hole to find out the actual stories of them and they were pretty cool. (And pretty creepy if I’m being honest lolol) They appear as an old woman during the day and a fireball at night. I thought this was interesting because these were teens, but I swear Ibi thought of everything because the whole book was her mom basically “guiding” her and I was like oh she’s teaching her how to survive what she is. So dope.

That plot twist was crazy tho. I knew she was capable after the thing with her mom, but yeah I wasn’t expecting that to happen. And the way they were just like eh ok? How can you trust her after this? Like I have so many questions lol I was so invested into this story and Ibi just blew it up in my face with that ending. It feels like it wasn’t resolved tho, so I’m hoping that means there’s a sequel? Because I need to know what happens.

And even tho the plot twist was brutal, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the colorism it shines light on. Colorism plays a huge part in the plot twist; like the reasoning behind it. And that part broke my heart. Ibi made me feel so conflicted over her. That was a terrible thing to do, but her rationale and reasoning behind it as a teen especially made sense. And I felt even worse when she realized things weren’t what she thought they were. I was glad that she acknowledged the privilege, but still also acknowledged the pain she had unknowingly as well. It was sad, but at the same time, I hope she got some healing out of it in some shape or way.

This was the first novel in verse that I thoroughly enjoyed in a long time. This one didn’t feel as if it were lacking anything and I appreciate that so much. This is going to be a very cool book to push onto my co-workers who are looking for that fantasy aspect. I can’t wait to talk about it more.

Overall, I give this