Skin

No one can sit all alone and watch tv all day. Last Sunday, I lit some candles, made some candy-cane hot chocolate (that I got at the lab Christmas party), cuddled up in my blanket and read a book. It was a book I purchased last summer because Barnes and Noble was having a killer sale. I went looking for The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (which I may write about at a later date), and got At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks, Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman (neither of which I have read yet), and Skin by Ted Dekker.

I've read books by Nicholas Sparks that made my heart ache and beat, but I am in no mood for romance right now. I started reading Misquoting Jesus, and it seems interesting, but I needed and escape. Skin is a huge departure from the type of book I typically read, but the bookstore girl gave a rave review, so I bought it. Hey, for $4.00 (that's how much the three books I didn't go to buy were) how could I loose? So, I opened up the book and began to read.

This book takes on a CSI feel early on. It is a fast moving drama/sci-fi with lots of twists and turns. I can't say that I was really surprised at the end, because I had actually guessed that ending at one point. However, there were so many possible endings that you do have to read all the way through to see. And the author writes engagingly enough to make you want to read it.

It begins with a woman traveling to the Utah Nevada border to see her mother who is a part of a cult (what? on the Utah border?). She is driving through a freak storm that is spawning tornadoes - something we don't see much of out here. She nearly hits a truck stopped on the highway, gets out of her car to investigate, and meets two of the main characters in the book. From there the book takes you on a roller coaster ride through crime scene investigation, the mind of a serial killer, and some really strange situations that don't make any sense, and can't be a part of the natural world. Will they solve the mystery and stop the killer in time? You don't know 'till page 389!

Usually I rate books by how long I daydream about them after I'm finished, or how sorry I am that the book actually ended. I was glad to get to the end of this book, and I haven't spent much time daydreaming about it. I don't think that makes it a bad book, though. It is just different from what I'm used to. I didn't really feel connected to the characters, though the author did a good job of painting them. I think the ending explained why, though. It was a fun story to try to keep up with and figure out.