Under Their Skin, 1 (Under Their Skin, #1)

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Twelve-year-old twins Nick and Eryn investigate why their mother and new stepfather are keeping secrets, why they are forbidden to meet their stepsiblings, and, most important, why their lives are in danger.

• ISBN10: 1481417584
• ISBN13: 9781481417587
• Publish Date: 5 January 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[mrs_mander_reads]

It took me about two and a half hours to read this. Haddix is a genius when it comes to hooking the reader. As of yet, I haven't met a book I didn't like from her. I can't wait to grab the second book from work and start recommending this one to my older kids. Great story.

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


This sounded so much better than it ended up being. Unfortunately, most of what ended up irking me I can't explain due to the fact it's so spoilery that it would ruin the surprise/suspense of the entire book.

So let's see... I was expecting something creepy, something completely different as the reason for why Nick and Eryn weren't allowed to meet their stepsiblings. It was a little interesting at first, once we find out what the reason is. But then it just got uninteresting to me.

There were lots of mentions about how dangerous such-and-such a thing would be, if the kids let on that they knew. (And this was in regards to more than one 'surprise' in the book.) But it seemed too detached from any actual danger or consequences for me. Also, the entire explanation about how this one thing all started, didn't click on my believability scale.

Their mother annoyed me from the first pages, all that shrink-talk and not seeming very warm to her children. Which totally made sense later in the book, but still irked me. In fact, other than Nick and Eryn themselves, most of the characters came across as pretty flat. The twins did too in some scenes, but at least they felt more alive than the other characters.

I also didn't like the ending. Sounded like it was just setting up something that would be very very bad, and exactly what they were all trying to avoid. I most likely will not be reading the next book in the series.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon