(S)Kin: Novel in Verse

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 | Culture, magic, folklore in a fast paced novel in verse

My Thoughts: 

Theme/Plot --

Zoboi handles themes like colonialism, colorism, racism, and identity in a fast-paced raw feat of storytelling. The way a monster keeps track of who hurt her over a month waiting for transition, the implications of calling Daniel "The Collector," the different twists that happen throughout the novel are all part of the magic that seems like less urban fantasy and more about vengeance dreaming come to life on the streets of New York. Maybe this is happening still? I hope so. 

Zoboi, as an author, takes her Haitian background and infuses each work with the magical realism that allows her characters to address contemporary issues in a way where they both win and lose at the same time. Perhaps like Byron Graves' Medicine Wheels, happy endings for marginalized characters contain both loss and gain. There is no story where everyone wins. That is what makes this another powerful piece from Zoboi. 

Recommendations -- 

If your readers like this, send them to some of her other works: American Street, Punching the Air with Yusef Salaam, Okoye to the People: A Black Panther novel and Pride, her update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I think Zoboi's Pride should actually be read or listened to first before reading the original. If they are younger middle, send them to Okoye first. 

Personal Reading Experience -- 

The only issue I had was completely external: I had to return my iPad when my huband retired, so I ended up reading this book entirely on my phone. When reading a novel in verse on a phone screen, the intentional formatting and white space decisions made by the author do not always translate well. I found myself reading lines jammed up on the far right, and some poems were even missing the beginning of words. While it has nothing to do with the book itself or my Kindle library, the formatting glitch was frustrating enough that I skipped a few poems when my eyes got tired.

From the Publisher:

“Our new home with its

thick walls and locked doors

wants me to stay trapped in my skin—

but I am fury and flame.”

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.

Publication Information:

• Author: Ibi Zoboi
• Publisher: Versify
• Publication Date: February 11, 2025
• Print length: 400 pages
• Reading Age: 13 years and up