The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley
The award-winning author of The Beauty returns with a compelling and bizarre tale of losing skin, falling in love, and moving on. includes a unique short story set in the Loosening Skin universe.
Celebrity bodyguard Rose Allington has a rare condition and works as one. Her rapid moults alter every aspect of her life, including who she is, who she loves, and whom she can trust.
We move on and let go of the ties to our previous lives because we live in a society where individuals shed their skin. But if you know the right people, you may buy and touch those memories of love.
Superstar actor Max Black, a previous customer of Rose’s, is addicted to Suscutin, a brand-new wonder medicine that stops the moult. Max is aware that his skins are valuable and that moulting would jeopardize his career.
Max needs the best employee he’s ever had, even if she isn’t the same person when one of his skins is stolen and the theft is an inside job.
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley
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A fantastic but difficult read. People in Whitey’s world lose their sentiments and emotions when they slough off their skins every seven years. If you get new skin, you get a new life; the old one just ends. And all of our connections and our affection. The protagonist of the narrative has an unusual condition that causes her to moult more frequently than usual. She has a lot of experience disguising herself. She doesn’t love anyone, but when her ex-lover, Max, hires her to find a stolen old skin, things become complicated. A surprising twist and drama result from an intriguing finding.
The story focuses on two characters: a bodyguard who reacts violently to every skin-shedding and a superstar who became famous after joining a group of six lovers. It moves ahead at a great pace because the writing is quite sparse. Though that undoubtedly matches the characters’ mood as they reflect on their emotionally distant pasts, it can occasionally feel extremely impersonal. Even though it makes for a more well-rounded plot overall, the abrupt change in character focus about halfway through is a little disconcerting.
Overall, this definitely feels a little too condensed, and the author might have researched the issue in even more detail, but there are still plenty of intriguing concepts here for this to be worth reading.
