Review: Skin by Ted Dekker

I just finished reading a thriller called Skin by Ted Dekker.

Summary: Whew, how to summarize this one?! Okay . . . a freak storm brings five random people together in the small town of Summerville. There, they encounter a mysterious and stealthy killer, Red, who is after them, for reasons unknown to them. The five of them, including Wendy, a former cult survivor, and Colt, a cop, take shelter in a library for several days where the mysterious Red hides and forces them to play his creepy games. He wants them to choose the "ugliest" of the five and kill them, and in the meantime, he'll be on a killing spree in the town, until they decide.

The strange thing is, when they initially go outside, they see nothing but sand and desert land which has covered the town after the storm, but a few hours the later, the town has reappeared. The next day, they see only sand again . . . then the town. The FBI are also involved in the case, and sometimes are able to get in contact with Colt, Wendy and the others (when they can see the town), but not all the time (when they can see only the desert). This leads the FBI to think that either Wendy, Colt and company are collaboratively Red, or that something is wrong in their minds . . .

My Thoughts: WHOA! Okay. This book was full of suspense and was also a total psychological thriller, which I was not expecting. It was full of twists, turns and surprises, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After about a hundred pages or so, I could not stop turning the pages! I did take issue with this book though for a couple of reasons: there were WAY too many characters, to the point that I could not really keep them all straight. I did like the conclusion though, which had a real shocker that I did not see coming at all. My only problem with the ending was the last page or so which I felt could have been tied up more nicely. I did like the conclusion as a whole though, what with the shock factor and all. All in all, this was an interesting and suspenseful read with a couple of setbacks. I'd read Ted Dekker's work again.

My Rating: 3.5/5