When I was in Manhattan I discussed a book with Justine that she’d recommended on her blog. It’s a fantasy novel that’s been shortlisted for the US National Book Award, and she’d said it rocked (I paraphrase). When I mentioned it, a bunch of other people like Peter from Books of Wonder, Scott, and Barry also said it was great so, on Justine’s recommendation, I bought it.
The book is Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey. It’s the first in a series called ‘A Resurrection of Magic’, according to her blog a sequel called Sacred Magic is in the works, and it features the kind of cover that almost makes sure you won’t look at it. That is an enormous pity, because it is an extraordinarily good book. It’s a sometimes dark, rather mesmerising look at two people, one helping to set up a school of magic (groan now, you won’t when you read it), and another, hundreds of years later, sent to study there. It’s short and tightly written, and complex and messy in the best way.  It also features a brutal cliffhanger ending, but such is the way of series. If you like great fantasy novels, you need to read this one. Ignore the cover, and get it wherever you can. Although it’s nothing at all like it, Skin Hunger is probably the best first novel in a fantasy series I’ve read since Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass.
