Skin

by Kathe Koja

Overview

Tess burns. Bibi cuts. Together they create chaos, love, pain, and unstoppable art, in SKIN, the story of a partnership that sparks like flying metal and bleeds like a breaking heart. A classic of queer horror, with a brand new introduction from Eric LaRocca.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781946154903
Publisher:	Meerkat Press
Publication date:	04/22/2025
Edition description:	Third edition
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kathe Koja writes novels and short fiction, and creates and produces immersive fiction performances, both solo and with a rotating ensemble of artists. Her work crosses and combines genres, and her books have won awards, been multiply translated, and optioned for film and performance. She is based in Detroit and thinks globally. She can be found at kathekoja.com. Eric LaRocca (he/they) is the author of several works of horror and dark fiction, including the viral sensation Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and currently resides in Boston, MA with his partner. For more information, please follow @hystericteeth on Twitter/Instagram or visit ericlarocca.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Unexpectedly poignant … Sentences as sharp and to the point as a scrotal stud.” —Spin Magazine

“The language Koja employs is fresh and astonishing, harsh yet beautiful.” —Washington Post

“Torqued! Twisted, man, as the new Abyss line plunges forward with its plan to advance through the frontiers of psychological horror. Koja fulfills Abyss’s hopes with a savage hymn to industrial culture. … A strong stylist, Koja makes white-hot the pains of metal sculpting and draws a big picture of S&M bars and byways before bringing on her big show as Bibi decides to go all the way and, with razor and scalpel, just about get out of her skin—or help a friend out of his. Beyond the styptic pencil and safety blades.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A dark and frightening work by a major talent whose prose reads like a collaboration between Clive Barker and William S. Burroughs. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal

“Skin is a deadly performance in silence and scream . . . Each page is white hot and fluid, ductile and distorting, a fierce sense of dark metal energy. No one is safe.” —Eugen Bacon, British Fantasy Award winner and Philip K. Dick Award finalist

“Don’t let the title fool you—Skin has many layers of flesh to bare. An intoxicating, provocative dance of art and artist. Koja’s vision is unmatched.” —Hailey Piper, author of A Game in Yellow

“SKIN is one of one. A classic of American horror so unquestionably of its time but also timeless. It reads as if it wasn’t written in ink but in melted ferrous that burns a hole in your soul. It is an industrial baroque masterpiece.” —S.A. Cosby, author of All the Sinners Bleed

“This vivid tale of tortured human souls reads like a piece of performance art … Highly unsettling and extremely satisfying. Sit back and experience it.” —Becky Spratford, Library Journal

"Often wrought with short declarative and descriptive sentences that feel more like the character’s internal monologue. Yes, it is fairly arresting in its brevity and directness, and there’s a palpable sense of cold disconnect, as if we’re reading off a fact sheet of observations written in shorthand. And that’s what is, in this writer’s opinion, so brilliant about it – it feels detached because the characters are detached. Emotional responses don’t burn with a white hot exuberance, but with a stolid stillness that, almost contradictorily, provides a sense of rhythm." —Ilker Yücel, Regen Magazine

From the Publisher