National Book Award finalist and Coretta Scott King Award winner Ibi Zoboi (American Street; Nigeria Jones) enters the world of young adult fantasy with the groundbreaking (S)Kin, a novel-in-verse inspired by Caribbean folklore that focuses on two struggling teens in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Fifteen-year-old Marisol and her mother, Lourdes, have just arrived from the Caribbean and have settled into a small apartment in Brooklyn. Marisol and Lourdes are soucouyants: every (metaphorical) new moon they shed their skins, shapeshift into "deadly smoke," and sip from unsuspecting souls to sustain themselves. Lourdes knows that in this new place they will be called "Undocumented. Illegal" but hopes "they will never call us monsters." Marisol, though, already feels like a monster. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the biracial daughter of a white anthropologist and an absent Black mother. The young woman yearns to make sense of herself, her history, and the "Itching. Burning" skin condition that is relieved only by the (metaphorical) full moon. Genevieve and Marisol meet when Lourdes is hired as a nanny for Genevieve's baby siblings; Lourdes and Marisol move in, and the girls develop a profound kinship.
Zoboi displays her immense talent by creating a first-class, haunting fantasy. The author's passionate verse is relayed in alternating first-person points of view, with Genevieve's lines on the left-hand side of the page and Marisol's on the right. Caribbean folklore blends with the urban environment, showcasing both characters' aching experiences as they struggle with loneliness and feeling like misfits in their own homes. (S)Kin is an outstanding, dark, and fast paced fantastical YA novel likely to be loved by fans of Children of Blood and Bone or Blood Scion. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer