Bookfest 2011 #2: Turnskin by Nicole Kimberling

[atticlibrarian]

Title: Turnskin
Author: Nicole Kimberling
Summary: Raised in a remote faming community, Tom Fletcher knows little of his Shifter heritage and less about the dangerous lives that other Shifters lead in the city of Riverside. For Tom the big city is a daydream of opening nights and bright theater lights. But when Tom meets Cloud Coldmoon-the infamous and handsome heir to a criminal syndicate-everything changes. Suddenly suspected of murder, Tom must flee to the only city where his kind are common. Filled with shapeshifters, con men and mobsters and ruled by the vengeful Coldmoon Family, Riverside is as perilous as it is alluring. Tom seeks refuge in the Turnskin Theater, where his shape-changing skills can be put to good use on, and off, the stage. Here he has the change to fulfill his dreams of stardom and romance, but only if he can stay one step ahead of the police and criminals alike-otherwise the next shape he takes could be his last.
Genre: Fantasy, Gay, YA
Published: 2008
Other Information: Paperback, 259 pages
My Review: This book first came to my attention through a review at AfterElton right around the time it was released. I bought it soon after, but just got around to reading it. Most of my feelings about it are quite ambivalent. The premise itself was interesting, but in the end seemed like a cheap metaphor for being gay and an outcast. Tom's relationship with Cloud left me uncomfortable from the beginning. I didn't really understand why they were together or why they even liked each other other than both of them were Shifters and gay. Cloud himself had almost no character development until the last couple of chapters and then seemed like a completely different person than he had been the rest of the book, basically being revealed to be the type of person I didn't think him to be. For a teenager this book might hold more power, but for me it just didn't really work. In the end I was just left disappointed.