Skin Folk, Nalo Hopkinson, Warner Aspect, 2001, 255 pp.

Skin Folk is an excellent collection of stories by a talented writer. Some of the stories here are science fiction, some resemble fables, and there's even a sprinkling of horror, but what unites all of them is Hopkinson's deftness, insight, and vivid prose. Not every writer merits their own collection of short pieces, and this honour comes relatively early in Hopkinson's career: she has written two novels and edited an anthology. Skin Folk is a welcome addition to her oeuvre.

A number of the stories in Skin Folk will be familiar to readers, two in particular for those who have read Hopkinson's other works. "Tan-Tan and Dry Bone" is an excerpt from Midnight Robber, Hopkinson's stunning second novel. This excerpt is one of the folk tales that grow up around the main character of that book, so it stands well on its own. "The Glass Bottle Trick" is from Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction, the anthology which Hopkinson edited. It's an effective story of repression and revenge.

Skin Folk also has stories from other anthologies. "A Habit of Waste," probably the only weak story of the bunch, can be found in Northern Suns. "Money Tree," a story about family ties and the corrupting power of wealth, is from Tesseracts6. Two stories are from Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora: "Greedy Choke Puppy" and "Ganger (Ball Lightning)." The first is an exercise in narrative points of view, put to the use of bringing the reader inside the skin of some unusual people. It's also one of the few stories I've read that managed to surprise me with its ending; usually stories of this type are extremely predictable. "Ganger (Ball Lightning)" is perhaps Skin Folk's most intriguing story. It's about love, peril, and what might happen with the future of bedroom toys.

Other anthologies to which Hopkinson contributed include Northern Frights 5, with the story "Slow Cold Chick," and two fairy-tale-retold anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Black Swan, White Raven and Silver Birch, Blood Moon, represented here by "Riding the Red" and "Precious." "Slow Cold Chick" is perhaps urban horror, perhaps magic realism, with a woman whose inner attributes are externalized in a way she was not expecting. "Riding the Red" is a short retelling of Little Red Riding Hood from the point of view of the grandmother, an old woman whose thoughts about the wolf wander. "Precious" is about a woman who has jewels or flowers fall out of her mouth every time she speaks. Hopkinson sets the story in contemporary times, and extrapolates from there.

The other stories are from smaller magazines or are original to this collection. "Something To Hitch Meat To" explores the common issue in science fiction of embodiment; a man who works for a porn web site begins to have what could be hallucinations or even flickers in reality. "Snake" is even more overtly horror than "Slow Cold Chick" and is the most disturbing story in the book. The snake of the title is a serial killer who has stalked his prey without opposition, at least until now. "Under Glass" is a strange story, attempting the surreal but not quite succeeding. What would happen if our world was filled with shards of glass? Not a pleasant place to live. "Fisherman" is the least fantastic of any of the stories in Skin Folk; as Hopkinson says in the introduction to the story: "It felt like a tale that needed to be grounded in the potential for reality" (119). The title character is actually a woman, trying to fit in among her macho colleagues, up to and including their weekly trip to the village bordello. "Fisherman" is certainly the steamiest story in the book. "And the Lilies-Them A-Blow" tells the story of a woman named Samantha, unhappy with her job and hearing nursery rhymes in the strangest places. "Whose Upward Flight I Love" is a short and whimsical piece about urban trees trying to escape the squalor of their surroundings.

Skin Folk is a wonderful collection, filled with a variety, one inventive story after another. Most collections have only one or two worthwhile stories, while Skin Folk has only one or two stories that are not worthwhile. Highly recommended.

Last modified: March 21, 2002

Copyright © 2002 by James Schellenberg (james@jschellenberg.com)