One of the most impressive aspects of Break The Skin is how much the author cares about his characters, makes them real beings, and makes it hard not to have compassion for them and their circumstances. Bad things happen in this novel (murder, manipulation, threats, violence), but not least of all the environments and circumstances shaping these character’s lives, making it inconceivable for them to make the smart and healthy choices. Break The Skin is beautifully and feelingly written, and it doesn’t let go for a minute, alternating as it does between the equally compelling and drama-filled narratives of Laney and Ms. Baby. This dark tale of good girls gone bad is nearly impossible to put down once Martin starts weaving his spell, exposing the tragedy and the humanity in the wreck of these lives. Highly recommended. ( )

This was a really interesting book. There is an underlying mystery that is revealed gradually over the course of the book. The story is told from the perspective of two women - Lainey and Miss Baby. They both care for a character "Lester" aka Donnie. Each has a similar but very different relationship in that both women are desperate for love and attention and are willing to do anything for it.

The characters are very well developed. I have a penchant for strong female lead characters, and well, these don't fit that bill. Each of the female characters in this book are weak willed and are willing to do anything to get attention of their friends and to be loved. However, these flaws did make them interesting characters, I just didn't like them!

The book is a really interesting read due to the underlying mystery. I enjoyed the unveiling layer by layer despite my dislike of the female characters in the book. It was woven together very nicely and made for an enjoyable read.

Reader received a complimentary copy from Good Reads First Reads. ( )

BREAK THE SKIN by Lee Martin is an incredibly well written book told from the alternating viewpoints of two women. Laney and Baby are both yearning for happiness, and for them and the other women in this dark tale, happiness means love. Love is elusive though, and the women’s desperation makes them willing to embrace lies, magic, and delusion as they follow the rocky path laid out in Martin’s taut story.

That path begins with Laney as she is taken out of New Gilead, Illinois’s Walmart in handcuffs. From the opening pages of the book, my heart ached for this “nothing kind of girl” who hangs on to people who show her any bit of care and concern with a desperation that you can understand even as you want to shake some sense into her.

The other storyteller in the book is Miss Baby, a tattoo artist in Denton, Texas and not “the girlie sort who could turn a man’s head,” but she’s as dreamy and warm-hearted as Laney. Those qualities, which should be sweet at best and mildly irritating at their worst instead lead to varying levels of misfortune for both women.

Other major characters include Delilah, Rose, Lester, Tweet, and Poke – and they are all broken in some way and searching for something or someone to make them happy. In one conversation, Poke calls people like that “shiver spooks.” He explains that they’re “the ones close to coming apart, only no one sees that until it’s too late.”

Despite the wretchedness of all of the characters, and the awfulness of much of what is discovered as their stories unfold, I loved this book. Lee Martin’s writing in BREAK THE SKIN, gives his characters incredible depth, but without committing paragraph after paragraph to descriptions and explanations. I think the term “tightly woven” is used too often in book reviews, but this book is just that.

I’m new to Lee Martin’s books, but you can be assured I’ll be checking out his others, particularly the 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist, THE BRIGHT FOREVER. ( )

Absolutely loved this book. I found myself really caring for the characters. Martin did an excellent job with story flow and throughout the whole book I found myself completely absorbed in Miss Baby and Laneys
lives. Highly recommend. ( )

Summer is here, that time of year reserved for escapist reading. Vacation books are on the agenda now, no heavy lifting required. Lee Martin’s new novel, Break the Skin, may very well fit the bill.

Break the Skin is a light thriller with dark undertones, a story with a secret at its heart. It opens with Laney, a nineteen-year-old small-town girl, being led away from the Wal-Mart where she works by the police. Laney has a secret to spill, and she is going to take to her time doing it. First, she introduces the main players in her story: her best girlfriend, Delilah, who has never been lucky at love; her boyfriend, Lester Stipp, an odd duck who always wears a derby hat; and their former friend, Rose, who they say they have to “put away forever.”

Before Laney gets too far into her story, the point of view shifts time and location, from winter in isolated Mt. Gilead, Illinois, to sticky-hot summer in Denton, Texas, from Laney’s voice to the voice of Miss Baby, a tattoo artist. Miss Baby is fretting about her brother, who is on the run from the law and his vengeful ex-partner in crime. At first, the switch seems to have no connection to Laney and the story she has been telling. Then Miss Baby spots a man outside her shop, a man wearing a derby hat, who has forgotten his name and where he came from. She gives him a name and takes him in. Yes, Lester Stipp has appeared on Miss Baby’s doorstep, but whether he really has amnesia or is faking it, and what exactly he is running from remain a mystery.

Martin deftly makes the reader wait to find out how these two story lines, alternating between past and present, between Laney and Miss Baby, will come together. There is one thing Laney and Miss Baby clearly have in common, besides Lester Stipp: They are both desperate to love someone. Desperation is what this story is all about. These characters cling to whatever they can to escape from the confining reality of their dead-end lives. They cast spells and surround themselves with statues of fairies in the vain hope that magic will somehow save them. But it’s all self-delusion, which will unravel by the end as surely as the secret of what happened between Laney, Delilah, Lester, and Rose will be told.

What we really want from our summer reading is a chance to escape ourselves, to disappear for a while into the lives of other people. Break the Skin allows us to do that, while delivering a fast, suspenseful read. But when the story is done, we feel relieved that the tragic lives of its characters are not our own.

I received an advance review copy of this book. Article first published as Book Review: Break the Skin by Lee Martin on Blogcritics. I am the original author of this review and have the rights to republish it. (2011) ( )