Mysterious Skin Paperback – 10 May 2005

Been wanting to buy this book for a while :)

It's seems preety good, haven't read it yet though.

I loved it so much, good characters and a tragic story. Is now one of my favorite books so far (I will never read it again 😊)

Un pugno nello stomaco, commovente, disturbante e necessario, consiglio .

What a great novel. I really liked it . I recommend to watch Gregg Araki’s movie version as well .

The book surpasses the film which is saying a lot. The subject material will be difficult for some but underneath it is a tender bittersweet story.

*Spoilers*In this touching story, Scott Heim proves his worth as an outstanding storyteller.The reason that this book gets five stars from me is because the author does a lot that's relatively unique in this story. While the prose isn't Fitzgerald, it definitely has its moments. However, the strength of the book lies in the plot. The author finds a novel, creative way to address an old idea without it becoming kitsch. In and of itself, that's a pretty big accomplishment. The story also has the correct pace, length, and the character development has a lot of strengths - particularly in the character of Brian.My personal opinion is that, of most people I have read on amazon criticizing this book, many of them likely don't understand the scope of the story or just saw the movie and believe it entitles them to make claims about the book. They either think Heim is trying to make an overall statement challenging the way contemporary society views the nature of child molestation (way beyond the scope of the book) or that the author is painting a two-dimensional, reductionist view of the characters he creates in order to to prove some foregone point (which is way below the scope of the book). Instead, the author winds up rearing two very complex characters who deal with a similar experience of childhood sexual contact in two totally opposite ways. Neal externalizes the experience and looks back on it as a character developing, novel happening (saying that he didn't believe his baseball coach took away his childhood or something ridiculous like that). On the other hand, Brian internalizes the experience, isolating himself from sexual expression and interpreting the event as traumatizing. Nobody can tell either character that their interpretation of events is wrong, and this takes an otherwise creative story of small town America's eccentricities to a whole other level. On a side note, those who feel that the character of Brian is unrealistic, his loss of memory and UFO fantasies are practically textbook. It should also be said that the title is pretty imaginative as it doesn't come directly from the text anywhere.Although the book deserves five stars in my opinion, I do have one complaint about the story. Mainly, I think some of the abuse is over the top. The idea of two kids in baseball uniforms sticking their fist in somebody's ass is more absurd than traumatic or shocking to me. While the author chooses the perfect amount of detail when it comes to describing these disturbing scenes (not too much, not too little), I think the story would have been better off without that element. I believe there could have been a way where Brian could have recollected information that wasn't so off the wall. I'm sure it happens and is in some regard true to life but, as Mark Twain said, the difference between fiction and real life is that fiction should be believable.To end on a positive note, I wanted to share that a lot of psychologists actually recommend the book and movie to help young people come to terms with their own abuse. So whether or not the author was trying to, he wound up creating something that has incidentally helped a lot of people.