Skin Deep - Softcover

Jarratt, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405256729 ISBN 13: 9781405256728

Publisher: Egmont UK, 2015

Synopsis

An against-the-odds love story at the heart of a book for teens about prejudice, courage, and a dark, compelling mystery—shortlisted for a Romantic Novelists Association Award

Ugly people don’t have feelings. They’re not like everyone else. They don’t notice if you stare at them and turn away. And if they did notice, it wouldn’t hurt them. They’re not like real people. Or that’s what I used to think. Before I learned . . . .

After the car crash that leaves her best friend dead, Jenna is permanently scarred. She struggles to rebuild her life, but every stare in the street, every time she looks in the mirror, makes her want to retreat further from the world. Until she meets Ryan. Ryan's a traveler. When he and his mother moor their narrow boat on the outskirts of a village, she tells him this time it will be different. He doesn't believe her; he can't imagine why this place shouldn't be as unwelcoming as the rest. Until he meets Jenna. But as Jenna and Ryan grow closer, repercussions from the crash continue to reverberate through the community. And then a body is found.

About this title

About the Author:

Laura Jarratt is the author of By Any Other Name.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 7 Up—In this story of love and recovery, two teenagers fall for each other while dealing with transience, family strife, and scars both physical and emotional. Told in alternating perspectives, the novel opens with 14-year-old Jenna about to experience the car accident that kills her best friend and gives her a disfiguring scar. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Ryan is dealing with his bipolar hippie mother as they travel around the UK on a narrow boat. Both teens have to cope with perceptions and prejudice—Jenna about her recovery from and involvement in the car crash, Ryan about his life as a non-Roma (a subset of a persecuted European minority) traveler. Their relationship develops well over time, though at some points Ryan seems a little too good to be true. However, he does make some teenage errors in judgment. When the boy who caused Jenna's car accident is found dead, Ryan is the most obvious target to blame. At times, the moral lesson—the relative unimportance of physical beauty compared with other qualities—is a bit heavy-handed, but this does not interfere too much with the reading experience, and Jenna's post-traumatic interior life is realistic and understated rather than gratuitous and exploitative. VERDICT A suspenseful, satisfying read about first relationships in the midst of coping with various traumas.—Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City

About this edition

• Publisher: Egmont UK
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1405256729
• ISBN 13: 9781405256728
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384