Book: The Skin Was Once Mine

Author: Eric LaRocca

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced audio copy.

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I love horror and find it so difficult to find good horror books. The Skin Was Once Mine is a book with four horror short stories. Of the four I was hoping to like at least one but to my surprise and pleasure, I enjoyed 3 out of the 4.

The first story has the same title as the book, The Skin Was Once Mine which follows a woman grieving the loss of her father. When secrets get brought to life everything can change for Jillian. Of the three stories I liked, this one was at the bottom but it was still a good way to start. It’s weird to say this about a short story but I felt this one was a little too long and dragged at some parts. 

The next story was my second favorite and possibly the most disturbing, called Seedling. In Seedling, a father and son mourn the loss of their wife and mother. They both notice a black wound on themselves and that’s all I’m going to say. From there it just got disturbing but in a way that will keep you interested but also grossed out.

My favorite story in this collection was All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn. This was also disturbing but after the last story and how that all played out nothing was going to top that. This is about a man who buys a knife for his husband and gets introduced to a cult with a very strange obsession. It involved putting pieces of glass under their skin. For something so strange and disturbing this had the best plot and the most character development and I recommend this book for this story alone.

The book’s final story is called Prickle. Prickle followed two men trying to play an old game they used to play. This story never sucked me in and I felt it was over before it even began. I would have loved to have seen this book end with a bang but at least it was a fun ride.

Final score: 4/5