Skin by Ted Dekker

The subtitle of Skin is "don't trust your eyes." It couldn't be more accurate.

The town of Summerville is about to be ravaged by three tornadoes a nearby storm has spawned off. When the tornadoes blow over, the entire town is covered in sand. There are only five apparent survivors-a police officer and four citizens. They are all being stalked by a killer by the name of Sterling Red, a man who wants to settle a past score with each of them.

As Red keeps telling them to do more and more things, life gets more and more crazier for the five survivors. Nothing makes any sense as it seems that Red is in complete control over their lives.

Trying to summarize the plot of Skin in a few sentences is nearly impossible to do. For one thing, it would take too long, and for another, it would ruin the highly original end.

But first things first. First, the characters are Dekker's usual brand of imperfection. They all make mistakes and behave like normal humans would in this certain situation.

Sterling Red is another one of Dekker's strange, almost comical villains. He acts almost like Marsuvees Black in a sense.

Even though things seem to become highly absurd and far-fetched in the middle, just stay the course and don't give up on the plot. The end awaits you. Don't give up even when it seems like the same thing keeps happening over and over again without explanation.

I couldn't have come up with a better end than the end Dekker wrote. It surprised me and delighted me at the same time. There wasn't a single plot hole at the end. Every unexplainable aspect was explained.

Not only was the end surprising, but it was also imperfect. There are several key character deaths, one of which I can't believe Dekker did.

As usual with a Ted Dekker book, Skin is loosely connected with Project Showdown and the Circle. I heard someone else say that it was connected, so I assumed that Sterling Red was just another Marsuvees Black creation. Thank God I was wrong.

All in all, Skin is an example of Dekker's inner originality that only comes out at certain times. I hope in the future that this originality will appear more.

5 stars