(ARC) Book Review: SKULK by Rosie Best

Skulk
by Rosie Best
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Expected Publication October 1st 2013 by Strange Chemistry
ARC Source: NetGalley

When Meg witnesses the dying moments of a shapeshifting fox and is given a beautiful and powerful stone, her life changes forever. She is plunged into the dark world of the Skulk, a group of shapeshifting foxes.

As she learns about the other groups of shapeshifters that lurk around London – the Rabble, the Horde, the Cluster and the Conspiracy – she becomes aware of a deadly threat against all the shapeshifters. They must put aside all their enmity and hostility and fight together to defeat it.

MY REVIEW

The plot caught me, shapeshifters? They're my kind of fantasy creatures aside from vampires! This is my first time to read something focused about humans shifting into ravens, spiders, butterflies, and rats. And I learned new collective terms like horde and rabble.

I like Meg's personality. How artistic she is by putting into art whatever she feels. Especially the portrait of her mother. I love how she left her artworks/graffiti on walls, bathroom doors and elsewhere she likes. I love to draw, too. But I still don't have the guts to leave my marks anywhere I like. And I salute Meg for that because for me, it's not vandalism. It's art.

Then, Meg became a fox shifter when she witnessed the death of one member of the Skulk. I don't understand how easily she was able to adjust with the change. She enjoyed it immediately, when in fact, she shouldn't. I mean, shouldn't she panic about it at first? Freak out? Get scared? Ask questions and seek answers out of nowhere?

There's a lot of bloody scenes in the story. And I don't like it because I don't get it. Why were those kids at school got killed? Who covered the whole story about it?

To be honest enough, half of the book bored me. Most of the scenes were about searching for some shifter and it's clear that there's an argument among the animal shifter but the reason was not stated. So I don't really know who I should dwell to. Plus, the villain was nearly lost in the book. It focused too much on the fight among the shifters which is not clear why.

Most of the scenes in the story wasn't clear and gave me a lot of questions.

Well, I love the part where Meg discovered who this "E3" is and what's the real meaning behind the artist's codename. Overall, it was okay. The writing and word building is good. I just hope there's a next installment that will make things better and clearer for me.

MY RATING

IT WAS OKAY.