“The challenges or terrors met are vehicles to see the characters (and ourselves) more clearly.​”

​One review I read speaks to the “breadth” of Hopkinson’s work, and I will start by underscoring this. Not at all merely a collection of “folk horror” which I half-expected, Hopkinson demonstrates stories across a wide range of protagonists, a bevy of settings and circumstance, and through a plethora of styles suited to situation. Not merely horror, Skin Folk steps into the weird, the fantastic, the magical, all while speaking sometimes brazenly to contemporary attitudes and social criticism.

I often write that if a few stories of any anthology stand out, the anthology I call successful. Here, most every story compelled me from its opening pages, not because I wanted to uncover the supernatural premise but because I wanted to learn more about her characters: the challenges or terrors met are vehicles to see them (and ourselves) more clearly.

I admit I found the collection only because I was seeking her Red Riding Hood spin, “Riding the Red,” which–while fun–was one of the weaker stories here, only because we have seen it done. If wanted anything more from the stories which followed, it was more. In other words, while Hopkinson captured me with her moments of obscurities and spirits, it felt like the stories could barely contain the characters and worlds she offered. She needed space. Far from a criticism in the end, this only means I must now turn to her novels where she can stretch a bit!