Dreadful Skin [Paperback]

Cherie Priest (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2008

I ducked into a niche between a cabin and the pilot house and hiked my skirt up enough to reach down into my garter holster. I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman. Jack Gabert went to India to serve his Queen. He returned to London a violently changed man, infected with an unnatural sickness that altered his body and warped his mind. Eileen Callaghan left an Irish convent with a revolver and a secret. She knows everything and nothing about Jack's curse, but she cannot rest until he's caught. His soul cannot be saved. It can only be returned to God. In the years following the American Civil War, the nun and unnatural creature stalk one another across the United States. Their dangerous game of cat and mouse leads them along great rivers, across dusty plains, and into the no man's land of the unmarked western territories. Here are three tales of the hunt. Reader, take this volume and follow these tormented souls. Learn what you can from their struggle's against each other, against God, and against themselves.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A runaway Irish nun pursues a murderous werewolf across post–Civil War America in this riveting Southern gothic from Priest (Wings to the Kingdom). Divided into three atmospheric, slightly disjointed sections, the story opens aboard a riverboat carrying John Gabert, the werewolf, and Sister Eileen Callaghan, who's pursuing him with a Colt revolver hidden under her skirts. Gabert escapes, but Eileen is infected by the lycanthrope's blood. Nine years later, she picks up the scent, investigating a traveling Pentecostal revivalist show that leaves a trail of chewed corpses in its wake. Eileen struggles to control her own bloody urges, while fighting to protect innocents before she confronts Gabert again, two years later. Though the jumps in time make the plot feel forced, the haunting characters will keep readers turning the pages. When one must become a monster in order to kill a monster, can the hunt still be justified? This book raise tantalizing philosophical questions about good and evil as well as the roles of hunter and prey. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Far Territories (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159606191X
• ISBN-13: 978-1596061910
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cherie Priest is the author of eleven novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures Dreadnought, Clementine, and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor (Macmillan), Bloodshot and Hellbent for Bantam, and three novellas published by Subterranean Press. In addition to all of the above, she is a newly minted member of the Wild Cards Consortium - and her first foray into George R. R. Martin's superhero universe, Fort Freak (for which she wrote the frame story), will debut in 2011. Cherie's short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Subterranean Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Living Dead 2, and the Thackeray T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Though she spent most of her life in the southeast, she presently lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and a fat black cat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All my hopes fulfilled, March 12, 2007

By 

David J. Lodge (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreadful Skin (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of the werewolf story for as long as I can remember; I love those furry monstrosities above all others. So when I heard Cherie Priest, whose other novels I very much enjoyed, had was putting out a set of three connected stories about my favorite lycanthrope, I had to check it out.

But not, I'll admit, without some trepidation. As much as I did love both Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom, and as much as they showed how well she can craft a great horror story, she was about to step into my territory. She was going to have to be measured against every book I've ever read about werewolves and every movie I've seen dealing with them. Unfair expectations for any writer, to be sure, but what can I say, it's werewolves. Do them right, or not at all.

She did them much better than right! Despite being broken into what the product description calls "disjointed" sections, Dreadful Skin presents an engaging story that I had great difficulty putting down. I had no trouble transitioning from one section to the next, though all three are written in drastically different formats. I especially enjoyed how the first section, The Wreck of the Mary Byrd, was told. Here is an author who respects the reader and says "If you're smart enough to pick up this book, you're smart enough you don't need to be coddled with a basic chronological narrative." I always appreciate that.

If you're a fan of werewolves, of horror in general, or if you just want an example of some quality storytelling, I highly recommend Dreadful Skin. My only complaint (which should be taken as a compliment) is that it left me wanting more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Werewolves, Guns, Nuns, oh my!, March 6, 2007

By 

Dawn R. Burnell (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreadful Skin (Hardcover)

This is a story of man who suffers and causes suffering, a nun who hunts him and yet battles her own problems, and the West as it was when it was still unknown.

Priest does an gives us three individual stories that weave together to create a cloth of excellent chilling horror. Not the gore filled horror of our movies, but the skin crawling, spine tingling, wonder what lies in the shadows kind. The voice is strong, as usual for Priest. The characters are interesting, flawed and real. The history of the area is woven in very well and you really get a sense of what the Old West might have been like if werewoles had walked among us.

The only flaw I would say is that while the stories weave together, there are snags that prevent the cloth from hanging all correctly. It seems clear that one of the stories was the main thrust and the other two were written to fill it out. And there is some differences and confusions as the result of it being 3 stories instead of a novel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid., March 5, 2007

By 

John J. Nevins "jess nevins" (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreadful Skin (Hardcover)

Solid historical information, excellent characterization and voice, top-notch creation of environment, and a werewolf-hunting, pistol-packing nun. What's not to love?