Under My Skin
Under My Skin book cover

Under My Skin

Paperback – October 2, 2018

by
Price
$14.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
368
Publisher
Park Row
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0778369783
Dimensions
5.91 x 0.99 x 8.96 inches
Weight
14.1 ounces

Description

PRAISE FOR UNDER MY SKIN “For a story that is steeped in grief and darkness, Unger’s steady hand keeps hope shining throughout, so it’s not difficult to enjoy this captivating thriller.” — The Washington Post “Enthralling.” — Tampa Bay Times "Lisa Unger's deliciously intense and addictive thriller got under my skin. I picked it up, was drawn into this dark, tangled tale, and couldn't pull away until it was done. Gripping suspense at its best." —Karin Slaughter, # 1 International and New York Times bestselling author of THE GOOD DAUGHTER"UNDER MY SKIN is a twisting labyrinth of a book where nothing is as it seems, dreams bleed into reality, and the past is the future. Lisa Unger is one of my favorite writers. And in this tilt-a-whirl of a psychological thriller, she's at the top of her game." —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of LOOK FOR ME“Unger brings the reader along as her narrator's grip on reality is tested and keeps the twists coming in this standout thriller.” — Kirkus Reviews , starred review "As Unger builds suspense, blurring the lines between dreams and reality, she considers how well one person can ever know another, as secrets abound. Another fine psychological thriller from a master of the genre." — Booklist, starred review "UNDER MY SKIN is a perfectly dark and unsettling, spellbinding thriller. Told with both eloquence and urgency, Unger knows just how to hook her readers and reel them in. This book is not to be missed." — Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl "Grief leads to self-destructive behavior in this searing psychological thriller from bestseller Unger." — Publishers Weekly "How do we know the difference between memories and nightmares? Under My Skin is a twisty, captivating psychological thriller that explores the lingering toll of grief and the enduring power of love and loyalty. This is Lisa Unger at the top of her game." — Alafair Burke , New York Times bestselling author of The Wife PRAISE FOR LISA UNGER "One of the brightest stars in the game." — Dennis Lehane "Will make your jaw drop." — Cosmopolitan "Gets better and better with each book." — Karin Slaughter "Such a ride you don't want the whirligig to stop." — New York Daily News "Writes with sharp psychological insight." — Luanne Rice "Keeps the adrenaline pumping." — People "What are you waiting for?" — Harlan Coben "A hurricane." — Entertainment Weekly "Grabs readers from word one and never lets go." — Lisa Gardner Lisa Unger is a NYT and internationally bestselling author. Her books are published in 32 languages, with millions of copies sold worldwide. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few writers including Agatha Christie. Her work has been named on "Best Book" lists from Today, People, GMA, EW, Amazon, IndieBound and many others. She has written for the NYT, WSJ, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. She lives in Florida with her family.

Features & Highlights

  • PopSugar’s Best Mysteries & Thrillers to Read in Fall 2018 Nominated for the 2019 Edgar Award
  • CrimeReads
  • Best Book of 2018
  • Booklist’s
  • Best New Book One of the Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2018 from
  • CrimeReads
  • One of Fall 2018’s Most Exciting New Mysteries & Thrillers by Bookish
  • Bookbub’s
  • One of the Biggest, Most Anticipated Thrillers of the Season, Fall 2018 Best Mystery Book Pick, and Editors’ Pick
  • Library Journal
  • 2018 Killer Thriller. From
  • New York Times
  • bestselling author and master of suspense Lisa Unger comes an addictive psychological thriller about a woman on the hunt for her husband’s killer.
  • What if the nightmares are actually memories?
  • It’s been a year since Poppy’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan’s Riverside Park. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiraled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused wearing a tight red dress she didn’t recognize. What happened to Poppy during those lost days? And more importantly, what happened to Jack? The case was never solved, and Poppy has finally begun to move on. But those lost days have never stopped haunting her. Poppy starts having nightmares and blackouts—there are periods of time she can’t remember, and she’s unable to tell the difference between what is real and what she’s imagining. When she begins to sense that someone is following her, Poppy is plunged into a game of cat and mouse, determined to unravel the mystery around her husband’s death. But can she handle the truth about what
  • really
  • happened?

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(371)
★★★★
25%
(309)
★★★
15%
(185)
★★
7%
(86)
★
23%
(284)

Most Helpful Reviews

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DOMESTIC NOIR

The paperback version is 361 pages. The first 260 pages belabor Poppy's fractured days in a chemical haze because she's mixing pills of all kinds with too much alcohol & is having disjointed wild dreams.

Her husband was killed a year ago. He was attacked while running. They beat him to death. Two days after his funeral, Poppy had a meltdown & ended up in psychiatric hospital with no memory of the days immediately proceeding the murder or after.

It's not until page 322 that things FINALLY get interesting. In the final 39 pages of text, we learn who killed Jack & why.
25 people found this helpful
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Awful

Terrible,sooo repetitive I wonder if author has memory problems,writes the same things over and over. Not suspenseful,just a jumble of memories and the whole stupid story is reviled in the last 40 pages out of 360. Never understand how publishers pick certain books and not others to put out there. I love mysteries but this was more a Harlequin novel written for women with need to read about hunky men with blue eyes.
5 people found this helpful
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Good unreliable narrator

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book as I've read several thrillers with an aspect of dreaming/memory loss over the last few years - some good and some not-so-much. I'd heard good things about this author, so I was excited to see what direction she took the book in!

If I'm being honest, I did find parts of the book a little hard to follow. There were several times I had to flip back to see if a specific part of the book was set in the current timeline, in the past, or if it was a dream/memory, which did make the book a little tricky in certain points. Personally, I feel that these sections of the book could have been made more clear, and probably would have resulted in a higher rating from me. What did work well was the confusion around the dreams/lost memories - the reader was totally in the dark about what was real and what wasn't, as was the main character. This resulted in the reader really feeling the same sense of confusion and instability that Poppy was experiencing, which lent well to the "unreliable narrator" aspect of the book, as well as the overall creep factor.

I liked the ending of the book for the most part - I had an idea pretty early on around what happened, and wasn't far off track. There were a few loose ends that weren't tied up, and I would have liked some answers for those things. Overall, I did enjoy the book, despite the hangups I had that I mentioned above. I found myself engrossed in the story and had a hard time putting it down, so I got through it pretty quickly. If you like books that have unreliable narrators, plots involving lost memories or dream sequences that blend with reality, this will be a good choice for you.
3 people found this helpful
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Another great thriller by Unger

I love Lisa Unger's thrillers, and this book is no exception. She really knows how to build up creepy suspense, and how to weave in calming, soothing characters to hold your hand throughout the way. Poppy is a sympathetic character, living a nightmarish, newly-widowed existence. She seeks mental solace in her best friend, Layla, and her shrink, Dr. Nash. She seeks physical solace in meds, some prescribed, some not. Unger does her usual amazing job of making the reader feel like he/she is suffering right along with Poppy.

The only aspect of the book that I found annoying was the use of dream/memory sequences. It was a little too much for me, but I'm someone who fast forwards through all the dream sequences in The Sopranos. It's my own preference, but I do understand that these literary devices serve a purpose.
2 people found this helpful
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The Ultimate Unreliable Narrator

Unreliable narrators have become incredibly popular since the explosive success of “Gone Girl.” Poppy, the narrator in Lisa Unger’s Under My Skin might be the most unreliable narrator of all, or so it seems. She has more than a “lost weekend” after her husband’s murder. She has a breakdown, disappearing and showing up days later with no memory of where she went or what she did. As it approaches a year since his death, she might be remembering things, but then again, she could be hallucinating or dreaming. She’s not sure what is and is not reality.

However, she’s pretty sure someone is following her. She knows her husband’s murder is unsolved, and she thinks there might be answers in those lost days. As a reader, you can’t be sure either. For example, Poppy has a conversation with an old friend and neighbor who gives her something, possibly a clue, but when she can’t find it later, she’s told the woman died months earlier. So, was that a dream, a hallucination, was her neighbor alive and the person telling her was lying, or was it the kind of normal paranormal that Unger has made so compelling in her other books. Maybe it’s all the side effects of the sleeping pills and other things she’s been taking to manage her trauma from losing her husband.

This is a good thriller. There is a sense of constant menace that ratchets up slowly, but surely. Poppy is smart, most of the time, when she is not paralyzed by questioning her sanity. She has agency and asserts herself when she’s pushed around by a well-meaning, but overweening, friend. The clues are put in place so there is reason to suspect the guilty party – along with a few other people. It’s fair, which is what I think is required. The only bit of “unfairness” is when the facts are known after a trip to a bank, but they are not shared immediately. The only huge obstacle for me was Poppy not calling the cops when she’s driving to confront the killer because it’s a fairly long drive, the cops knew who was guilty so would believe her, and she had a cell phone. She’s not that dumb, so why did she do that?

I enjoyed Under My Skin for what it is, an engaging mystery with a hint of romance, though of course, with someone who is a natural suspect. There’s enough complication to be engaging. It is not, however, the kind of atmospheric and risk-taking thriller that Unger’s Ink and Bone made me hope to find.

I received an e-galley of Under My Skin from the publisher through NetGalley.
2 people found this helpful
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2.5 stars from this reader

Poppy's husband was murdered one year prior to the opening of this novel. She is not coping well. She is seeing a shrink, popping pills, either prescribed or gifted from her well meaning BFF, and taking them with alcohol, often times not knowing what she was taking. I found it hard to like her at times even though she had some redeemable qualities. I found this work very depressing and confusing, much as Poppy's mind was. She lost a few days of herself where she doesn't remember where she was or what exactly she did after her husband's funeral. She has flashbacks but doesn't know if they are real or imagined or part of her nightmares. Frankly, the tug of war between her dreams, her hallucinations and reality wore me down, especially in the first half. It is very repetitious and often I did not feel like getting back to it. The second half got better and more suspenseful, even though Poppy would often "pop" visions of "visits" with her deceased hubby Jack into the story, willy nilly it often seemed, including dialogue, before disappearing into the ghostly mists.

I was anxious to get done with it and also committed to finishing it for the purpose of this review. It did culminate in a satisfactory ending. Never having read this author I am unbiased in my impression of her work. She seems to have quite a following and one can only assume she has better work out there than this is.

With appreciative thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC for my honest and unbiased review.
2 people found this helpful
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Skip it- such a slow boring read

Ugh.. this book really dragged for me and I just had a hard time getting into it. It was well written, but it felt so common-so many ( better) books and tv shows and movies have had a spouse trying to figure out what happened to their partner- and this book wasn’t innovative or anything special for me. I got a free copy from NetGalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.
2 people found this helpful
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Wanted to like it more than I did

Under My Skin by Lisa Unger

October 2018
Fiction, psychological suspense

I received this digital ARC book from NetGalley and Park Row in exchange for an unbiased review.

Poppy Lang is desperate to solve the murder of her husband Jack who died while out on a run one morning. Unfortunately, she is an unreliable narrator due to her insomnia and paranoia which is exacerbated by her drinking and pill popping.

I must admit that this book has my mind reeling with this plot. I almost felt a bit like Poppy while reading this novel where the murder mystery with so many moving parts and flashbacks that one can only hope is resolved in the end. The tangled dream versus reality theme seemed to end up tying itself into knots. It seems like Poppy is getting help from her therapist, Dr Nash, but then that relationship seems to disappear. It seems Poppy is left to figure out her “hypnagogia” on her own.

Although I found the writing strong and the characters well developed, I found the story line became unnecessarily convoluted which was probably intentional to build suspense. Unfortunately, it felt anticlimactic for me when the story did finally bring all the chaotic tangled pieces together.
2 people found this helpful
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Good thriller - dark, twisty

One of my favorite books of the year. Lisa Unger brings a good mystery vibe along with all the aspects of a good thriller. The characters and all their flaws were well laid out and the suspense lasted all the way until the end, which is rare in many books of this genre lately. Very well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Hanover Square Press for the ARC.
1 people found this helpful
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Quick but enjoyable read!

This was my first read by this author and I was looking forward to it as she comes highly recommended. I enjoyed this book-it was a quick read because I was interested to figure out all the twists and turns but I did feel like I had to go back and make sure I wasn't missing things. It was well written and is perfect for folks who enjoy psychological thrillers. I felt like I've read similar books but this did hold my attention and was enjoyable enough for me to want to read her other books.
1 people found this helpful

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