"Skin Hunger"

Kathleen Duey has written numerous books for younger readers, including the chapter book series The Unicorn's Secret and the Hoofbeats series.

She applied the Page 69 Test to National Book Award finalist Skin Hunger, and reported the following:

A Resurrection of Magic: Skin Hunger, is the first title of a trilogy. It’s two stories that alternate every other chapter. They are connected by love and hatred and magic. They are separated only by time. Page 69 is the last page of a chapter, a half page of text. Two boys, forced roommates, are standing in a dark room. They cannot find lamps or desks, or the door through which they entered. They are terrified. It is an intentional cruelty. One of them knows why. The other cannot begin to imagine why.

Page 69 is a perfect little slice of the book, a tiny introduction to the creation of a fanatic. What you wouldn’t see, if you read only this page, is the other story — the events that made the dark room inevitable. If you like page 69, though, I think you would like the book.

Read an excerpt from Skin Hunger, and learn more about the book and author at Kathleen Duey's website and her blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue