Such Lovely Skin - by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Viv isn't known for telling the truth, but she's not lying about having an evil doppelganger.

After spending the summer wracked with guilt about causing the accident that killed her little sister, ambitious gamer and chronic liar Viv returns to Twitch streaming. She never told her parents the truth about the accident, but she hopes that maybe making it big in streaming and giving the money to them is penance enough for her mistakes.

The weekend before school starts, Viv finds the perfect horror game to make her Twitch comeback, and during an offline practice run, an NPC asks Viv for a secret. She decides to tell them the truth about her sister's death since a game could never share her secret--in doing so, she accidentally welcomes a demonic mimic into her life.

No one believes Viv when she tells them about her evil doppelganger. Viv has lied to get her best friend's sympathy and has spread rumors for attention, so why should anyone trust her now? The only person who believes her is Ash, a cute social outcast whom Viv once bullied. In trying to clear her name and kill the mimic, Viv discovers that her lies have hurt people who never deserved it, herself included.

Review Quotes

"Schlote-Bonne's debut [...] has all the markings of her future as a master storyteller. VERDICT This debut shines brightly on shelves full of oncoming spooky season releases. Keep one eye on future novels by the author, and be sure to purchase this one."
--SLJ, starred review

"Classic horror imagery is paired with a flawed protagonist who reckons with the guilt and grief caused by her habit of lying and her obsession with streaming. [...] A fast-paced supernatural mystery ideal for fans of horror games."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Schlote-Bonne's debut novel moves fast and doesn't slow down. Fans of Five Nights at Freddy's and other horror games will undoubtedly binge this jump scare-filled story."
--Booklist

"In mixing demonic scares, personal trauma, and online (and in-person) gaslighting this tense but fun novel feels like our very unsure, ambiguous now. I inhaled Such Lovely Skin, and now I'm even more afraid of everything."
--Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts

"Ultra-thrilling."
--TV Guide

"Perfectly creepy and utterly transfixing, I devoured Such Lovely Skin in a single sitting. A masterfully crafted story of spine-tingling tension, terrifying jump scares, and heart-wrenching moments. I can't wait to read whatever she writes next."
--Diana Urban, award-winning author of Under the Surface

"Never in my memory has a book kept me from sleep or made me avoid everyday objects. Officially, Such Lovely Skin by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is the most unsettling book I have ever read, full stop."
--Little Village

"A wonderfully tense book that takes a long hard look at the worst parts of us. There is nothing scarier than a demonic entity who will hurt the people you love in order to hurt you, and there's a reason it wears your face."
-Rin Chupeco, author of The Bone Witch

"A fast paced and thrilling trip into the nightmare of watching someone wear your face and destroy your life. This book will get under your skin in the best way possible."
--Liselle Sambury, author of Delicious Monsters and Blood Like Magic

"Fans of J-horror and video games will absolutely devour this one. Visceral, twisty, and terrifyingly real."
--Catherine Yu, author of Direwood and Helga

"Impeccably paced and immersive. Surveillance, guilt, and a need to belong collide with blood-curdling demonic terror. Utterly compelling!"
--Katya de Becerra, author of When Ghosts Call Us Home

"Equal parts a tragically beautiful story of overcoming grief, and a heart-pounding horror that demands to be read with the lights on, this book is utterly un-put-downable."
--Meredith Tate, author of The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly

About the Author

Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is a mixed-race Japanese American author with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She won the 2020 Diverse Worlds grant from the Speculative Literature Foundation and 2nd place in the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards for short fiction. Her work has been published in Narrative Magazine, F(r)iction, and Los Angeles Review. She lives in Iowa.