Skin Up: Is the Skins Novel worth the buy?

So pretty much every time there is a novel written about a TV series, you automatically think it’s going to be nothing but a pile of stupid, amateur fan fiction. (Think every book ever written about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

However, I genuinely think this book is different.

For all of you who have ever watched Skins, you will know it follows a bunch of teens who are at a local sixth form in Bristol. Unlike other teen shows of this type, Skins is actually written by young people who know exactly how teenagers act in Britain today. (Of course, some of the stories are over-dramatized to make it more interesting.)

The book, released for general sale in the UK on January 7th is the first written exclusively revealing what the troublesome young adults have been up to during their summer holiday.

The cast included in the narrative is actually the second one of the show – during the first two seasons, there was a completely different cast – and they live up to their predecessors entirely.

Back to the book… As I was saying, it’s really quite good. Effy (played by Kaya Scodelario) is at the forefront as always, talking of her trip to Italy with her Mother. Unlike Effy, two characters that rarely featured in the third series of the show were Naomi and Emily. The book is different in the fact that many of the chapters focus on them – something that ‘Naomily’ fans should be pretty excited about.

As always, the self-proclaimed ‘Three Musketeers’ stick together (Cook, Freddie and JJ) with the occasional spat in between. In true Skins fashion, the three of them organize a ’sex-a-thon’ to see who can sleep with the most girls in a set time. I told you it was pretty controversial.

Like the series, the novel stays equally as realistic to the lives of today’s teens: their parents may not realize, but every day life for their children often involves sex, drugs and violence, and this is exactly what Skins tries to explain.

So if you were pondering over whether to buy the book or not, I’d say get it. Many people have said that they didn’t like it, but it’s actually quite interesting to find out what the gang have been up to and also makes you feel more like a part of the gang.

Overall Rating:

Be sure to tune in to season 4 of Skins on e4 this month. (28th January.)