A Resurrection of Magic (Book 1): Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey

Skin Hunger , a National Book Award Finalist, tells two stories that are intricately linked. In one story there is a young boy named Hahp who is being sent away by his father to live at the wizard’s academy. Hahp and other young boys will be slowly stripped of their humanity in order to be rebuilt as wizards. If they fail they die. The boys are starved, scared, but most of all confused, because the wizards tell them nothing, except how to breathe. Then students begin to die from exhaustion. The only hope is to master magic in order to make food. But their headstrong masters, the wizards, forbid them from helping one another. Hahp has only himself to rely upon.

The second story has a young woman named Sadima, who has the uncanny ability to communicate with animals. One day her older brother takes her to town to buy a new plow horse. She finds a horse that is being beaten by its handlers, and she calms the horse with her mind. Everyone is stunned, and soon word reaches beyond her little town to the ears of a young man named Franklin. He visits Sadima, and helps her explore her gift by showing her how not only to listen to animals, but to have the animals listen to her own thoughts as well. Franklin offers her a place in the city where the can explore magic together. Sadima would love nothing more but waits until after her father dies many years later.

Upon arrival of to the city she finds Franklin still hard at work rediscovering magic, except he is the aide to a young man named Somiss. Sadima becomes their maid and helps them in copying page after page of old songs passed down from generations. Somiss claims these songs hold the lost art of magic, and that he will stop at nothing to resurrect its powers. And Somiss proves this by falling into fits of fury many times over, threatening both her and Franklin.

As you read you realize that one of the two stories happens in the past and is influencing what happens in the present. This creates an interesting sort of suspense and tension that is extremely engaging. And just when you think the stories are on the verge of becoming one you find yourself at the book’s end, and you must wait for the sequel (Sacred Scars).

Skin Hunger is definitely a set up to a larger story but one that is worth reading, especially if you have the second book handy so you can pick it up after finishing the first. This isn’t your Harry Potter type magic. This magic is dark and dangerous and a bit twisted from those who use it. If you like your fantasy books to have an edge then this will be sure to please. Appropriate for ages 14 and up.