I took a while with my thoughts before I could write this up and I think I liked the music videos and the music better than the graphic novel. I picked up the book for review on Edelweiss (copy provided for review purposes) in hopes of reviewing it for my romance comics site at Loveinpanels.com, but it's... not great as a piece of queer fiction. The main character, who Lights styled after herself, is bisexual, but both of her partners in the book are evil. I wrote on Twitter that it felt in both cases like having sex leads to the end of the world (think Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and not exactly like queer pain, but very much not a happy ending for anyone. The indie pop soundtrack that goes with this book is much more upbeat, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Maybe an apocalyptic wasteland wherein we've fully destroyed the Earth is a place to go spend my free time these days, especially since there's no happiness to be found.
The art is lovely, I'll give it that. ( )

To be honest, this emerging trend of recommended listening with chapters, is not my cup of tea at all.
The graphic novel wasn't... I'm not sure what it was or wasn't. The story was okay, the artwork very detailed, but overall it lacked *something*, although I can't exactly put my finger on what it lacked. ( )

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5 stars

This was a dystopia/fantasy adventure that went in a completely different direction than I expected. I really liked the worldbuilding and the mythology of the world, and the main character had some really quotable lines.

It's actually pretty cool how the songs and music videos go with the graphic novel, too. ( )

I have to admit I am basing my rating on the entire package, namely, the graphic novel and the music that accompanies each chapter. Having said that, I did not listen at the beginning of each chapter as suggested, I didn't want to stop reading and in my world, one pays attention to what one is reading if reading and one pays attention to what one is listening to if listening. So rather than pause my reading or, even worse, playing the music as background, I waited until I finished the book to listen to the entire album.

Skin & Earth takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The people have been divided and the divide is extreme. While this certainly speaks to the perverse inequalities in our current society between the haves and the have-nots, this is not all darkness. The ultimate theme is hope. Hope in the face of declining odds, in the face of perceived personal slights, and hope in the ability of beauty and good to survive the darkness and rise again.

The graphic novel on its own was very good, the style of the drawings was wonderful and changed with the location and the action. In other words, the art didn't just illustrate the story, it helped to tell it. Lights is an enchanting musician and the music works very well with the story. That said, even if you don't connect with the ethereal music the graphic novel is well worth your time.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss. ( )