Steph Tisdell, The Skin I’m In, Macmillan Australia, August 2024, 346 pp, RRP $26.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760984977
From the extraordinary comedian Steph Tisdell, comes a young adult novel that engages us in a range of gritty, smart, real, and troubling questions. And though questions around Aboriginal identity and the attitudes of white Australians to Aboriginal people are at the centre of the novel, there are plenty of other complications happening for Layla Pinder as she attempts to complete Year 12 and grow up into an adult at the same time.
Layla is a high achiever at her school, and the only Indigenous student there, until her cousin Marley comes to stay with the family and attend her school. He comes from Country and speaks like a real Blackfella, making Layla jealous of his connection to heritage. This is complicated enough, but things become much more complicated when she discovers Marley’s deepest shame, and at the same time loses her best friend to a girl who’s openly racist, while she falls in love (and learns to drink and smoke) for the first time — and makes a new best friend as her marks plummet and her interest in school disappears.
Layla’s mother runs a hairdressing salon and has spent everything she earns on making sure that Layla will get to university where she might have a chance to make a real difference to the way the world keeps Aboriginal people down. The further Layla’s love affair goes, the less chance she will have to get through Year 12 successfully. And anyway, what is more important in life? Love and friendship or doing well in a school system that favours white kids anyway? Marley knows the answer to that question, but it doesn’t seem to help him in his drift towards a life of petty crime on the streets.
Steph Tisdell’s prose is crisp, and the story moves along at a brisk pace while managing to tease out every issue and relationship with stunning precision. This is a novel that any high school teacher might cherish for its insights into teenage life and how it is for black kids in white schools. Readers from Year 10 onwards who are curious about what’s ahead for them will love this book. It deserves a wide readership, and I am sure will be passed from hand to hand among young readers as they discover it. Be aware the story contains strong sexual references and an attempted suicide.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
