ASO READER’S NOTES
TITLE:
In the Skin of a Monster
AUTHOR:
Kathryn Barker
PUBLISHER:
Allen & Unwin
PRICE:
$17.99
ISBN:
9781760111717
PUBLICATION DATE:
August 2015
AUDIENCE:
14-16
READER:
Carolyn Walsh, Allen & Unwin
SYNOPSIS
Three years ago, Alice’s sister entered the playground of their school and shot dead seven
children, and then turned the gun on herself. Three years later and after a prolonged stay in a
mental facility, Alice returns to Collector, her home town, to face her neighbours and former
friends. For Alice and her sister were identical twins and now Alice wears the face of a
monster.
Just as she thinks things can’t get much worse she meets her sister – or someone looking
very much like her sister – on a dusty highway and is transported to a dream world that is
littered with elements of the town she knows so well yet is disturbingly different. Time and
space are fundamentally different in this world - in the blink of an eye Alice runs from the
town’s old Caltex station, past a children’s carousel and smashes straight into a library
stand, sending books flying everywhere. More frightening still are the school-girl monsters –
all looking like an iteration of her sister – roaming the landscape in search of victims to
shoot.
Unwillingly thrust into the leadership of a gang of teens hiding from the monsters, Alice
enters a deadly game of cat and mouse where she is never safe and never knows what new
horror will be dreamt up for her to face. For this is indeed a dream world – one which is the
product of the individual and collective nightmares of her fellow townspeople and which
reflect the horror and anger they are still suffering.
But Alice’s biggest problem isn’t just the school-girl monsters. Two of her gang – the angel
Lux and the monster Ivan – are hatching their own plans to end the violence. Plans that
involve killing Alice.
AUTHOR STYLE
In the Skin of a Monster is a triangular story in which the protagonist, Alice, addresses her
sister in apostrophic fashion, while also dealing with survival in a violent alternate reality
which is home to the angel Lux. Barker uses the dual narrative technique to present the story
from two points of the triangle – Alice and Lux – creating a tension between each’s
understanding of the other. Lux tells his story in first person, present tense, giving the reader
an insider’s view of his world: while Alice’s own past tense voice is grounded very much in
the reality of her sister’s past actions. The third element in the triangle is most daringly that
of Alice’s deceased sister. Although never entirely explained, Barker cleverly hints at some
of the demons she herself faced and the events leading to her violent actions, posing the
question, is anyone entirely evil or good?
AUTHOR MOTIVATION
‘When I started thinking about In the Skin of a Monster I didn’t consciously set out to
explore the fall-out from a school shooting. Like so many aspects of the book, the formative
events evolved and unfolded over time. It’s fair to say that school shootings have always
held a particular horror for me. First as a teenager and now as a parent, I find the idea of a
kid taking a gun to school uniquely terrifying…I suppose that, in writing my first novel, I
wanted to dig deep and be brave and explore the things that really scared me… hence the
choice of subject matter.
‘As for inspirations, I was at a dinner party a few years ago and the woman sitting next to
me was criticising a recent WWII film. She insisted it was ‘appalling’ to humanise a Nazi,
in any context, to any extent, regardless of circumstances. Even at the time, something
about the comment bothered me. It’s not that I would ever want to defend the atrocities of
that regime - the very opposite, in fact. It just seemed to me that if you systematically
dehumanise everyone who does something horrific then you run the risk of seeing them as
‘other’: of seeing them as nothing but monsters, quite separate from ‘us’… and wasn’t that
dangerous? Isn’t it safer to acknowledge that terrible acts are committed by people,
sometimes even seemingly ordinary people? Isn’t that more likely to keep us vigilant and
(hopefully) improving? It was tricky territory and I wasn’t entirely sure whether I knew the
answer, so I kept on asking myself the question… and sure enough that question eventually
found its way into my story.’ Kathryn Barker
AUTHOR BACKGROUND
Kathryn Barker was born in Canberra, but growing up there involved plenty of travel. She
started primary school in Tokyo (the only kid with a sandwich in her lunchbox) and finished
high school in the woods outside Olympia, Washington State (aka that rainy place where
Twilight was set). In the years that followed she went to university, became a lawyer,
changed her mind, re- trained as a film producer and worked in television. Kathryn currently
lives in Sydney with her family, and In the Skin of a Monster is her first novel.
EDUCATIONAL APPLICABILITY
Themes include: fantasy, dreams, identical twins, identity, consequences, self-determination
Suggestions for discussion and classroom activities:

Before reading In the Skin of a Monster ask students to consider the title and cover design.
What visual techniques has the designer used? Consider font, colour, composition and
framing to create the mood of the novel. Compile a list of words to describe the mood that
the cover evokes. Why do you think the title and author’s name are located on the girl’s
hand and forearm?

a) Research the literary term ‘apostrophe’ and write a paragraph about its use in Chapter
One. b) Research the term ‘dual narration’ and write a paragraph to describe how
successfully it extended your understanding of Lux and Alice. c) Research the term
‘dystopia’ and write a paragraph on whether you think this novel could be described as
‘dystopian’.

Compare and contrast the characters Lux and Ivan and their significance to the themes,
‘appearance versus reality’ and ‘good versus evil’.

What does Alice discover about herself in the course of the novel that allows her to find
peace and acceptance?

Both Alice and Lux struggle with the question of whether they’re ‘good’ or ‘bad’ deep
down, and show evidence of both traits at various points in the novel. Stage a mock trial
where each is charged with being ‘bad’ and has to argue that they are in fact ‘good’, using
evidence drawn from the book.

In the Skin of a Monster explores the idea of destiny versus self-determination and whether
we have the power to choose our own path, regardless of our personal history and the way
we’re perceived. Discuss.

By the end of the novel are we any closer to understanding what motivated Alice’s sister to
go on a shooting spree? Do you feel any sympathy for her? Explain your answer with
examples taken from the novel.