“You can get hurt handling broken pieces”: A Review of Shannon Robinson’s THE ILL-FITTING SKIN by Allison Renner

The Ill-Fitting Skin
Shannon Robinson
Press 53 (May 2024)
242 pp.

The twelve stories in The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson feature women navigating everyday, often unsettling situations. This collection explores relationships through the lenses of surrealism and magical realism, presenting a series of tales that are as imaginative as they are reflective.

Robinson blends the mundane with the speculative, creating stories that are relatable yet otherworldly. Each narrative is a journey into the strange and often dark aspects of human experience, focusing on the lives and struggles of women. From a woman suffering countless miscarriages to another trying to parent her mother with dementia, Robinson’s stories address what many women experience throughout their lives.

The opening story sets the tone for the rest of the book. A mother grapples with her son’s transformation into a werewolf, which resonates deeply with the challenges of parenting a child who doesn’t fit societal norms. Like many others in the collection, this story uses fantastical elements to explore real emotional and social issues, such as the alienation and judgment faced by parents of children with behavioral differences.

A woman working in a thrift store encounters clothes from her past with ties to her trauma. A woman having an affair confronts the man’s partner at a zombie party. A woman cleaning houses for a living deals with the inappropriate advances of a client. A seemingly whimsical Victorian tale of a woman birthing rabbits has undertones that reveal a sinister darkness.

“You Are Now in a Dark Chamber” is the only story that doesn’t feature a female protagonist. George and his friends have an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons game but are forced to invite Megan, a “weird girl” who, unsurprisingly, takes over the narrative (both in the story and in the D&D campaign) as a natural role player.

“A Doom of Her Own” stands out as an innovative choose-your-own-adventure story, allowing readers to navigate the protagonist’s tumultuous life decisions. This format adds a layer of interactivity and depth, emphasizing the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of difficult choices.

Robinson’s writing is sharp, lucid, and unflinchingly honest. Her stories often contain a mordant humor that balances the darker themes, making the collection both thought-provoking and entertaining. The characters are richly developed, each with their distinct voice and struggles, which anchor the surreal aspects of the stories in reality.

As a whole, The Ill-Fitting Skin challenges readers to look beyond the surface of everyday life and confront the often hidden truths about pain, loss, and identity. Robinson’s unique voice and imaginative storytelling make this a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of womanhood and the human condition.

Allison Renner’s fiction and photography have appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal, Ellipsis Zine, Six Sentences, Rejection Letters, Atlas and Alice, Misery Tourism, Versification, FERAL, and vulnerary magazine. Her chapbook Won’t Be By Your Side is out from Alien Buddha Press. She can be found online at allisonrennerwrites.com and on Twitter @AllisonRWrites.