“She was a vessel, and she was being filled.”
— Isserley's internal reflection on her purpose and identity.
Archivist's Choice
Under the Skin
Michel Faber (2011)
Genre
Thriller / Fantasy / Mystery / Science Fiction
Reading Time
240 min
Key Themes
See below
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An alien in human form hunts men in the Scottish Highlands, harvesting their flesh while she slowly becomes more human.
Synopsis
Isserley, a mysterious woman, drives a red car through the Scottish Highlands, picking up male hitchhikers. She checks their physique and isolation, then lures them into her car. She is a predator, taking human males for an unknown alien race. She sedates her victims and takes them to an underground facility where they are processed for meat.
As Isserley continues her work, she struggles with her own humanity and the disturbing nature of what she does. Flashbacks show her disfigured past and how she joined this alien society, revealing her difficulty conforming to their brutal ways. After several close calls and growing empathy for her victims, she helps a hitchhiker escape. This act leads to her downfall. Injured and abandoned, Isserley becomes the hunted, pursued by her own kind. Her transformation into a more 'human' state ironically seals her fate.
Reading time
240 min
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Moderate
Mood
Atmospheric, Unsettling, Disturbing, Philosophical, Melancholy
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy unsettling, thought-provoking science fiction with a dark, philosophical edge and a unique premise that challenges perceptions of humanity and morality.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer fast-paced thrillers with clear-cut heroes and villains, or are sensitive to themes of body horror and exploitation.
Plot Summary
The Routine of the Road
Isserley, a young woman with dark eyes and a strange walk, drives her old Toyota Corolla through the empty roads of the Scottish Highlands. Her routine involves looking for single male hitchhikers, specifically strong, muscular men. She carefully assesses them, talking casually to find out if they are married, have children, or if anyone would quickly notice their absence. Her thoughts, revealed to the reader, often show discomfort with her human disguise and a constant desire for her true form and home world. The process is a hunt, a planned selection of prey for a hidden purpose, and she is both the hunter and a reluctant part of this task.
The First Catch: A Vulnerable Victim
One day, Isserley sees a young, seemingly innocent man, barely out of his teens, hitchhiking. He is well-built, meeting her requirements, but his youth and apparent inexperience make him an easy target. She picks him up, offering a ride, and asks her usual questions. The boy, wanting company, readily shares details about his life, confirming he is unattached and unlikely to be missed soon. Isserley notices his strong body and somewhat simple nature. Despite her detached professional approach, a hint of pity, or perhaps just a practical assessment of his weakness, crosses her mind. He fits the profile, and she guides the conversation toward their destination, subtly leading him to the trap.
The Journey to the Facility
As it gets dark, Isserley drives the unsuspecting hitchhiker deeper into the remote, forested areas of the Highlands. The journey is long and sometimes quiet, broken by Isserley's thoughts about how inefficient her human body is and how unpleasant her task is. The young man, tired and trusting, eventually falls asleep. Isserley feels a growing urgency and a familiar disgust toward what she is about to do. She drives on increasingly secluded tracks until they reach a hidden, heavily secured facility. The outside looks plain, blending into the wilderness, but its real purpose is sinister. She prepares for the next step, her mind set on the procedure awaiting her passenger.
The 'Treatment' Begins
When they arrive at the facility, Isserley and other aliens, also in disguise, lead the hitchhiker inside. He is at first confused but quickly becomes alarmed as he is stripped and prepared for a 'treatment.' The facility is sterile and cold, with strange machines and the quiet, unsettling sounds of other 'patients.' The young man is put in a confined space, a 'pit,' where he is covered in a liquid. His struggles and cries for help are useless as the process begins. Isserley watches from a distance, her usual detachment wavering slightly as she sees his terror. This is her mission: to deliver human males for this transformation, a process to harvest their flesh.
Isserley's Internal Conflict and Her Past
Between hunts, Isserley returns to her simple living quarters inside the facility. She dislikes her human form, finding it awkward and foreign. Flashbacks reveal her true form as an alien creature, sleek and suited to her home planet's environment, and the accident that disfigured her and led to her assignment on Earth. She was once a beautiful and valued member of her species, but an accident left her severely injured, requiring a crude human-like reconstruction to survive on Earth. Her mission is a type of exile and punishment, a way to help her species survive by getting meat. She longs for the day she can return home, hoping her service will earn her a reprieve and a proper reconstruction.
A Near Miss and a Glimpse of Humanity
During one of her drives, Isserley sees an elderly woman hitchhiking. This is different from her usual targets of young, muscular men. The woman looks kind and fragile. For a moment, Isserley thinks about picking her up, a hint of human empathy or perhaps just curiosity stirring in her. However, her programming and mission rules quickly take over. The woman would be useless for her main purpose. Isserley drives past, leaving the woman stranded, but the encounter leaves her feeling unusually unsettled, a small crack in her emotional armor, showing the conflict between her alien nature and the human form she inhabits.
The Supervisor's Visit and Pressure
Amlis Vess, Isserley's supervisor and a higher-ranking alien, visits the facility. He is also in a human disguise, though better kept than Isserley's. Vess is efficient and constantly stresses the need for more 'product' to support their dying home world. He dismisses Isserley's complaints about her human body and the difficulties of her task, reminding her of her disfigurement and her debt to their species. Vess's presence makes Isserley anxious; he represents the ruthless practicality of their alien society and the constant pressure to succeed in her mission, no matter the ethics or personal cost.
A Growing Discomfort with the Hunt
As time passes, Isserley finds her task harder. Luring and capturing human males, once a detached necessity, now fills her with growing disgust. She often feels sick and deeply repulsed by the process and her part in it. Her human senses, which she first found dull, seem to be getting stronger, making the smells and sights of the facility more unbearable. She starts to question the morality of their operation, a concept foreign to her species but one that her human disguise seems to be putting into her mind, blurring the lines between her alien identity and the humanity she copies.
The Runaway Hitchhiker
Isserley picks up another hitchhiker, a strong, smart man who turns out to be more clever than her usual targets. As they near the facility, he senses something is wrong and tries to escape from the car. This makes Isserley abandon her usual passive role and engage in a physical struggle. She manages to subdue him, using her alien strength despite her human form, but the incident is deeply unsettling. It shows the danger of her work and the constant need for alertness. The man's desperate fight for survival leaves a lasting impression on Isserley, further eroding her emotional defenses and adding to her inner turmoil.
The Accident and Isserley's Transformation
During a time of intense self-doubt and increased nausea, Isserley gets into a serious car accident. Her vehicle goes off the road, crashing violently. The impact badly damages her human disguise, tearing away layers of synthetic skin and showing glimpses of her true, alien form underneath. She is severely injured, and the pain is immense, unlike anything she has felt in her human body. The accident is a turning point, stripping away her facade and making her face her true identity and the fragility of her borrowed form. She is now exposed, vulnerable, and facing the end of her mission and perhaps her life.
The Hunted Becomes the Hunted
After the crash, Isserley is stranded and badly injured in the remote Scottish wilderness. Her human disguise is failing, and she struggles to move, the pain excruciating. She is no longer the hunter but the hunted, vulnerable to the weather and any passing humans. Her thoughts become more desperate, a primal fight for survival overriding her previous philosophical ideas. She tries to call for help from her fellow aliens, but her communications are unclear or ignored. Alone and exposed, Isserley feels the terror and helplessness her victims must have felt, a cruel role reversal that makes her fully understand the cost of her actions.
The Finality
As days pass, Isserley's condition worsens. Her injuries are too severe, and the cold, harsh Scottish Highlands are unforgiving. She slowly dies from her wounds, exposure, and starvation. Her thoughts, once filled with longing for her home world and a return to her true form, become fragmented and focus on the immediate, agonizing reality of her death. There is no rescue, no relief. Her mission ends not with a triumphant return, but with a desolate, lonely death in a foreign land, her alien body decaying within its human shell, a tragic end for a creature caught between two worlds.
Principal Figures
Isserley
The Protagonist
Isserley transforms from a detached, efficient alien predator into a creature grappling with human emotions and morality, ultimately becoming a victim of her own mission.
Amlis Vess
The Antagonist/Supporting
Vess remains consistently cold and focused on his mission, serving as a static representation of the alien agenda.
The Young Hitchhiker
The Mentioned
His arc is brief and tragic, serving as an initial catalyst for Isserley's burgeoning discomfort.
The Resourceful Hitchhiker
The Supporting
His brief appearance provides a moment of intense conflict that further challenges Isserley's resolve.
The Other Alien Workers
The Supporting
They remain static, serving as background figures who reinforce the alien hierarchy and purpose.
The Elderly Woman
The Mentioned
Her brief appearance underscores Isserley's internal conflict and selective hunting criteria.
The 'Voddiss'
The Mentioned
The 'voddiss' collectively represent the victims of the alien operation, their individual fates illustrating the horror.
Themes & Insights
Identity and Otherness
The novel explores identity through Isserley, an alien in a human body. She constantly struggles with being 'other,' disliking her human form and wanting her true alien self. Her thoughts show the deep separation between her appearance and her inner being. This theme extends to how the aliens see humans as 'voddiss' — just meat — emphasizing the alien view of humanity as 'other.' Isserley's slow development of human sensations and emotions further blurs her identity, making her confront what it means to be both alien and, to some extent, human.
“She had become accustomed to her human body, yes, but it was an accommodation of the flesh, not of the spirit. Her spirit remained unregenerate, a spark of the true, sleek, unburdened self.”
Exploitation and Dehumanization
A main theme is the exploitation and dehumanization of humans by the aliens. Humans are not seen as thinking beings but as a resource ('voddiss') to be harvested for meat, needed for the alien species to survive. The aliens' cold, clinical way of treating their victims, stripping them of clothes and individuality before processing them, clearly shows this dehumanization. Isserley's role as a hunter, luring unsuspecting men to their death, directly shows this exploitation. The novel makes the reader think about the ethics of using another species purely for survival, similar to real-world discussions about animal farming.
“The voddiss were like cattle, only more difficult to herd. And more noisy.”
The Nature of Empathy and Morality
As Isserley spends more time in her human disguise, she slowly and painfully develops a sense of empathy and morality, which is foreign to her species. Her initial detachment changes to nausea, disgust, and even a hint of pity for her victims. The increasing discomfort she feels with her task, especially after encounters like the resourceful hitchhiker or the elderly woman, shows a gradual awakening of conscience. This theme explores whether empathy is something you are born with or something you can learn or get from circumstances, suggesting that even a creature from a different world can be affected by the human condition.
“She felt a strange, unwelcome stirring, something like an ache in her chest, a sympathy for the raw, exposed vulnerability of this creature.”
Environmentalism and Resource Scarcity
The reason for the alien invasion and human harvesting is the desperate need for resources. Their home world is dying, and they have used up their own food, leading them to Earth as a last resort. This theme touches on environmentalism and the results of using too many resources. It shows a situation where one species' survival requires exploiting another, making readers consider how far a species might go when facing extinction. The aliens' actions, though horrific, are set within extreme scarcity, raising questions about ecological responsibility.
“Our world is dying, Isserley. Every cell of our bodies screams for sustenance. This is not a choice, it is a necessity.”
Appearance vs. Reality
The whole idea of the novel relies on misleading appearances. Isserley and her fellow aliens look like human women, but they are entirely different — they are predatory extraterrestrials. This contrast creates a constant sense of unease. The everyday setting of the Scottish Highlands hides a gruesome, advanced operation. The 'beauty' of Isserley's human form is a grotesque cover for her true alien nature and her predatory purpose. This theme makes the reader question what is beneath the surface, both literally and figuratively, and shows the dangers of judging by appearances.
“Her human skin was a mockery, a crude, ill-fitting garment over the sleek, efficient truth of her.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
First-Person Limited Perspective (Isserley)
Provides direct access to the alien protagonist's unique internal world and perceptions.
The novel is primarily told from Isserley's perspective, offering intimate access to her thoughts, feelings, and alien perceptions. This device is crucial for understanding her internal conflict, her revulsion towards her human body, and her gradual, reluctant shift towards empathy. It allows the reader to experience the world through alien eyes, making the mundane seem strange and the horrific seem, at first, coldly logical. The limited perspective also builds suspense, as the true nature of the 'treatment' is only slowly revealed through Isserley's detached observations and the victims' terror.
The Human Disguise (The 'Skin')
A literal and metaphorical facade that enables the plot and drives the central themes of identity and otherness.
Isserley's human disguise is not just a costume; it's a central plot device and a powerful symbol. It allows her to blend into human society and execute her mission. Metaphorically, it represents the theme of appearance vs. reality. The discomfort Isserley feels in her 'skin' highlights her otherness and her longing for her true identity. Crucially, the disguise also acts as a catalyst for her character arc, as prolonged exposure to human sensations and the limitations of the body begin to influence her alien consciousness, leading to her developing empathy and moral qualms.
The Remote Scottish Highlands Setting
A desolate and isolated backdrop that facilitates the alien operation and enhances the atmosphere of dread.
The rugged, sparsely populated landscape of the Scottish Highlands serves as an ideal setting for the alien operation. Its remoteness ensures privacy for the hidden facility and provides an abundance of isolated roads for Isserley to hunt. The bleak, often harsh weather conditions mirror the grimness of the aliens' mission and Isserley's internal state. The isolation of the setting also amplifies the vulnerability of the hitchhikers and the sense of dread for the reader, creating an atmosphere that is both beautiful and deeply unsettling, perfectly complementing the novel's dark themes.
The 'Voddiss' Terminology
A linguistic device used by the aliens to dehumanize their human prey.
The consistent use of the term 'voddiss' by the aliens to refer to human males is a powerful linguistic device. It strips the victims of their humanity, reducing them to a mere commodity or resource. This terminology highlights the aliens' detached, utilitarian perspective and their complete lack of empathy. By adopting this term in her internal thoughts, Isserley initially reinforces her own alien identity and distance from her actions. However, as her empathy grows, the term itself becomes increasingly jarring, underscoring the conflict between her alien programming and her developing human-like conscience.
The Unseen Horrors
The strategic withholding of explicit details about the 'treatment' to amplify psychological terror.
Faber masterfully employs the device of unseen horrors. While the purpose of the harvesting is made clear, the explicit details of what happens inside the 'pits' and the exact nature of the 'treatment' are largely left to the reader's imagination. This ambiguity amplifies the psychological terror, as the unknown is often more frightening than the explicitly shown. We witness the victims' terror and hear their screams, but the precise mechanics of their transformation are obscured, making the implications more chilling and allowing the reader to fill in the gruesome blanks, thus engaging their own fears.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“The world was full of things that were not what they seemed.”
— Observation about the deceptive nature of reality in the story.
“You could get used to anything, if you had to.”
— Isserley's adaptation to her grim circumstances.
“Human beings were just meat on legs.”
— A stark, dehumanizing perspective from the alien viewpoint.
“There was no such thing as a free lunch.”
— A cynical remark on the costs hidden behind apparent generosity.
“The body was a machine, and it could be fixed.”
— Reflection on physical modification and repair in the narrative.
“She had forgotten what it was like to be whole.”
— Isserley's lament over her altered physical and emotional state.
“Every creature had its place in the food chain.”
— A grim acknowledgment of the predatory nature of existence.
“Compassion was a luxury she could not afford.”
— Isserley's justification for her actions to survive.
“The sky was a lid on a pot, and they were all boiling inside.”
— A metaphorical description of the oppressive atmosphere.
“Nothing was ever simple, not even cruelty.”
— A nuanced take on the complexities of harmful actions.
“She was a monster, but so was everyone else, in their own way.”
— Isserley's realization about universal moral ambiguity.
“The road went on forever, and so did the hunt.”
— Reflecting the endless, cyclical nature of her mission.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
The novel follows Isserley, a female driver who cruises Scottish highways picking up muscular male hitchhikers. She assesses their physical fitness and social connections before delivering them to a mysterious farm, where they are processed into meat for her alien species, the vodsel. The story explores her growing moral conflict as she interacts with humans and questions her role in this brutal system.
About the author
Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of English-language fiction, including his 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White. His latest book is a novel for young adults, D: A Tale of Two Worlds, published in 2020. His next book, Listen, a non-fiction work about music, is due in 2023.
