#Titanuary ‘Butterfly Skin’ by Sergey Kuznetsov

About the book….

When a brutal and sadistic serial killer begins stalking the streets of Moscow, Xenia, an ambitious young newspaper editor, takes it upon herself to attempt to solve the mystery of the killer’s identity. As her obsession with the killer grows, Xenia devises an elaborate website with the intention of ensnaring the murderer, only to discover something disturbing about herself: her own unhealthy fascination with the sexual savagery of the murders.

Published in 2014 by Titan Books, ”Butterfly Skin’ has been compared to ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’, with a protagonist as memorable as Hannibal Lector.
A bold claim, does this have much basis in reality for this reader?

A quick response , a categorical ‘No’ from this reader.

To compare one book to the other is like comparing day to night-much of the reason that ‘Silence..’ was such a huge hit on its release is because of the inaccessibility of Hannibal. He remains an enigmatic presence whose motives are untrusted, speculated upon and never fully revealed.

Here, the author puts you straight inside the mind of the killer who is cutting a swathe through the female population of Moscow, leaving you in no doubt how much he enjoys, dreams about and looks forward to taking his next victim. The details are gruesomely written about with the type of relish that leaves the reader feeling tainted by even association through the pages of the book, the first person narration giving a voyeuristic insight to murders that made me feel queasy and disorientated.

The chapters of this book alternate between the killer and Xenia, a journalist who is a ruthless career woman and intends to set up a website devoted to the serial killings that have her in thrall. She sees there is a way to exploit them for financial gain as well as boosting her personal CV. A ruthless businesswoman she may be but behind closed doors she uses sadomasochistic punishment-both alone and with consensual partners-to punish the little girl she still believes herself to be. It is as if the pain she inflicts brings her closer to her mortality, drives her forward as a woman and a journalist and serves as a character flaw to everyone except her. It reinforces the paternalistic nature of modern Russian society where women are seen as commodities and as disposable-both by those who hunt them and those who would seek to use them.

This is such an odd book, it packs a visceral punch and is definitely not for the faint hearted. I read about 40 pages before having to Google reviews of the book to see what others had made of it, and here was a schism wherein there were 1 star or 5 star reviews. It was a love/hate reaction which, I get the impression, is exactly what the author intended to achieve.

It’s a cerebral and dark fairy tale, the dark underbelly of a society that values obedience more than individuality and wastes no time in striking down those who do not participate in perceived social norms.

I have not read a great deal of Russian literature so am not familiar with the plot devices and this is what bothered me-constant use of multiple names for the same characters, multiple repetitions of points often within the space of the same page, and swapping tenses at head spinning speeds. There would be chapters that start in the third person then change to the first and others in the second person which created such a sense of dislocation that is immensely distracting.

However, in the pages of this novel, there is a very dark retelling of the Big Bad Wold and Little Red Riding Hood, as both killer and journalist begin a deadly tango around each other. Which one turns out to be the leader? It’s for the reader to decide, as it’s a book worth sticking with but, be warned, it is hard work.

I found it took 4 times as long to read a book of this size than I normally would, and that is despite struggling to read due to being ill at the time. There were a lot of necessary breaks due to the subject matter-the killer really,really hates women-and the pages of dense writing made it hard to sustain any kind of pace.

Would I recommend it?

Probably not, especially if you are looking for a ‘Silence..’ esque killer thriller. If you want something real, gritty and violent this might be the book for you.

I don’t regret reading it, better minds than mine could be more succinct about the subject matter and mode of writing, however, this remains a novel that has me scratching my head and wondering what the author’s intention was in writing it. And if he plans to follow it up with any more…

About the author….

Sergey Yurievich Kuznetsov (Russian: Сергей Юрьевич Кузнецов; born 14 June 1966) is a contemporary Russian writer, journalist and entrepreneur.

Butterfly Skin was translated into English, German, French, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Dutch, and other languages. The publishers called it a Russian take on Silence of the Lambs, but critics pointed out that Kuznetsov “aims for more than smug nihilism. He delivers a gratifying conclusion to a sometimes overburdened and sickening journey through sadism and alienation.”

His most recent novel, Kaleidoscope, received praise from both readers and critics. Lisa Hayden, a recognized literary translator, wrote: ‘What I enjoy is reading about upheaval and how it affects and even connects characters that pop in and out of the chapters like pieces in a kaleidoscope