Elspeth “Betty” Rummani was defined by many factors growing up: her Palestinian American lineage and how history shapes a family, the complicated family relationships that fought to have a say in how she should be raised, the tall tales told as fact by her great aunt Nuha Rummani, and, least of all in the grand scheme of events leading to her communion with a tombstone, her vibrant blue skin that othered her at birth.

Betty, in her experience as an archivist, methodically retraces her own history and attempts to reconcile fact with fiction, a task challenged by Nuha’s ability to blend lies into lyrics in her stories of Rummani lineage. Returned to Aunt Nuha’s grave after decades, Betty seeks a greater understanding of self and her role as a Rummani as she faces a fork in her life’s path: leave her home country to start a new life with the woman she loves, or stay in the only home she’s ever known and remain the dependable daughter that her mother needs?

The Skin and Its Girl is a beautiful tale of how identity is simultaneously shaped by family and also marked by one’s own path into the unknown. Betty’s story marks this path as both fearsome and filled with desire. The present moment at Nuha’s grave and the narrative’s frequent departure into the past is a seamless journey that guides the reader through a range of emotions that will leave them reeling. Sarah Cypher weaves together a poetic examination of the self and the complex family dynamics that shape it in this touching novel of identity, desire, and the power in stories, especially the ones we are afraid to tell.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ability to read this wonderful book early. I highly recommend giving it a read once it’s published.

The Skin and Its Girl was a great read! It tells the story of a Palestinian immigrant family through three different generations - Betty, Tashi, her mother, and her great aunt, Nuha. Betty is born with blue skin and Nuha is convinced that it is linked to their family's prestigious history of soap-making - specifically blue soap. As Betty grows up, Nuha tells their family history and recounts stories of Palestine to her. Decades later, after Nuha's death, Betty is faced with following her partner to another country or staying and looking after her mother. She looks to Nuha's own story to determine her choice.

Sarah Cypher crafted a nuanced and beautiful novel. Their debut novel touches on themes of cultural identity, immigration, 2SLGTQIA+ representation, mental illness. Cypher examines how stories can shape us, how they can be used to build a family's legacy, and also how the storyteller can influence our perception of the truth.

The Skin and Its Girl is a book that stays with you after you've finished reading. I would absolutely recommend this book to readers!

I love when I can learn about a new group of people. In this novel we get insight into a life of a queer Palestinian American woman and her life and the life of previous generations. My life can only be richer when I learn about more people and their lives. What a gift.

The structure of this story is interesting: the protagonist is recounting family history while visiting her aunt's grave and weighing a decision she must make. I liked the lyrical, comforting writing style: this book feels very cozy to read. The majority of this book discusses the characters' past; I wouldn't have minded more insight into the protagonists later years leading up to present day. Similarly, we have a very detailed picture of her parents and their relationship when she was young, but not so much in her adulthood. Still, the way the distant and near past weave together to tell a comprehensive story is done well. Revelations about certain characters and their backstories are slowly, satisfyingly revealed. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a comforting read about family history.

I was gripped from the start by the voice of the narrator and the writing style. I love this frame of storytelling, it's intimate and it's very effective here. I adore search for identity stories with queer and POC representation and this fit that so well. The characters were well developed and the history woven in so well that I didn't feel taken out of the story.
Thank you to the publisher for this DRC!

I love what this book is trying to do-Palestinian experience, LGBTQ, and multi-generational tale. It starts out strong and so interesting, but I lost the thread of the story and was often confused by the second-person narrative.

I got an ARC of this book through Netgalley – it will be released on April 25, 2023. This is a beautifully written novel centered around Betty, a queer, Palestinian-American woman who is born with blue skin – a vibrant blue that is the same color of the soap that became the family legacy. The story starts with Betty visiting her aunt’s grave, trying to decide if she should stay in America or follow her lover to another country. From there, to figure out the answer, Betty unravels the many mysteries around her aunt’s life, learning about the many secrets she kept hidden for years. It’s a story about identity and love, and is all woven together in such a beautiful way.

I think the best way to describe my personal opinion of this novel is to say I am very neutral about this title.

It was good at times but inconsistent and patchy at other times. The pacing and timeline were honestly throwing me off, as well as the whole 2nd person narrative. I don't think I've read many, if not any, books in the second person.

This book was beautiful on the page through wonderfully crafted visuals, almost to the level of poetry in Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous," but sadly the depth was lacking because of the timeline.

I enjoyed how some parts felt like a genuine conversation, but other parts of this very long novel felt run-on and very much like an information dump.

This entire novel is actually someone retelling the last twenty years, but it's supposed to be told within a day's conversation and to me, that's just not something I see that's very well written within the timeline of the story. The time frame of the last 20 years and the entire day's conversation were definitely not in a straight line and that's okay, but I expected a little more depth. I am excited to read other works by this author because I do really do like the storytelling aspect, especially the parts that were poetic.

"Hiding one's true desires, day in and day out, was a type of skin. But in the old country, our heroine wore it out of habit. She knew no other way. There would never be any taking it all the way off. But now that she was buttoned inside yet another new skin, she felt like she was wearing two winter coats."

We all have inner lives, housed inside a carapace of skin. When you're a child and you experience the world's hurt for the first time, adults tell you that you'll need to grow a thicker skin to protect you from cruelty. Nuha Rummani has spent her life inside such a shell, first to change her name and identity, then years later to hide her romantic relationship with a woman to even those closest to her. Her niece, Dr. Natasha "Tashi" Rummani, is an accomplished neuroscientist who buries herself in work to hide her depression and suicidal ideation. Tashi's daughter Elspeth, nicknamed Betty, cannot hide inside her skin, for it's blue. Quite literally blue--descended from her long-deceased ancestors who washed themselves with soap containing indigo dye.

Nuha raises her grandniece with fables spun from the history of her family. What at first seem like fantastical myths of gazelles and fiery red birds with flowing tails have their roots in truth, and this book opens and blossoms as its kernels reveal themselves.

This book is a masterpiece. All the stars.

“There is no truth but in old women’s tales.”


The Skin and Its Girl is told from the perspective of Elspeth “Betty” Rummani, a woman with dense blue skin who is on the verge of a life altering decision, who is visiting her Aunt Nuha’s gravesite in search for answers within her family history. Through recounting stories of her life and the women she grew up with, she ruminates on life, love, trauma, cultural and generational borders and interconnectedness, and the power of choice. (Vague spoilers ahead).


The concept of “the skin” is one that shifts and develops throughout the story as the reader learns more about the characters’ history’s, specifically Nuha’s. We learn that the more significant skin isn’t Betty’s bold blue skin, but rather Nuha’s adopted skin, taken on as a form of disguise, which has given her a sense of safety, as well as a sort of responsibility to hide within. I didn’t personally feel any stake in Betty’s decision to stay or go with her lover, and I wonder if that was intentional, in the way that the more important skin was Nuha’s, so were her decisions.


Although this story is beautifully meditative on questions of life and love and decision, there are some details that didn’t fully connect in my mind, mostly surrounding Betty's strange characteristics; her blueness, denseness, the chips in her skin, seeing the future, none of it clicked for me personally, but I would love to hear other people’s interpretations. I also didn't fully understand the purpose of the fire and her brother; was it solely to remind Nuha of the beginning of her life as Nuha Rumani? A sort of beginning of the end?


Despite my general confusion, I found quite a handful of quotes from this novel that really resonated with me. Here's a few that I think capture what I took from Cypher's story:


- “Love is, might be, feels like, a kind of fairy tale too -- one that can begin only once the story we thought we know blows apart”


- “There is literally no end to unanswered questions, questions we don't even know how to ask yet. Living is doubting. Living in doubt is a good thing.”


- “This is your history. Memorize it and tell it to anyone who will listen”


- “But whatever way your heart takes you, just go. Pick up the pieces later.”


- “When the waters of the world have run together again, everyone is a citizen of the same land -- their cries reaching over the unbroken water like long fingers”


Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for access to an eARC in return for an honest review.

I love Middle Eastern stories with strong female main characters. It give a glimpse into the lives they lead and what their struggle to survive entails. This is no different. It has the added twist of having a blue baby born, which medically is a thing, but this book gives it a more "magical reality" feel. From the description we know there are some skeletons in the family closet. The author takes the time to expose them and pull the reader along on the that journey. A very thought provoking read. Thanks Net Galley.

an incredible story of a family through multiple generations. lovingly called betty by her great aunt, elspeth rummani is born blue. her mentally ill mother plans on giving her to a couple looking to adopt, but great aunt nuha encourages her to keep the baby. as elspeth sits by her aunt’s grave, she reflects on her childhood, her arab ancestry, religious stories, her family, and her sexuality.

full of poetic prose full of articulate diction and compelling characters, this novel is a work of art. cypher is able to weave fact and myth together in a way that is absolutely phenomenal. through heartbreak and laughter, we learn the story of the rummanis and their lives in both palestine and america. i was fully captivated by this novel, unable to put it down.

thank you so much to netgalley and they published for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

A thrilling modern novel of magical realism, for fans of Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, and the Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek.

A beautiful book exploring queer relationships and a woman coming into her own. Beautifully written and also some magical realism aspects. Loved it.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

This is the tale of a woman coming into her own. She's faced with cultural pressure while solving the mystery of her family. Add to that the color of her skin. The writing was magnetic and will draw you in. I could see this winning many Academy Awards.

This is one of those books that, despite being an intimate story, feels an epic. It's whimsical but visceral. It's laser focused on these two queer women but so vast and filled with characters who each could have had their own book. It feels like folklore, but it's also a craft masterpiece.

Everyone should read it.

The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher is a beautiful look at a young woman exploring what it means to be queer as she unravels secrets of the past involving her family. A personal mystery that will keep your eyes gripped to the pages and your soul gripped to the characters.

I really enjoyed this beautiful book. I loved the language used in the book and found so many phrases and passages to be beautiful enough to stop my in my reading. The way this novel looks at family history is unlike anything I've read this year and I cannot wait to recommend this book to others.

A must read for queer Arabs, especially those of us living in the diaspora. Cypher tells one of the most beautifully written stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I love the characters of Betty and Nuha so much, especially the stories they shared with us as the readers. This book manages to be a family saga, magical realism, and a reflection of what it means to be alive all in one.

This was one of the most unique and beautiful books I have read in a long time. The imagery and fanaticism in this story was mesmerizing.