In Her Skin

The Perfect Playlist for IN HER SKIN

Becoming Vivienne Weir gives Jo everything she wants, including a safe haven from the streets. But inside Vivienne Weir’s skin might be the most dangerous place of all. This is my soundtrack to her journey.

1. Jealous by Labyrinth is the perfect song for when Jo first spots Temple at the Boston Public Library. Jo can’t get close to her, but she wants to: in fact, Temple is her original mark. The lyrics—I’m jealous of the rain/I’m jealous of the wind/That ripples through your clothes/It’s closer than your shadow—set the tone as she rubs her thumb over Temple’s school ID and considers how to become her.

2. Good Lifeby One Republic. Life with the Lovecrafts is like a buffet, Jo thinks: so many things to choose from, and she wants to gobble it all. Between shopping trips to Newbury Street, fancy hotel restaurants, and gifts from Tiffany, this has gotta be the good life.

3. Celebrity Skinby Hole. The anger. The attitude. The grungy aesthetic. But mostly because:

You better watch out/Oh, what you wish for/It better be worth it/So much to die for

Yup.

4. Perfect Placesby Lorde could have been written about the warehouse party that Temple and Jo sneak into. It’s just another graceless night for Temple; for Jo, it’s a turning point in her feelings toward her new “sister.”

5. Criminal by Fiona Apple. Jo’s been careless with a delicate man—Wolf—whom she abandoned, and who happens to be her one true love. Ouch.

6. On My Own by Lea Salonga. In the novel, this song (from Les Miserables) is performed at the opera house. It reminds Jo of nights walking the city with Wolf, and she has to steel herself from showing her new family that she’s dying inside.

7. Just Like A Pill by Pink. Jo starts to suspect that Temple may not be good for her health. Just like a pill.

8. Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash. The Lovecrafts’ lifestyle isn’t the only draw. The real reason for staying is Temple, and with her, it’s always tease, tease, tease.

9. You Don’t Own Me by Dusty Springfield. ‘Nuff said.

10. Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift. Every. Line. In. This. Song. In case you need a reminder (you don’t):

I don’t like your little games

Don’t like your tilted stage

The role you made me play

Of the fool, no, I don’t like you

I don’t like your perfect crime

How you laugh when you lie

You said the gun was mine

Isn’t cool, no, I don’t like you

And oh, what Jo does.

11. In the End by Linkin Park. This song is pure angst and regret. I don’t buy that Jo regrets one minute of her time as Vivienne Weir, but she does get far. And she definitely has to fall to lose it all.

Happy reading, and listening!

KIM SAVAGE is the author of three critically acclaimed young adult novels, After the Woods, Beautiful Broken Girls (named by Kirkus as one of the 10 Best YA of 2017), and In Her Skin (releasing March 27, 2018), all with Farrar, Straus, Giroux/Macmillan. Her novels have been published in Spain, Brazil, and Turkey, and have been optioned for TV. Kim presents at conferences and book festivals nationwide; has been featured on NPR, Herald Radio, and on local cable stations; and she reads from her novels at bookstores across the country. A former reporter with a Master degree in Journalism from Northeastern University, Kim’s stories are based in and around Boston. She lives with her family near Boston, not far from the real Middlesex Fells Reservation of After the Woods. Kim and her husband have three children, each of whom beg to appear in her books. They shouldn’t.