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Point Horror Unleashed
Skinners
Legendary cults and living corpses - Donald hasn't got time for it. He needs a real story for the Brackenbridge Courier. That is going to be tough in this sleepy town. Or so he thought, before he saw a dead man walk and before he saw that finger.
- GenresHorrorYoung Adult
178 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1999
111 people want to read
About the author
John Gordon
38Ìýbooks27ÌýfollowersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Gordon was an English writer of adolescent supernatural fiction. He was the author of fifteen fantasy novels (including The Giant Under The Snow), four short story collections, over fifty short stories, and a teenage memoir. For more information, please see
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Gordon was an English writer of adolescent supernatural fiction. He was the author of fifteen fantasy novels (including The Giant Under The Snow), four short story collections, over fifty short stories, and a teenage memoir. For more information, please see
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 27, 2021
Donald Price is working for the town newspaper in the year before he heads off to university, and he thinks he might be on to the story of a lifetime when he witnesses a man get hit by a bus and appear to be dead. Except a woman shows up, cuts a finger from a severed arm, and gets him to suck on it (Ew!) The man gets up, right as rain, and he and the woman walk off.
Around the same time, Donald and his family are visited by famous horror writer Oscar Bullimore, as Donald's father is his editor. Donald uses the opportunity to do a story for the paper on Oscar. However, Oscar is actually in hiding from a sinister cult called "The Skinners", who like to remove the skin of people and wear it themselves, which then lets them control that particular body part of the other person. (Ew!) Could this be linked to that incident with the bus that Donald witnessed?
This was an enjoyable horror story, but still a missed opportunity. There was so much that could be done with the concept of wearing the skin of others to control them. Icky and creepy! I wanted to learn more about this cult and their terracotta coffin and how they managed to develop supernatural ability through the removal of skin. But after that memorable start, the story just kind of dies in the ass, taken up with Donald's infatuation with his former English teacher, who seems apparently smitten with him, with the story just not seeming to really go anywhere. I was almost dropping the score to 2 stars, but things perk back up for the climax, which is memorably loopy and gross.
Probably more interesting for what it could have been, this still has its moments.
Around the same time, Donald and his family are visited by famous horror writer Oscar Bullimore, as Donald's father is his editor. Donald uses the opportunity to do a story for the paper on Oscar. However, Oscar is actually in hiding from a sinister cult called "The Skinners", who like to remove the skin of people and wear it themselves, which then lets them control that particular body part of the other person. (Ew!) Could this be linked to that incident with the bus that Donald witnessed?
This was an enjoyable horror story, but still a missed opportunity. There was so much that could be done with the concept of wearing the skin of others to control them. Icky and creepy! I wanted to learn more about this cult and their terracotta coffin and how they managed to develop supernatural ability through the removal of skin. But after that memorable start, the story just kind of dies in the ass, taken up with Donald's infatuation with his former English teacher, who seems apparently smitten with him, with the story just not seeming to really go anywhere. I was almost dropping the score to 2 stars, but things perk back up for the climax, which is memorably loopy and gross.
Probably more interesting for what it could have been, this still has its moments.
November 8, 2023
2.25 stars
This one was..weird. The plot itself is on the stranger side, but the pacing was very slow for a book as short as this one I never really knew where the story was going. The end reveal was also very lacklustre. A rare miss for me in the Point horror unleashed series.
Donald is a reporter for a local newspaper looking for a story, when he sees an old man carrying a moving dismembered finger he's intrigued to find out more. This leads him to an underground supplier of body parts, and a group that claims to be able to bring them back to life.
This one was..weird. The plot itself is on the stranger side, but the pacing was very slow for a book as short as this one I never really knew where the story was going. The end reveal was also very lacklustre. A rare miss for me in the Point horror unleashed series.
Donald is a reporter for a local newspaper looking for a story, when he sees an old man carrying a moving dismembered finger he's intrigued to find out more. This leads him to an underground supplier of body parts, and a group that claims to be able to bring them back to life.
September 5, 2022
Eh. This was a short story of horror I didn’t pay for and I’m glad. I would have liked it more if it was set in an earlier time period.
October 7, 2024
* Donald is a young reporter. He's out in the street one day when something happens right in front of him - a man is hit by a bus and lying in the street. He seems seriously injured, but a young woman comes along claiming to be a nurse, and he's miraculously okay.
* Donald goes back later and finds a dismembered finger in the gutter. He picks it up, and it moves in his hand and he drops it. A rat grabs it and runs and he can't find it.
* His editor wants him to do a story for the Christmas edition, he wants it to be about Oscar Bullimore, a horrorwriter.
* Luckily Donald's father is Oscar's editor, and he is staying with them. Donald brings up the subject of a poorly known story that Oscar wrote about people who removed skin from dead bodies, and then wore it to have control over that dead body part (weird!).
* Oscar tells Donald that he was invited to a dinner by some people and it turned out that they'd worked out how to do this, and animated a dead rat which completely freaked Oscar out. It seems he's in hiding now so that they can't find him again.
*Donald accidentally lets slip that Oscar is staying with him when talking to an old teacher who he fancies and kisses! (Like what???!)
* It turns out she's part of this group, and once again Oscar finds himself at one of their parties, with them reanimating dead things. One of those things is a friend of Donald's called Jeremy (half a head left - pretty yuck).
* Donald and his friend Hazel (who was more than a friend by the end of the book) manage to rescue Oscar, and the bad guys end up dead.
* Donald goes back later and finds a dismembered finger in the gutter. He picks it up, and it moves in his hand and he drops it. A rat grabs it and runs and he can't find it.
* His editor wants him to do a story for the Christmas edition, he wants it to be about Oscar Bullimore, a horrorwriter.
* Luckily Donald's father is Oscar's editor, and he is staying with them. Donald brings up the subject of a poorly known story that Oscar wrote about people who removed skin from dead bodies, and then wore it to have control over that dead body part (weird!).
* Oscar tells Donald that he was invited to a dinner by some people and it turned out that they'd worked out how to do this, and animated a dead rat which completely freaked Oscar out. It seems he's in hiding now so that they can't find him again.
*Donald accidentally lets slip that Oscar is staying with him when talking to an old teacher who he fancies and kisses! (Like what???!)
* It turns out she's part of this group, and once again Oscar finds himself at one of their parties, with them reanimating dead things. One of those things is a friend of Donald's called Jeremy (half a head left - pretty yuck).
* Donald and his friend Hazel (who was more than a friend by the end of the book) manage to rescue Oscar, and the bad guys end up dead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2018
I approached this a little warily, as I'd been rather disappointed in the previous couple of John Gordon's novels after enjoying The House on the Brink, but thoroughly enjoyed this Grand Guignol romp.
Donald is a young man, working for a local newspaper in his gap year before going to university, who starts to investigate a weird cult who have a fixation with body parts. Set in the late 90s, though suspiciously more like the 70s - computers are mentioned but the author overcomes any need to portray them by having the newspaper editor a Luddite who insists they stick to manual typewriters, not even electric ones - it is told from Donald's first person viewpoint and begins when he witnesses an accident in which a man is struck by a bus. The man seems badly injured, but soon has an amazing recovery although in many ways he resembles to a zombie.
The book features some of Gordon's previously encountered themes such as the fascination exercised by an older woman over a young man, and a young woman who appears fey and shy to begin with but develops into an equal partner - and in this case, one with nerves and stomach of steel - as she and Donald come up against the horrific developments which follow. There was a nice dark humour to the story and it was definitely tongue in cheek in the big climax. Hence a 4-star rating.
Donald is a young man, working for a local newspaper in his gap year before going to university, who starts to investigate a weird cult who have a fixation with body parts. Set in the late 90s, though suspiciously more like the 70s - computers are mentioned but the author overcomes any need to portray them by having the newspaper editor a Luddite who insists they stick to manual typewriters, not even electric ones - it is told from Donald's first person viewpoint and begins when he witnesses an accident in which a man is struck by a bus. The man seems badly injured, but soon has an amazing recovery although in many ways he resembles to a zombie.
The book features some of Gordon's previously encountered themes such as the fascination exercised by an older woman over a young man, and a young woman who appears fey and shy to begin with but develops into an equal partner - and in this case, one with nerves and stomach of steel - as she and Donald come up against the horrific developments which follow. There was a nice dark humour to the story and it was definitely tongue in cheek in the big climax. Hence a 4-star rating.
November 8, 2017
I didn't expect to like this as much as i did. It had some grim humor which went really well with the rest of the story. I have to say that this really was a horror book not some low-key imitation of one. It's not that it was horrifying, it's that it created this atmosphere that made me feel uneasy.
The plot was surprisingly decent for a horror novel, as was the characters.
Overall, i really enjoyed it. Shame for that ending though, but it felt like the author called himself out on that :D
The plot was surprisingly decent for a horror novel, as was the characters.
Overall, i really enjoyed it. Shame for that ending though, but it felt like the author called himself out on that :D
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September 8, 2013started off great then
what the?
what the?
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