Skin Hunger is a book about magic, so you'd better believe that there are also issues of reality: how reality is shaped, why people seem to live in different realities, and when stuff happens due to magic vs. due to people messing with your head. That last topic comes up a lot in the academy, where it seems like the wizards are deliberately giving the students head-trips in order to break them down and mold them into obedient wizard-candidates. Which is, like, ew.
But even for Sadima, who's not (thankfully) in wizard-school, her version of reality is quite different from the lived reality of Franklin, who has to put up with Somiss's cruel whims. With all these conflicting accounts of reality, who's to say what's really real?
Questions About Versions of Reality
- What sorts of things make Hahp think he's going mad or hallucinating?
- How do Hahp and Gerrard deal with the wizards' weird teaching tactics differently?
- What does Sadima have the most trouble grasping about Franklin's relationship with Somiss?
- How do Hahp's dreams reflect his experiences with the wizards?
Chew on This
The wizards' strategies for dealing with the boys are reminiscent of interrogation techniques used in our world.
For all the ways in which Sadima has a hard life as a farm girl, she's actually too sheltered to understand what Franklin has gone through with Somiss.