Landlocked in Foreign Skin
Drew Huff
Independently published (January 28, 2025)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

“Everything can change. Inevitability is a lie. Just when you think you know the future, that you’ve managed to grasp forward in time and figure it out, it mutates into something different.” –Drew Huff from Landlocked in Foreign Skin

This sapphic sci-fi novel is a gut punch to my soul. I have never read an author who profoundly explained what it is like to be living in a skin which is not yours and forced to live a different life by your family because they and society deem you as abnormal and invaluable.

Drew Huff uses the Fisherman as a metaphor for the way the LGBTQA+ community is treated in society and reminds us what it means to be human in our own skin. As the novella progresses, so do the characters, becoming darker and darker, seeking meaning for their own existence and a place where they belong.

This is a story about love, betrayal, self discovery, and strength. The hero’s journey is gripping. I read all through the night into the early morning. Huff also tackles the issue of humans destroying the planet for their own greed and not caring about the animals and sentient beings calling the ocean their home. And how egotistical we are to think we are the last link in the chain of evolution. This is a timely book I feel everyone should read.

About Nora B. Peevy

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She toils away for JournalStone and Trepidatio Publishing as a submissions reader, is a co-editor for Alien Sun Press, the newest reviewer for Hellnotes, and has been published by Eighth Tower Press, Weird Fiction Quarterly, and other places. Usually, you can find her on Facebook asking for help escaping from her human body or to get tuna. Tuna is nice. Cats like tuna.