This book was fantastically brutal, visceral, and gross, all in a good way. Could not put it down from page one.

I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

Oh my god.

I am not a horror fan by any means. But this book was incredible.

It's a difficult book. It's sad, anger-inducing, and uncomfortable in many parts. But it is filled with so much love and care. White covers a horrific part of history, the dangerous treatment towards neurodivergent people, women, and queer people, combining historical fiction and horror to create this wonderful book.

Silas is one of my favorite protagonists I've ever read. There were moments I wanted to hug him. There are elements of him that I see in myself, the over apologizing, the way he understands the world (although, like Daphne, literature is my method:) ) Watching him grow as a character throughout the novel, and seeing where he ended up at the end of the story was a wonderful experience.

Daphne and Silas are the most tender couple I have read in a long time. I love their scenes together, insta-love and all. But this is insta-love done perfectly. The moment Daphne reveals herself to Silas and the latter's response made me cry. It's such a beautiful section:

"For the first time in my life, there is someone like me. Who is real, who is alive, who is so close I could touch them. In the span of seconds, standing there in a suit with her cheeks flushing the color of roses and her eyes brimming with tears, the Honorable Daphne Luckenbill becomes the most wonderful girl I have ever seen."

Outside of the romance, the plot gripped me so tight, I could only put the book down twice. I read this within the span of a few hours.

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time. Definitely getting a physical when I can!

Read the content warnings on the author's website before reading as always!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and publisher for providing me with an ARC of The Spirit Bares Its Teeth in exchange for an honest review!
This book was definitely riveting, but I especially loved the world building. Set in the later 1880's, this book follows Silas, a transgender boy who is born with violet eyes which allow him to see the dead. The story is set in London, with the cruel and misogynistic Speaker Society ruling over all. After attempting to escape the role defined by his assigned sex at birth, Silas is sent to a boarding school for mischievous violet eyed women, where he discovers a terrible secret. I definitely loved Silas as a protagonist. I emphasized with him, and hoped for him to get out of his predicament. Indeed, I feel like the strongest aspect of this novel concerned the relationships. Silas and his brother, George, were a highlight of the novel to me. It sucks to love someone who ends up not being who you thought they were. Also, It's always nice to find a great T4T novel, as we see with Daphne and Silas. I felt like the plot flowed very well for a novel of this size, and each character was unique in their own way. I didn't feel bogged down, as every character seemed to have a solid place in the story. Through it all, I felt as through the concept and story were unique, especially with the violet eyes concept. This is definitely a novel I will purchase when it comes out. I very much enjoyed it!

"If a dead girl prays to God can he hear her?"

tw // transphobia, ableism, graphic violence, sexual assault, discussions of forced
pregnancy and miscarriage, mentions of suicidal ideation, extensive medical gore

"The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" picked up a pair of silver scissor and thrusted them into my body, leaving a mush of muscles and bones behind barely recognizable as me.

There are no longer words. I surely don't have them. I cannot even begin to describe what I felt while reading, how Silas's story grabbed me by a hand since the page one, and how his hand was moving deeper and deeper into my flesh and ribs until it found it and mercilessly grabbed this beating heart. It. Is. Marvelous.

The horror? Indescribable. The tension? Unbreakable. The story? Fucking wild. Good isn't the word, bad is. How wrong it is, how uncomfortable with this evil waiting under its surface. AJW is a genius when it comes to sending reader way down into darkness of a world deprived of light, just to shine a dim of hope upon them. It breaks you. And yet you cannot leave. You -don't- want to leave.

I am well aware it is unhinged, feral and untamed book that is not for anyone. It never was meant to be. It won't be praised by most, but that's what makes the very core of it. TSBIT does not choose simplifications. It does not agree to exist as anything but this.

And I fucking loved every shard of glass it thrusted into me.

If this is AJW's young adult version of horror, I am terrified of the twisted adult tale he's preparing. Cannot wait for it.

All my issues with this are 10000% me and not the book so I don't want to let that impact my rating. AJW's first book really pushed the limits of my ability to read gore and body horror and this one was simply too much for me. So, like I said, a me issue and not the book.

Thank you to Peachtree and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I fly through books like I did with The Spirit Bears its Teeth, I like to wait a couple days to write a review. I like making sure I wasn’t just caught up in the vibes. SO LET ME JUST SAY THIS BOOK WAS, AND STILL IS, FANTASTIC!!!

TSBIT was the perfect mix of love, survival, and on page cesareans. I loved how well the Victorian-era culture played a role in how Silas (MC) interacted with the world, and how the world interacted with him. But as someone who loves a bit of gore every once in a while, this book 100% delivers. You know it’s going to be a one of a kind novel when the MC goes into vivid descriptions about how they would go about removing their own eyeballs.

Please please please pre-order TSBIT or just go ahead and be the first one at your local bookstore on September 5, 2023. Thank you again to Peachtree and NetGalley for the opportunity.

<i>*Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review*</i>
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a YA historical fantasy following trans teen, Silas Bell, who upon being arrested and sentenced to death for “impersonating a male”, is suddenly and mysteriously rescued by the wealthy and powerful Lord Luckenbill. Luckenbill has Silas immediately shipped off to a sanatorium to cure his “veil-sickness”, a mysterious disease that only seems to affect violet-eyed women, women who have access to the veil between the living and dead. Upon arriving at Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanatorium, Silas he is met with not only abuse, but also angry ghosts and missing girls. In order to get himself out safely and expose the school, he will have to go to great lengths to expose the truth and bring them down for good.

As expected, Andrew Joseph White completely delivers with his sophomore novel. Through Silas, an autistic closeted trans man living in a fictional Victorian England, the author explores themes of oppression, misogyny, transphobia, ableism and classism all while telling a riveting story in a fantasy world that is, in many ways, not too far from our own. If you enjoyed Hell Followed With Us, or just happen to love reading about trans kids going to great, violent, necessary lengths to fight back against their oppressors, this is bound to be a new favourite.

I had to DNF this book at about 30% simply because I was uncomfortable with how graphic the imagery tended to be. This however does not reflect my overall opinion on this novel and I hope I can one day return to it.

Summary:
“Gloria” Bell (the main character is trans and prefers the name Silas which is what I will be using for the rest of the review) lives in a world where male “Speakers,” people born with violet eyes, are highly revered and female Speakers are married off. The Speakers unique ability to reach into the world of the dead makes the men deemed extremely valuable while the women are forcibly restrained from using their abilities. After a failed attempt to escape their arranged marriage and live as a surgeon instead, Silas is enrolled into a correction school (read: conversion camp) intended for Speaker women with society-deemed mental disorders to be molded into perfect mothers and wives.

I really enjoyed the writing style and how knowledgeable the author/main character are about anatomy and surgery. However, if you are squeamish, I would recommend exercising caution.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC!
I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book since I finished Hell Followed With Us. Andrew is an auto buy author for me; mostly because queer/trans (& autistic) rage is my absolute favorite. I knew going into this book that it would have all the triggers (please check them before reading) and I knew it would be a really heavy book to read. And it just did not disappoint!!!
I find myself so much in Silas—him suffering through ABA was traumatic enough nevermind the absolutely horrific things he experienced to “fix” his “veil sickness”
The group of friends he has, while tumultuous at first, really ended up being so very important for him and for Daphne.
I truly don’t want to spoil so I won’t go into much more, just be prepared to cry and reflect on how horribly our medical system treats disabled folks to this day—especially Black women.

Absolutely obsessed with Andrew’s writing. I really have no critiques whatsoever. I appreciate that he’s very open about the trigger warnings at the beginning of his books, it definitely helps the reader get into the right mindset and make the right choice for themself on whether they want to read it or not.

Andrew writes characters who are painfully real. There’s no lack of neurodivergent and lgbtqia+ representation. And reading his particular brand of horror is so refreshing as a queer person, because I feel safe to do so. The queer characters always fight through and come out alive in the end despite the amount of hell they experience.

Editing note: I did note a spelling error on page 71 (”gir” instead of “girl” in the middle of the page)

I am beyond blown away. This was so horrific, brutal, gut-wrenching but brilliantly so. I literally just finished reading it and trying to form comprehensive words to describe how much I loved this book are just escaping me right now. This is coming out in less than four months, but I already know this is going to one of my all time favorites from this year (Perhaps of all time). God - the writing, the characters, Silas and the side cast, especially, the descriptions, the story, the amazing depiction of autism, trans, and queer identities - White has improved so much since his debut and it absolutely flourishes her.

The only other thing I wanna say is that the content warnings given are not just for decoration. Homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, ableism, and the body horror/gore does not hold back, whatsoever. This is not a breezy read, so heed the warnings. Otherwise, I will be throwing this amazing piece of literature to everyone I know so they, too, can understand why this book is so fucking good.

How do I possibly extol the virtues of this book?

I mean, I knew I would love this book mainly because I loved Hell Followed With Us and will probably enjoy everything that Andrew Joseph White writes but basically, I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this book.

This book is unabashedly dark, horrific, relatable and queer. Set in the late nineteenth century, it follows the story of Silas, whom you could say finds himself in the gender trappings of a secret society of people with violet eyes who can communicate with the spirits of the dead. Treated as 'subversive', which is the kindest, least emphatic word I can use, he is sent to a boarding school for girls with Veil-sickness, which causes them to go mad basically. There he discovers not just the ordinary horrors of his situation but all kinds of bigoted and supernatural horrors as well.

This is a dark, beautiful story with themes of gender, love, personhood, parenthood, bodily autonomy and grief at its heart. Silas is an amazing protagonist that resonated deeply with me and both his story over the course of the book and his interactions with the people around him made me devour this book in a few hours. I can't say enough about the cast, Daphne and Mary and Isabella and George, and the vivid, brutal imagery of White's prose that evoked so much for me.

Can't recommend this book enough!

In short, my review is this: This book is disturbing, it's spectacularly queer in all ways, and anybody that has the stomach should read it.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth (TSBIT) is now undoubtedly one of my favourite books. If you liked Hell Followed With Us, this is going on your TBR.

The autistic, trans, and queer representation in this book is phenomenal. It is beautiful and appreciative, as much as it is cruel, brutal, and truly honest. TSBIT is raw with the experiences of Silas and the other characters' identities and how they experience the world. I felt the most seen I ever have while reading. The story is not gentle with its depictions of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and all around bigotry — and it is perfect like that. TSBIT hits hard and deep, with the precise aim of a scalpel. It isn't messy, but it is bloody, and gross, and full of wonderful trans rage. Bringing it all together for me was the painfully sweet experience of young queers falling (plummeting) headfirst into each other's arms and being angry at the world together.

This book is NOT for everyone and the content warnings should be taken very seriously. It is not a gentle read. It is messed up.

I only ran into a couple small issues during my read as I blasted through the whole thing in one sitting. For the most part, I think it was an issue with the formatting of the EPUB. I can tell that a lot of the intentional formatting got absolutely lost and trashed in the digital copy, and left me majorly confused until I could properly figure out what I was supposed to be actually seeing. I will be getting my grubby trans hands on a printed copy at any cost. I can only recall maybe three random grammatical / writing errors in the story, which is certainly not a damper on how much I love this book.

TLDR: Read it read it read it, but only if you can manage what you are going to see in there. Keep in mind that a digital copy may have the formatting screwed up, and march onward.

I look forward to literally anything else that Andrew Joseph White will be writing. Very well done.

After reading White's Hell Followed With Us, I've been counting down the days until The Spirit Bares Its Teeth would be available-- and this book was well worth the wait.

TSBIT is a powerful text that navigates through oppression, transphobia, ableism, sexism, and class, and I always appreciate White's ability to explain these themes with diverse characters in the forefront.

Silas is an autistic trans teenager growing up in 1883 London with a special ability to communicate with spirits because of a power that comes with having violet-colored eyes. After an attempt to run away from arranged marriage that results in Silas murdering *someone* (no spoilers here), Silas is sent to a whack boarding school for girls with Veil-sickness, a diagnosis that sends violet-colored-eyed girls into hysteria (aka: "girl no do what man want, so girl crazy). Here, Silas is confronted by the ghosts of past patients and, well, in typical White fashion, CHAOS with a capital "C" ensues and secrets are exposed.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*

My personal "hell yea"s from TSBIT:
trans man and trans woman fall in love
DIY C-section
The metaphor of the rabbit
Women in STEM, cool. Trans men in STEM, even cooler. (Both are super cool, but y'all get the joke.)
"Eff you" to gender roles

This story delivers as promised, and as expected from Andrew Joseph White. The protagonist, Silas so aptly expresses the reality, anger, and gory horror that can be the human experience. In his case, as a violet eyed trans man in a world that values him as marriage and lineage material, not as the person he is. I am here for the representation of a trans, autistic, main character finding ways to live, exert autonomy, find friendship and love, and take revenge against those who hurt him and others.
Silas has a plan to escape his family that wants to marry him off to the highest bidder as a valued violet eyed daughter. He takes the spot of a young man to get his Speaker Ring, a kind of permit for violet eyed men to open the Veil between the living and the dead. When this plan fails, he is sent to Braxton's, a "finishing school," where girls disappear or are married off, and he has to find ways to survive.
This book is potent, and the amount of tears I shed reading this can attest to that. The anger is not held back from the beginning to the end of the book, directed towards the systems of oppression that can be found in family, society, and the behavioral norms forced upon us all. The fury and vengeance towards those institutions and people are healing in reading, much like Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao.

Okay, here we go. Let me be upfront: I LOVED this book. I was so excited when I was approved to read it on NetGalley, you have no idea. I can’t be objective. This is just going to be several paragraphs of gushing about how much I enjoyed The Spirit Bares Its Teeth.

Now, first of all, this is a YA book, and I’m not part of the target demographic. At the time of writing this, I’m twenty-four. So, usually, I’d go into a YA book on the understanding that I might not get into it the way I would have done when I was younger. That wasn’t the case here. I was obsessed from page one.

So, let’s talk about Silas. Silas is a fantastic protagonist and narrator, like none I’ve ever seen before. I have autism spectrum disorder, and I’m often wary of books with autistic characters — how will they be portrayed? Will they be a fully developed autistic character or a vague, flat portrayal of autism? Didn’t need to worry about that with Silas. He felt so real. I understood him so deeply that it made me want to cry.

Every autistic person is different. It is, after all, a spectrum. But in Silas I saw, for the first time since I was diagnosed, someone who was autistic in the same way I am. More accurately, he’s autistic in the way I would be if I hadn’t had books and TV to learn social expectations and etiquette from (I use the word ‘learn’ loosely). But still, I had that wonderful moment of ‘he’s like me! He’s like me!!!’

This story is dark. Very much so. It’s EXACTLY the kind of thing I wanted from YA horror when I was a teenager. Andrew Joseph White is not afraid to get gruesome when it comes to details. I read his debut novel, Hell Followed With Us, a few months ago, so I thought I knew what I was in for with TSBIT. I did NOT. And I mean that in the best way. It’s graphic, it’s grim, and I LOVED it. There’s this bit in Chapter Fifteen… well, I won’t say it, but if you’ve read it then you know what I’m talking about. Yeah. That. Wow. And then there’s Chapter Twenty-One, in which… well. You know. One of the most memorable and shocking scenes I’ve read in a while, that’s all I’ll say.

And the ending!!! The ending!!!!! Physically, I was sitting still and staring at the last page. Mentally? Oh, I was rubbing my hands together in glee.

I read TSBIT in under a day. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read a book so quickly. I’m sad to have finished it. I’ll have to buy a copy when it comes out so that I can go through it with a fine-tooth comb. I’m going to underline all my favourite parts and write a plethora of notes in the margins.