Trigger warnings for The Spirit Bares Its Teeth includes: transphobia, ableism, graphic violence, sexual assault, discussions of forced
pregnancy and miscarriage, mentions of suicidal ideation, and
extensive medical gore.
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The dedication in the beginning of this book spoke to me in a way I didn't expect. "For the kids with open wounds they’re still learning to stitch closed." That used to be me, and to a lesser extent still is. Through various things I've been through I've had metaphorical and literal open wounds and I'm still learning how to heal from all of it.
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Books that contain body horror and gore aren't typically something I'll read, not because I'm squeamish or anything, I just don't tend to like those things in what I read. However, both Hell Followed With Us, and The Spirit Bares Its Teeth are two books I've thoroughly enjoyed which both contain those elements.
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“I can’t follow his train of thought. That’s nothing new; I usually can’t. People have a nasty habit of speaking in non sequiturs and confusing questions that leave me scrambling to follow.”
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"If you were meant to be a boy, you wouldn’t have to fight so hard to prove it."
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Not even halfway through the book there's already quotes I relate to so heavily. Having to fight to prove who I am, both in terms of my autism but also my gender. Not understand nuance of people's tone in comparison to their words, everything.
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“I am just as much a man as my father and brother, just a different kind.” This is something I think a lot of transphobic people fail to see or understand. Transgender people are just as much of their gender as other people, they just aren't quite the same type as others. Trans- as a prefix has been used in science for a very long time, and all it means is on a different side of, the same way cis- as a prefix just means on the same side of.
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It interests me every time Silas refers to 'the other girls' or uses similar phrases, because he's including himself as one of the girls when he's a boy and he knows it. It almost feels like the way trans males refer to themselves as a girl when they're young is they haven't figured out their boyhood yet.
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I also really relate to what Silas says about the idea of comfort, and how people tell you to show comfort to others. I also feel like it's very performative, and it doesn't come naturally to me to show comfort in that way either. “Maybe that’s why my tutors called me callous and unfeeling.
I’m not. I never was. I just express things differently is all.”
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As I said earlier in the review, for a book with such themes as this book has, I'm shocked and surprised at how much I related to parts of it, but I also feel like I should've expected that with how much I related to his first book too, what with having transgender and autistic characters in it.
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Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC copy of this book.

Andrew does it again! Hell Followed With Us prepped me for the gory writing, but The Spirit Bares Its Teeth felt even more emotional, dark, and horrific. The exploration of the Victorian era through the lens of a trans, autistic boy really reveals the misogyny, transphobia, and ableism that is still present in current times. Overall this is an excellent book and I cannot wait for more people to read it!

A brutal, gory medical horror set in an alternate Victorian England about an autistic trans boy who gets forced to go to a all girls finishing school & sanatorium due to him not complying with societies ideals for “woman” Speakers - basically people who can rip open the Veil and summon spirits. As women are not allowed to do this, they are essentially broodmares for the men, birthing new generations of sons.

This was fantastic and heartbreaking and emotional and very gory. It had a lot of body horror and some extremely gruesome scenes but ultimately ends in a satisfactory way.

I really loved the relationship development between Silas and Daphne, it was beautiful to read.

Highly recommend giving this a read but please check content/trigger warnings. The author details these at the beginning of the book.

I loved this book. LOVED it. I had never read anything quite like Hell Followed With Us, but Spirit was even better. White’s voice is so strong and distinctive, and his use of body horror is to illuminate his point is just *kisses fingers.*

Make no mistake—I know HFw/U was too much for some readers, and if you aren’t already a horror reader, PLEASE READ THE CONTENT NOTE. This book is quite dark, and there’s a lot of medical horror in here. That said, I would not call any of it gratuitous. White doesn’t temper his rage about the treatment of marginalized individuals. I was glad to see the note at the end, because all of the body horror is based on actual historical practices, although as he acknowledges, the English upper class would have experienced this far less than other socioeconomic groups.

Anyway…

I loved all of these characters, everyone’s arc is immaculate, and Daphne is such a babe. Touches on some similar material to Mindy McGinnis’s A Madness So Discreet.

I will literally devour any book White writes, and will now be patiently awaiting his next offering. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book as an ARC. Everyone go read it. It’s so good. 😭

This one's a blood-soaked triumph, and I'm here to tell you why it's a 5-star read.

Set in London, 1883, where the Veil between the living and dead has thinned, we follow sixteen-year-old Silas Bell, a trans, autistic protagonist who's fighting against an arranged marriage and a society that wants to force him into conformity. Diagnosed with Veil sickness, Silas is sent to Braxton's Finishing School and Sanitorium, where the ghosts of missing students beg for his help.

This book is dark, y'all, but in the best way possible. It's a gothic horror that cuts like a scalpel and reads like your darkest nightmare. The historical setting is rich and atmospheric, and the LGBTQIAP+ representation is both powerful and authentic.

White's writing is unapologetic and fearless, exposing the violence of the patriarchy and the harm inflicted on trans youth. The plot is a rollercoaster of emotions, filled with suspense, intrigue, and a touch of the supernatural.

What I loved most about this book is how it blends horror with a poignant message. It's not just a scary story; it's a battle cry against conformity and a celebration of individuality.

So, if you're in the mood for something dark, thrilling, and utterly captivating, "The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" is your ticket. It's a must-read for horror fans and anyone looking for a story that's unafraid to bare its teeth. 5 thrilling stars, and here's to many more reads like this one!

A big thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Books for the chance to read this ARC!

Oh my gosh, I love this book! Loved, loved, loved! It's been a while since I've felt this strongly about a book and I am so so happy it's this book. Andrew Joseph White has done it again, and this one is even better than Hell Followed With Us, in my opinion.

I loved Silas as a character and very much related to the rabbit in his brain that tells him how to act, how to interpret others' actions, etc. The second-guessing of all the social expectations and situations was on point. The characterization of Silas as Autistic was so perfect for me, and it fits well into the story without taking too much away from other major conflicts and plot points.

George's character was so well done, I was gut-punched by what happened in the end. The solution to the mystery of Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium was so much worse than anything I could've expected and I really felt for the girls and women stuck at the school the entire time. And while I suspected something was wrong, the twist with Silas's engagement left me shocked and enraged. This book is the first one in a while that has truly inspired some deep-seated hatred of the villains in the story. To that end, White did a fantastic job eliciting that response in his readers.

I think my only wish was that we could've seen more of Daphne's character and home life. I really enjoyed her and Silas' interactions, but they were always marred by the looming threat of the school. It's not that the book isn't perfect, it's that I need MORE, ok? Haha, I'm sure many book nerds can understand my plight.

Finally, I just want to say that when I read the acknowledgments and saw that White had been working on The Spirit Bares Its Teeth for a while, during which he published Hell Followed With Us, I could tell because so much work was put into this book. I can feel the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making this book as good as it is and I am so appreciative. White is officially a favorite author of mine, I will extoll his works to anyone who will listen and I will buy every book he comes out with. I just heard that a new book for 2024 was announced called Compound Fractures and I'm super excited!

First I want to thank Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for giving me access to an arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is one of my favorite books of the year by one of my new favorite authors. There are some definite trigger warnings as there is a lot of surgical detail and physical assault. As long as those aren’t things that will ruin your experience please continue to read on.

Silas is his real name, but his parents still call him Gloria. They don’t know his real name or that all he wants in life is to become a surgeon and help people like himself. Their only plans for his future is to find a rich sutor who will look past his socially awkward behavior in favor of his purple eyes and the power that comes with them.

TSBIT is set in an alternate history Victorian England where the veil between the living and the dead has thinned and a subset of the population, all born with purple eyes, can open the thin membrane that separates our worlds. Silas was born into a society that has restricted the use of such powers to a fraternity of men who are deemed worthy, or wealthy, enough to become Speakers. Most people look at Silas and only see the young lady that his parents and tutors have tried to force him to become, and only value him for his potential to have a son born with those same violet eyes. After one terrible night Silas is caught passing for a boy and is sent to a sanitarium for “girls” like him whose magical eyes are making them “sick”.

This story creeped me out, but in the best of ways. Silas is a character that is impossible to look away from. I started this book while I was in the middle of a couple of other projects, but once I got to about the halfway point I had to put everything else down to get to the end. Given the setting I did expect there to be a lot more ghosts and ghouls playing into the story, but Silas has very little interest in the veil, possibly because of how much pain the speakers have put him through since childhood, and would rather focus on learning everything there is to know about human anatomy. There is a lot of medical horror that pops up and there is an obvious undertone that the people, mostly men, in Silas’ world are scarier than the ghosts that lie just beyond normal reach.

I can’t say that the book is perfect in every way, but I had a great time reading it and I would definitely recommend it to any fans of LGBTQ+ fiction and with a high tolerance for blood and bodily functions. Then if you like this one check out Andrew Joseph White’s first book Hell Followed With Us as that was another amazing horror story.

Thank you to Peachtree Teen and Netgalley for this e-arc!

Andrew Joseph White is an artist. This was my first book by this author and I am ready to go pick up their debut!
We follow Silas, a trans-boy stuck existing in 1800's England. They are born into a somewhat Secret Society of Mediums who can convene with those who have passed. Silas was born a woman and is raised with only their use as a "woman" in mind. But Silas knows they aren't a woman and they have no place as a wife. He is sent to a "finishing school" after a diagnosis of "Veil Sickness" and there is far more hidden than Silas ever assumed.
This book discusses hard topics such as misogyny, ableism, and transphobia. I rated this book 5 stars and can't wait to have a copy in my hands.

Note: I was provided with an ARC of "The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" in exchange for an honest review. Many, many thanks to Andrew Joseph White, Peachtree Teen, and Netgalley.

My expectations for this book were exceedingly high - seeing as AJW's debut book was my favorite read of 2022, and it still remains one of my favorite books ever -, and, surprisingly, they were surpassed. TSBIT delivered everything it promised and so, so much more.

It tells the story of Silas Bell: a trans boy in a time he wasn't supposed to exist, autistic in a way that is not palatable for the people around him, extremely intelligent, incapable of reading the room, ready to become a surgeon at sixteen, so full of love and joy and deprived of any way to show it.

"The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" is set in a Victorian London where, decades ago, the veil between the living and the dead thinned. Suddenly, there were purple-eyed people, and they had the ability of manipulating the Veil. They became mediums, capable of communicating with spirits. But men in power do what they always do: turn something that should be accessible into something exclusive of the higher class. They create the Speakers. They self-regulate. No one dares stand against them, since they have the dead on their side.

From this, come the rules. Only people who are vetted by the Speakers can legally open the Veil. Everyone else, especially if they're from the British colonies, is committing a crime. Women are not allowed to do anything related to the Veil - too feeble-minded, too frail to stand its effects -, except when it comes to bearing children. Everyone wants a son with purple eyes, and no one seems to care about the price. They turn, as they've turned many times in history, women into bargain chips, stocks to be traded, things to be broken and molded into the perfect, submissive, agreeable wife.

And then we have Silas. After a failed attempt to finally be free of everything that is weighting him down - his family and their hatred, his arranged marriage; his many tutors that ensure he never even thinks of acting differently, the Speakers -, he ends up being thrown into Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. It's an asylum, it's a prison, it's a torture chamber. The choice is clear to Silas: become a obedient little girl or perish.

As usual, AJW creates the perfect tension. As soon as Silas steps into the school, the reader is immediately on edge. Everything feels off, it feels cold and impersonal and there's so few people it's disconcerting. But this is Silas' only chance at survival, and he needs to take it.

The characters, every single one of them, are amazingly crafted and fleshed out. No one is perfect, no one is just good or just evil.

Everything about Silas resonated with me. I might be biased, as a trans masc ADHD-riddled person, but I just felt so seen. What hit particularly close to home was how Silas kept stopping himself from stimming, even when no one was looking. He spent so many years being corrected and berated that, no matter how much his body needed the outlet, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Although my hyperfixations are not usually of the medical realm, I too have very intense interests that are frowned upon by the people I love most.

I do realize this review is a bit all over the place, I will probably come back to it later.

There was one thing that really stood out to me: the way Silas dealt with his boyhood. And his dysphoria. TSBIT presents a point of view that can only have been written by someone who has experienced every part of it, all the pain, all the shame and the self-hatred. Not really at ourselves, but at how other people insist on seeing and addressing us. Every time Silas struggled with "maybe simply being a sick girl", with doubts that he's only pretending, performing the gender he is, because others refuse to see him for who he really is. And the way he defends his boyhood. Not the violent masculinity forced upon him, but the soft masculinity, how he cares, how he wants to protect. In the end, being a boy is just being. There's no requirements.

To summarize: I loved the story. Loved the blood, the gore, the entrails spilling out of body cavities that should not exist. Loved the setting, how claustrophobic it felt, how the reader also feels surrounded at all times, with no place to escape to. I loved the romance, how such tenderness bloomed in the middle of so much abuse and bloodshed.

All in all, I'm giving "The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" a 4,75 stars. The missing 0,25 are purely because it's YA, and I felt something lacking. The ending was too clean, the story too well wrapped up. But I'd absolutely loved to have had this book when I was younger, a weird teen that felt they would never meet someone like them.

I went into this book expecting an interesting read, but not one that still rested on the edges of my mind days after finishing it. This was the creepiest, most horrifying read, yet managed to write it in such a beautiful and heartbreaking way. This isn’t a book for the faint of heart, so anyone looking to read this should pay attention to the trigger warnings.

Andrew Joseph White's novels are always such incredible reads. I knew this would be no different. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is an amazing follow-up to Hell Followed Us. I absolutely loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is beautiful, gut-wrenching, and one of the best books I have read in a long time.

"Everyone is made up of stories, when you think about it. You only really come to understand yourself by comparing other's people's stories to yours; you find where things are the same, and where they're not. It's difficult when the story isn't one the world wants to hear, though."
This book was gut-wrenching, gruesome, and horrifyingly beautiful. White does it again when it comes to combining the trans and queer experience with history and religion. This book is not for the faint of heart, and it honestly has changed my brain chemistry for the better. I loved this book so much, and I was so thankful for being able to read an e-arc of this book. I loved the trans-rep in this book with Silas and Daphne's character. I also loved the rep of autism with Silas and the groundskeeper.
The Veil plays such a heavy part in the story, and I love how little it is shown until the end. The pressure of wanting to know the extent of the veil, its inner workings, and what resides within bubbles up throughout the story until it explodes. I loved the characters in this book and loathed the actions against them. This book needs to be read by everyone!

I absolutely adored this book. It was so well-written with characters that felt real and that you wanted to root for and a fascinating plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait to read more from Andrew Joseph White.

Beautiful, dark, sometimes truly shocking and very necessary. I loved the writing and all the ideas, everything was brought to life with such admirable boldness and power. Highly recommended to everyone.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a visceral look at society and the unrealistic expectations it has over us, especially those of us society does not understand.

I loved following Silas as he tries to navigate a world where he will never be seen as the boy he is and only ever be seen as what the Speakers tell him he is. The medical mistreatment, the gaslighting, the way people treat Silas and some others is frustrating and an unfortunate truth even of todays society. I went through a whole range of emotions in this book from happy, angry, sad, and more.

For me, Andrew Joseph White know how to weave and tell a story. The writing style and the story he wrote seemed to know exactly how to pull the emotions out of me. I could see parts of myself within a lot of the characters.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is not as angry as his previous novel. However, it is just as emotional, dark, and horrific.

I absolutely loved this novel!

Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for an early copy of the book.

The cover is really really beautiful, i have no words to explain how much i love it. I didn't expect to be so horrified by the descriptions and i loved it.

I feel deeply grateful that authors like Andrew Joseph White exist, as well as the support needed to bring this book to life. I'm actually finding it difficult to articulate all the ways in which The Spirit Bares Its Teeth surprised me and made me feel seen. I found myself stopping at points throughout the book to reread, reflect, and just let in the feeling of experiencing something new... The interesting and spooky storyline, as well as its satisfying conclusion, were added bonuses! The author included analogies to multiple systems of oppression that, while at times felt a little heavy handed, were very necessary and cleverly executed.

I very much appreciated the author's note at the start of the book, warning of graphic descriptions of medical procedures/anatomy, because that is indeed the one aspect of the book that hindered my enjoyment of it. Just like when watching a horror film, I had to cover my eyes for some parts... :) However, I want to reiterate that the author noting this beforehand was extremely helpful and I'm grateful I was able to enter with that awareness. This medical realism did lend even more grit and gravity to an already harrowing premise. (Another author's note I appreciated came at the end of the book: Note on Historical Accuracy and the Representation of Medical Experimentation. I do wish the reality of medical harm toward racial minorities had been represented/addressed more in the context of the story, although I understand this is a work of fiction.)

I did not find Silas particularly endearing as a character--sometimes it was difficult to experience the relentless horrors of the story so starkly through his eyes--but I did find mirrors of myself in him that were both beautiful and forgiving. I also think this quality is a strength in its own way: Silas is unique, without being the "chosen one" at the center of a story, and more believable as a multi-faceted human being because of his flaws/strengths together. I'm SO glad I read this book and I highly recommend reading it, especially during the quickly-approaching spooky season. Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink, Peachtree Teen for this ARC! I feel lucky to have been chosen, as I see this book becoming an important, lasting addition to LGBTQIAP+, social justice, and feminist literature.

Goodreads review link, posted 8/13/23: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5650555506

**Two grammatical errors found will be listed in this review, but are not included in my public Goodreads review above. Thank you, again!
Typo on pg. 156 of 399 (pdf pg. reference) -- "You need to experience the TRUTH depth of manhood..." Should be "true"?
Missing word on pg. 302 of 399 -- "I turn, reaching toward Isabella's body on [the] table..."

E-ARC generously provided by Peachtree Teen via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

5 stars. Written with the unflinching sharpness of a polished scalpel and starring a queer trans protagonist, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a gorgeously Gothic and gruesome novel that examines Victorian England’s mental institutions through a speculative lens: gore and guts and all.

This book is hard for me to talk about.

Not because it's bad. But because it's opened up my chest and ripped out a lot of feelings I had pushed down for a long time. The experience of queerness, identity, and social place with the self and family are themes that White continues to capture much like he did in his debut.

This novel is gross, and I say that as a full compliment. However, for many this may not be to their taste. I think you must keep the content warnings in mind and be honest about what you can and cannot handle. White addresses some of the hard, sometimes violent questions of the trans experience and where transphobia and misogyny collide, both in transmisogyny and the misogyny experienced by trans men that often enforces their 'place' in society. In this case, discussions of preganacy (and abortion) and marriage and worth can make for an uncomfortable experience that I think it worth the read. In addition to this, White continues to press the importance of discussing ableism and does so with utter fury and ferocity. As as a neurodivergent reader, these parts really got to me. I sobbed. I had to put it down. I picked it up with my teeth clenched needing to know more and read the same words used to hurt me, and thousand like me, and see it through to the end.

I would say that The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a book that challanged me. At time I did not enjoy it for that discomfort, but it engaged me, ripped through me, and broke me down. This novel shows to me that enjoyment has a spectrum, and for me, there was enjoyment in my, at times, disconnected feeling from it. That might seem like it makes no sense, but I feel queer readers especially know this feeling when reading about experiences they now all too well but have put distance to.

White continues to prove the need for queer stories that hurt, that are violent, and that don't treat us as delicate flowers unable to confront hard topics. Stories like these are just as important and validating as the stories in which queerness isn't confronted. White chooses to sink his claws into dismantling by force, with blood and fangs and anger... and I love that.

I think Andrew Joseph White is here to stay, and for that I am blessed to be here in the same time to read these stories. This makes my top ten favourite books of all time.

How are you supposed to review a book when it leaves you speachless?

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White chews you up, spits you out, leaves you lying all bloody and bare and you still end up wanting more. It's gory and brutal. It's ferocious and angry, but it's angry for a reason. It's wild and hopeful and validating and it's so, so beautiful!

I didn't even know you could put gore and beauty in the same sentence, but for all the gore I've read before nothing has ever been written so beautifully. And I didn't know you could find so much comfort in a book like this, but it definitely proved me wrong.

So, if you have the stomach for reading graphic medical gore, go read this book! It would be worth it!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review*