Much more like a 3.5! Overall, an intriguing premise and set-up unfortunately fell a bit flat for me. I was intrigued by the description and cover and thought the beginning was interesting, but unfortunately it dragged a bit in the middle and, while it definitely picked up again at the end, I'm not 100% sure how I felt about the paranormal twist. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it focused more on unveiling the corruption in the school itself (like covering up three deaths in a semester?) rather than adding these elements.

Ultimately a very atmospheric debut with a lot of twists and turns, even when I had only half a clue what was going on at any given point (the raven boys comparison is very apt in this regard)!

Thank you for the gifted copy!

I wanted to love this more than I actually did. The cover drew me in. The premise had me hooked. But the writing felt disjointed and the pacing was off. Still, solid effort and vision!

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t quite for me. The premise sounded interesting, and I love a good dark academia mystery but it couldn’t deliver.
I felt like the plot got lost in the middle in order to give us moody, dark academia vibes. Where were the rest of the students and how was a poor public school girl keeping up with elite private school kids. Also how the school not more suspicious about her in general? So while the atmosphere was there, the setting didn’t fully deliver.
And I get that our characters are morally gray if not straight up dark. I get they aren’t supposed to be likable but I found them not very interesting either. Like I truly didn’t get them or really care. I think the personal dynamics could have been explored more rather than waxing poetic about philosophy.
I can see people would like the mirror element, but it was a bit too surreal for my taste. I wasn’t expecting that element and cannot say I loved it. The ending was an interesting take and I did like that.
So not quite my cup of tea but would try another of the author’s.

boys with sharp teeth is a book that has an interesting premise filled with mystery and vengeance but falls short with its extremely messy execution that made the book a struggle to get through and that i considered dnfing at multiple points throughout.

for starters, the writing left a lot to be desired. this book relies heavily on the idea of it being a dark academia with a dark and haunting atmosphere despite that fact that the setting is very rarely described. this book could take place at any school and it would not affect the story in the slightest. this book is 400 pages long and i still don’t have a clear idea of any of the places in this academy. considering this is a campus novel you’d think that more effort would be put into where it’s actually set. the writing does have some really poetic and descriptive lines but they are sprinkled in so haphazardly that is feels like whiplash to read certain chapters that are more steeped in metaphor and then you go to the next chapter and the writing is basic and juvenile.

the chapters in this book are also just really poorly paced and rely too much on intentionally ending the scene early just so that the reader is left on a cliffhanger with no resolution. characters will seem to just randomly pop up out of nowhere, they say the most insane thing that should (in theory) completely change the direction the book is going in but then the chapter will end there and move on to a completely unrelated scene where the mc never thinks about what she was told at the end of the last chapter ever again. it makes the book feel really disjointed and incomplete as if it’s more so a collection of scenes that the reader is supposed to string together rather than a cohesive mystery novel that the audience can follow along with. it’s like the author didn’t know how to write the end of the scene so she ended it there and moved on, which made for very lazy writing.

the mystery aspect of this book is extremely underdeveloped to the point where i forget we were even supposed to be solving the mystery of jamie/marin’s cousins murder because she spent so much time NOT doing what she’s at this academy to be doing. within the first couple chapters jamie/marin is practically handed the easiest clues to finding the murderer, which is extremely unfortunate considering she’s TERRIBLE at solving this mystery. instead of using these clues and the very limited time she has at this school to avenge her cousins death, she spends her time writing in books and then immediately trusting people just because they write back to her in said book even though all signs point to that they’re not trustworthy. oh, but he’s hot too, so he MUST be trustworthy. she knows from the beginning three people that are most likely to be involved in her cousins murder (adrian, henry, and baz) and yet she immediately starts to make blind assumptions about them rather than actually collecting evidence to prove her theory.

onto the characters, which are all both extremely tropey and extremely underdeveloped. jamie/marin is the most insufferable fmc ever. adrian/graves is typical ronan lynch knockoff who seems mean but is actually ~ really deep ~ once you get to know him (honestly that’s the only similarity this book even has with the raven boys). henry is a character who is meant to come off as the over-the-top guy but his characterization is so all over the place that he was always really forgettable to me and also really unlikeable when it seemed like you were supposed to be rooting for him. the most unfortunate part about all of this is that baz, the only likeable character who had any sense of characterization that wasn’t based on being sexy and alluring, is not even mentioned in the synopsis or on the cover despite supposedly being in the trio of people that jamie/marin believes was involved in her cousin’s murder. this book puts so much of the focus on the male characters and their relationships with the fmc and completely throughs the other female character to the wayside.

and don’t get me started on the love triangle, because what in the instalove/lust was that. jamie/marin has absolutely no reason to be falling for these boys considering how both of them use her and treat her like shit. she acknowledges the fact that she believes they murdered her cousin while kissing them!!! she puts aside all of her morals and her friendships just to get attention from these boys that she constantly complains about and who have proven over and over to be untrustworthy. everything about the romantic undertones of this book made me extremely uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that the romance is so poorly written that it just seems to randomly spawn on page with no build up.

the logistics of this book also make absolutely no sense. yes i realize this is a paranormal mystery but that doesn’t explain the fact that a 17 year old was somehow able to manage to forge her way into this prestigious academy under a false name and a fake check. and does no one in her home town care that she just randomly went missing? not to mention the fact that she makes it so incredibly obvious to everyone she encounters that she knows the person who was murdered and is trying to find his killer. for how bad she is at this you’d think she’d get caught by now.

this book had all the individual pieces for being a story that is meant for me, but in the end it became so messy and frustrating that i had to power myself through to even finish it.

*also a quick note: i see this book being put on queer book lists (probably because of the cover?) but it is NOT a queer book. maybe you could say that jamie and baz had some subtly queer undertones but nothing in this book was explicitly queer*

thank you to netgalley and macmillan for providing an earc in exchange for an honest review ♡

Sharp and interesting, I really did enjoy this. Had a larger than expected philosophical aspect which I really did enjoy. Perfect dark academic novel!

3.5 rounded up to 4

This book was absolutely not what I was expecting. Every time I thought I knew where it was heading it went in a completely different direction. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this story I'm honestly a riot of conflicting emotions right now.

The pros:
This was definitely something fresh for me. I don't usually read horror or horror adjacent so I'm not sure how unique this would feel to someone deeper in that genre but it was very fresh for me.
The writing was beautiful. The prose was varied and elicited strong reactions and vivid imagery

Cons:
The prose could be a little over flowery at times, making parts of the story drag. It took me til about 50% of the book to actually care about the story
I didn't honestly like any of the characters which I think was sort of the point? I expected to like them more as the story went on but I just. They were all awful, even in their growth and reveal.
There were some significant plot holes and some places where things just happen magically easily because plot magic propels it so

Overall, for a debut book I'm very impressed. I'll be keeping an eye on this author for future works and am excited to see how her style develops.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc

I really wanted to love this one. I loved the intense mystery aspect to it, & the constant twists & turns. But couldn’t get passed the writing style & seemingly randomness of some of the scenes.

It felt disjointed, & with all of the secrets + betrayal it was hard for me to get invested into the characters.

I do think there’s a large audience for this book, people who enjoy the more gothic vibe of the setting.

It’s just not a favorite of mine.

I so appreciate the opportunity to read this book early!

I don’t know how this managed to be absolutely predictable yet still not make any sense, so kudos to the author for that feat.

How do you even begin to describe a fever dream within a dark academia setting that pulls you and tugs you until you know you’re leaving a part of you with the story, no matter how many others you read?

This story had me hooked from moment one, and I truly had a difficult time putting it down. This is dark academia at its best, full of twists and turns, with a philosophical edge that continuously made me question what I knew and believed in. Jamie, Henry, Baz and Graves are each such unique characters, and I loved how Howell tied each of them together in different ways.

Howell’s prose was intense, and gorgeous, and absolutely unmissable - this is a book that makes you yearn to turn the page to continue on, but you can’t stop yourself from cherishing each word and the beauty it provides. These twists and turns as I said will sit with me and creep up when I’m least expecting it, each time I look into a mirror.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this title!

Boys with Sharp Teeth is a story that, at first glance, might seem straightforward: a girl infiltrates an elite academy to avenge a lost family member. But it quickly unravels into something far more twisted, obsessive, and inescapable. I loved my time with this book! This book had all the vibes Summer Sons and The Raven Cycle throws at you: all the dark academia vibes you could want, wrapped in a slow-burning, moody mystery. The pacing was spot-on, too. I never felt it lag, and I found myself flying through pages easily!

What truly hooked me were the character dynamics Jenni Howell brought to life. The quartet (Jamie, Baz, Henry, and Graves) felt distinct and real. Jamie, hellbent on revenge, finds herself tangled in the group’s magnetic pull and undeniable chemistry. Baz is quieter, seemingly the most grounded, though her aversion to mirrors hints at something deeper. Graves, mysterious, poised, and with a violin in hand, was my favorite (yes, I’m a sucker for a pretty boy with a string instrument). Then there’s Henry, wild and sharp-tongued, the group’s resident agent of chaos. Together, they created a beautifully contrasting and compelling dynamic that kept me invested.

They felt so vivid that their midnight adventures and tension-laced interactions felt completely plausible within the eerie setting of the academy. There’s a fog of unreliability surrounding Jamie’s narration that made the mystery even more addictive. I kept wondering who really killed Sam. At different points, every character felt like a potential suspect. I made a guess, but I can tell you I was wrong!

If I had one gripe, it’s the believability of Jamie’s infiltration into such a prestigious institution. It felt a little too convenient, especially considering how tight-knit and exclusive places like that tend to be. But then again, when you’re diving into magical realism, maybe that’s not the hill to die on. All in all, this book hit nearly every note I crave in a dark academia read: twisted, alluring, and beautifully written.
4 stars from me!

Big thanks to Fierce Reads & Macmillan for the early finished copy!

First I would like to thank Netgalley for approving this arc for me in return for an honest review.

Full of tragedy, hatred, revenge, and longing. Marin shows us the path of what the cost of revenge gives at a cost for our humanity. The mor she sought revenge, the more she lost her humanity and discovered the loneliness that was held within her. We are taken on a whirlwind of trying to prove the ones who killed her cousin, at the loss of her losing herself as she is further drawn into the world of Adrian, Henry, and Baz. From those with innocence to those with foul play, and in the end whether if someone is truly innocent and what it means when revenge is enacted.

I loved this book, with how dark and tragic the story is I would not expect a happy ending from it.

Boys with Sharp Teeth is about a girl infiltrating an elite school to take revenge on her cousin’s murderers.

I decided to DNF the book as it was just not for me. I was not sucked into the premise and wasn’t a fan of the relationships/characters. However I think this is perfect for fans of this dark academia genre that delves into twisted secrets and ‘love.’

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get through the book and gave up around the 50% mark. It was incredibly slow paced and there was little to no character development. We needed more backstory or something to get the reader emotionally attached to any of the characters. I did like the flowery writing, but not enough to finish the book.

The absolute best part of this was the vibes. It's all incredibly atmospheric and keeps you immersed in the world itself. Everything was dreary with a hint of spooky and at times paranormal. Dark academia down to its very core.

The plot on its own is what immediately drew me in. Dark academia mystery filled with pretentiousness, murder, and a false identity? Sign me up. I feel like while we did get those things it was both drawn out and not fleshed out enough. I wanted more depth to certain areas and not getting it kind of led me to not care about the characters. The further we got in the more disconnected I felt from the story.

I truly did love the writing style, though. While this particular one may not be for me I would definitely check out the authors work in the future.

I had to decide to DNF this book. The plot was very confusing and the amount of suspended reality of simple things like the age of a security guard for a private school, the class size being basically four people, the dialog and mannerisms of people around this girl who faked her way i to school was just the beginning. i really wanted to like this one but the whole time I just felt confused and like I was missing something.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read Boys With Sharp Teeth.
If you enjoy The Raven Boys, the mystery, the friendship, the angst, I believe you would enjoy this novel.
It was fun, it kept me reading more.
I really enjoyed it!

The premise of this book was promising, but I think it fell a little flat for me. The story started to become messy and a little confusing as I kept reading, which I think is good for a mysterious book, but too much with too little resolution makes it so that it becomes hard to follow. I didn't feel very connected to any of the characters and felt they were a little one dimensional. However, this story had some very lyrical writing that I think people would appreciate! I think this book just wasn't for me, but there is definitely an audience for it for those who like the mystery of a dark academia story and following along with characters who make some questionable choices.

Boys with Sharp Teeth left me with a lot of questions like, "what's going on" and "how did any of this happen", and mostly "where are these kids' parents?" But I love when a book makes me question everything, makes me race through to the ending, manages to surprise me. Jenni Howell crafts a gripping story set in the eerie Huntsworth Academy. Howell's prose really sets the tone. It flows and zig zags in ways that can be hard to follow sometimes, like the story itself, but that just adds to the tension and the overall feeling of uncertainty.
As a reader, there are a lot of things that need to be put aside in order to make this book work like the ages of the kids and the freedoms they are allowed and the ability of a teenager to enroll herself in a prestigious boarding school. I think this book would've worked better if the characters had been aged up and set in college. I also wish Howell explored the relationships between the characters more, especially Henry and Graves. I wish the characters had more time in general to spend together, because while the tight timeline adds to the tension, it does a disservice to the story.
However, these characters and their relationships are where the story shines. Like many other reviews I am asking for #JusticeForBaz because while the cover is gorgeous, it is misleading. Baz and her kindness are an integral part of this story. And as always, I will be out here stumping for a love triangle because I like them and think they work, especially in this case where there is no right answer and everyone is a little messed up.

did i devour this book or did it devour me?? oh my goddd you know when no books have been hitting like you want them to and then suddenly you find the ONE!!! this was the most intoxicating book i’ve ever read. this is what i love so much about dark academia - the spiraling obsession and the TENSION!!! so suffocating and exhilarating at the same time that you can’t tell the difference between resentment and love. there were a few times when i felt like the setting and scene could have been described more clearly to help the reader visualize what was happening, but these 5 stars are all about VIBES baby i feel alive again

thank you SO much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for sending me this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5⭐️

Thank you so much to Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this book. The whole book felt vague in a way that’s hard to describe.

This book follows Marin James in her quest for justice for her cousin. His death was blamed on drugs, but she knows that it has something to do with the two private school boys he hung out with. So, Marin infiltrates the academy and tries to unravel what truly happened to Sam. What she doesn’t expect is the twisted web that starts to weave itself between her and the two boys she suspects played a key role in the death of her cousin.

I thought that this book was very intriguing. The concept itself was good and the way that obsession, tension, and anger rolled together was beautifully executed. This is such a twisted little love triangle but it honestly works so well.

The plot of this book is rather predictable but not at the same time, mostly because the genre lines are so blurred. Sometimes, that can be a good thing, but this book just fell flat in that regard. From the beginning, it looks to be a murder mystery with thriller elements but lacking all level of paranormal horror. By the end of the book, that isn’t the case. I wish that the paranormal was more heavily incorporated and implied throughout the book, because it doesn’t become obvious until the end.

Overall, I thought the concept was cool, I just feel like the genre was overall lacking for what the author was clearly aiming for.