eARC Review: Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill

This was a cozy historical fantasy that was steeped in English folklore along with sprinklings of other mythologies from the isle of Britain. While slightly predictable plot wise (for me), I still really enjoyed Jenny as the MC and her ragtag gang of misfits. 🧭

Jenny is one of many iterations of the creature called Jenny Greenteeth. She’s a bit grouchy and unsociable, but that’s what I’m expecting from an ancient nature spirit. I liked that she’s innately curious and isn’t surprised when Temperance quite literally falls into her life. Their dynamic, while chaotic at best, really shines a light on female companionship, especially when they don’t often agree on certain morals. Jenny and Brackus’s banter was quite enjoyable, but I do wish we could’ve had more one-on-one scenes between the two just to better understand their old friendship. 🌿

The folklore and mythology elements of Welsh and Arthurian mythology were generously sprinkled throughout the book, but I did find myself wishing for more time in each for the sake of plot development and enrichment. 🗡️

The main villain felt a bit one-dimensional in my opinion. While I liked the background story that was given to him, he just felt like the classic evil character that comes out of fairytales that has no other goal other than chaos and darkness. 😕

All in all though, I still had an enjoyable time with the book. Big thank you goes out to Orbit Books and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review, and to O’Neill for crafting such a lovable gang of magical beings. 💚

Publication date: February 25!

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

60/100 or 3.0 stars

I thought this story was going to be a good mix for fantasy and adventure. The first 25% or so was interesting and I was getting invested in the story. Unfortunately, as the story progressed and the villians were revealed and the main quest began, I found my interest was decreasing with each passing chapter. I made it to 42% before I decided to DNF. The story was becoming a little bit boring and I was loosing interest in whether or not the characters were going to succeed in their quest. I was expecting to enjoy this one, so it sucks it didn't work out.

Greenteeth tells the story of Jenny Greenteeth, a creature who lives in a lake, and Temperance, who Jenny saves after Temperance is accused of being a witch and thrown into that lake. Together, along with a goblin, they set out on a quest to save Temperance’s family and defeat the evil which seems to be taking over the land.

This book was marketed as cozy fantasy, which I don’t know if I wholeheartedly agree with. Though there is lighthearted banter and likable characters, there are some violent scenes you would not expect to see in a cozy fantasy story. This was not a problem for me because I enjoyed the action sequences and overall enjoyed the story, but if you are looking for pure cozy fantasy, you might be in for a bit of a surprise if you pick this book up.

If you are looking for a story with roots in Arthurian legend that also mentions the high court of the fae and other magical creatures, or want a relatively lighthearted adventure story, you should pick this book up.

[4.5/5] GREENTEETH is fantasy quest with quirky creatures that abuts ancient myth and legend with that from King Arthur's era. The main character is Jenny Greenteeth, a fastidious yet moody, millennium-aged lake monster whose joy in life is her routine. Imagine Jenny's surprise when one day the villagers throw a witch into her lake. Curiosity trumps disgruntlement at this disturbance and Jenny saves Temperance from a watery doom. They strike a friendship and come to realize the pastor who instigated Temperance's death is not what he seems. Thus, they embark on an old-fashioned quest with a wandering merchant goblin that takes them from faerie land to the edges of England, Wales, and Scotland.

GREENTEETH was an absolute pleasure to read. I loved that it's from the POV of a monster who wants nothing to do except keep her lake clean, eat, and sometimes observe the world around her. Though outwardly a grump, she has a good heart. However, she's not above playing the part of a grump to keep up the charade. This is particularly enjoyable to read when Jenny banters and barters with Brackus, the merchant goblin. Brackus also likes to put up a tough and sophisticated front, but he also has a kind soul.

The book is relatively fast paced. I sped through the first and last third while the middle slows a bit due to the traveling nature of the quest. The main impetus of the book is to vanquish the threat of the pastor to Jenny's lake, Temperance's family, and, ultimately, Britain. This leads the traveling trio to pay a visit to the Gwyn ap Nudd, the fairy king, in his fairy court in the hopes he can help. It was a nice change from the current elegant fae romantasy trend to instead read about fae as more originally portrayed. Here the fae are tricksters and cruel and not keen to help others. However, most of the book occurs outside of the fairy court. So readers who care less for fae elements have plenty of other settings to read about.

I also liked the incorporation of various creatures in GREENTEETH. I hadn't heard of some of them, so I found their descriptions particularly interesting. There were a couple of plot elements that I either didn't fully understand or wished had been incorporated earlier. With respect to the latter, said quest need not have happened if anyone had posted questions about a particular item. No spoilers here, but it's pretty obvious from the beginning of the book what this item is. The big reveal of the pastor's plan is run-of-the-mill villain stuff. But I liked the reveal of the legend of the setting. I wouldn't call this a cozy fantasy as advertised, but it certainly has smirk-inducing elements as the characters interact.

Overall, GREENTEETH is a refreshing fantasy from the POV of a monster who never expected to go on a quest with a human and goblin. It focuses on their growing friendship and disagreements and, of course, saving the world.

I saw a book about a monster named Jenny and requested it without a second thought. Then I read it and learned that all the lake monsters were called Jenny and it cemented my desire to keep reading.

I am a simple girl with simple needs and a normal size ego - give me a book with a main character with the same name as me and I’ll probably have a good time.

What’s to love…
- fairytale vibes
- perfect for fans of cozy fantasy and low stakes
- lush world and pretty prose
- a quest! (gosh I love quests!)
- found family
- romance-free

What’s not to love…
- the plot is meandering and slow - if you’re someone that wants fast paced this may not be the right choice for you.
- I would have like a little more depth from the characters.

Overall this was a cute little romp and would be a perfect pick for fans of cozy fairytale fantasy.

3.25 rounded down

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Molly O'Neill's Greenteeth is a story full of folklore and fae. Readers following along the adventure Jenny Greenteeth has after interacting with a human for the first time.

This book is exactly as magical as it sounds. There are all sorts of creatures and magic that make for a wildly fun setting. The characters unique personalities shine bright through all the action within the story. A great cast of characters is so important for a book and Molly O'Neill nailed it in this one. You'll wish you were able to enter the book and experience the magic with the people you're reading about.

The only issue I had with the book was the pacing. It's hard to put into words, but it felt somewhat inconsistent. I found it difficult to fully connect to the story when the pacing was moving around so much. The first half of this book was amazing, but I started to lose interest in the second half.

Greenteeth is cozy, but it still has a bite to it. There's a quest that's fun to follow and full of action. It's a heart-warming and whimsical adventure that still manages to get you on the edge of your seat with some vicious fight scenes.

This is a great choice for people who love the cozy fantasy genre. Anyone who loves fae, quests, and loveable characters should have this book on their radar!

Review on Goodreads (sophreadingbooks https://www.goodreads.com/sophreadingbooks) as of 2/10/2025
Review on Instagram (sophiesreading https://www.instagram.com/sophiesreading/) expected 2/18/2025

I absolutely adored this book! This is the sort of fantasy I love to get lost in. In addition to amazing callbacks to legends and myths from the British Isles, it featured an unforgettable cast of found family in the form of a Green Jenny, a HobGoblin, and a local witch fighting for her family. While most of the plot twists were predictable, they were the kind of predictable where you're proud of yourself for making the connections and correctly identifying all of the guns Chekov left lying around, rather than being disappointed the author went the route they did.

To the folks recommending this book for fans of T. Kingfisher - yes! This book reminded me of Nettle and Bone, but with a heavy focus on folklore from the U.K. This is going to be a hard book to top this year, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any future novels by Molly O'Neill.

Lovingly blends historical fiction, fantasy, and folklore in a story that will please any cozy fan. A delightful new edition to the currently popular cozy fantasy genre.

Jenny Greenteeth is the monster in the village lake, but when a witch, Temperance, is thrown in and doesn't even bother to try to save herself, Jenny gets curious about what's going on outside her lake. Temperance and Jenny must work together, along with the goblin Backus, to root out the evil that's infected the village and could be coming for Jenny's lake and all of Britain next.

I really loved the beginning of this novel as Jenny and Temperance make sense of what's happening in the village. I thought the quests were a little slow in the middle, but the ending brought it all back together in a way I really enjoyed.

Greenteeth tells the story of the titular Jenny Greenteeth, a lake monster who befriends the village witch. When the witch decides to try to undo the darkness that led to her being cast out of the village, the two of them set out on a journey that becomes much bigger than they anticipated.

I really enjoyed the narration in Jenny's voice and the way her friendship with Temperance develops. There are also some interesting threads of mythology woven throughout the story. However, I felt like the characters had little agency after the beginning - they set off on a very linear narrative, and things just happen to them, with largely predictable obstacles to be overcome. Overall an enjoyable story, if not one I think I'll come back to in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC.

This book was a bit of a roller-coaster ride as far as my experience reading it goes. It started off great, with one of my favorite aspects of the book coming to the forefront right away. That being the unique voice of Jenny Greenteeth. The first quarter of the story is fairly closely tied to Jenny’s own narration of what her life has been, what her unique perspective on morality entails, and various other points of interest. While not a lot of action is necessarily taking place, the strength of her narrative voice and unique perspective easily held my interest.

Unfortunately, things became a bit more complicated when our second main character was introduced, Temperance, a witch who had been condemned to death by drowning and tossed into Jenny’s lake. While Jenny’s own story had been unspooled through her interesting narration, Temperance seems to simply word-vomit her entire history in a few pages’ time. It was frankly a bit baffling, as the author had demonstrated a more subtle approach to storytelling before. But here, not only was all of Temperance’s story presented in the most info-dumping-manner possible, but it also threw me out of the story due to the simple fact that no one could possibly talk like this!

From there, it was a bit more of a struggle to become fully invested in the story once again. As I mentioned, the pacing itself is quite slow throughout. In the beginning, with the focus tightly drawn in on Jenny, this worked fine. But as the story continued, I began to struggle. This became especially difficult when the plot seemed to devolve into a string of fetch quests, each as predictable as the last. And to top it off, the story resolved in a way that was a bit predictable in the most disappointing way. I don’t want to spoil it, and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the story going the way that it did. But I had been hopeful initially that the author was telling a more wholly unique tale, rather than tying it back into familiar source material.

Overall, this was an ok read. There was a lot of potential, especially with the strength of the narrator, but the pacing and plotting became muddled with a string of mundane side quests and resolved in a disappointingly predictable manner. This last point, especially, is particularly subjective, so other readers may appreciate what this book has to offer in this regard more than I did! I do think it’s worth checking out, however, based on Jenny herself.

Rating 7: Jenny herself was a fantastic narrator, but she was let down by lackluster side characters and side quests.

Link will go live on Feb. 22 on The Library Ladies blog

- Companionship
- 1600s Britain
- Found Family
- Unlikely Friends
- Quests
For anyone looking for a cozy fantasy with no romance, this is for you! It has quests that lead to the final quest. A lonely lake sprite gets a witch thrown at her. Literally. From there an unlikely friendship forms with the addition of a hobgoblin. A dark fae has gotten into Temperance’s, the witch, village. To cast him out, a series of quests must be completed before their clock runs out. As any group of friends, the group has their ups and downs and misunderstandings.
Where to begin? Oddly enough, I have to start with the ending. It’s very satisfying I will definitely tell you that. It had my chest all warm and fuzzy. That feeling is throughout the book though! You feel the struggles they go through, you can imagine where they are, and you feel the same emotions they feel. They are also quite the funny bunch! The sarcasm, the jokes. I would say this is a good palate cleanser but I would suggest reading this in sections. In my opinion, I feel it would be a bit more immersive. You would get to journey with them longer but I won’t blame you if you finish this in one sitting either. All three of them have their differences and as they go along , those differences have to get worked out. There are also some decisions made that upset the rest of the group. Jenny learns to branch out, Brackus is (for the most part) the peacekeeper, and Temperance tests the limits of her powers.

I was instantly enamoured with Jenny's voice. I think that's my favorite thing about this book. She sounded exactly how a lake-dwelling creature should sound, so much that I could almost hear the tone of her voice in my head. I enjoyed her character arc. I love the themes of the old world and all the fae who belong to it. The folklore element was so strong, and I love that we got not only English folklore, but so much Welsh and a little Scottish. I adore Brackus and Temperance. I sort of wish Brackus had gotten a bigger character arc because he was really great.
I had a hard time with the disagreements and arguments that happened. They felt kind of forced and I had a hard time believing them. The circumstances of the arguments made sense, but something about how they were handled made it hard for me to sympathize with either side (the most relatable character at these times was Brackus, since he was in the same boat as me. Oh Brackus, my dear). The quest plotline also felt a little slow to me (plodding along through the wild will do that), but I enjoyed each main event of each task.
One of the best things about this book is that it doesn't have a romance arc at all. It is purely focused on friendship and self-discovery/remembering. Learning about Jenny lore and how Jennys are created from mother to daughter was so cool. It was also wonderful to see our Jenny as a neither good nor bad fae, since she and her lake occupy that wonderful grey spot between life and death.
The ending was SO GOOD. Oh my gosh.
This is such a lovely, folkloric exploration of friendship. It has such great banter and humor and is very much a comfort read (even though stuff goes down). I highly recommend.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill is a first person-POV historical fantasy inspired by Celtic folklore. Jenny Greenteeth, one of many Jenny Greenteeths, witnesses the town beside her lake sentence a young woman, Temperance, to death by dumping her in the lake. Instead of killing the young witch like the new pastor hopes, Jenny becomes her friend and the two team up with a goblin to destroy an evil spirit seeking control of the town.

If you were looking for a book from the POV of a monster, Greenteeth is going to deliver. Jenny is aware that she is monstrous in appearance, making reference to her sharp teeth as she tries to scare Temperance, and she’s comfortable in her skin. This was my first interaction with the story of Jenny Greenteeth so I had no expectations for how she would be portrayed or her connections to broader Celtic and Gaelic folklore such as King Arthur or other Welsh stories. I really enjoyed Jenny’s voice as it’s both horror and cozy at the same time though I wouldn’t say the plot itself is cozy.

What really shines is the dynamic between Temperance and Jenny, two mothers who have been separated from their children, though for different reasons. Jenny hasn’t seen her daughter in fifty years while Temperance cannot see her own children until the pastor who condemned her is gone and so is his influence. This shared responsibility helps to craft a bond between them while also leaving room for Jenny to see some of her own daughter in Temperance herself. There are strong themes of motherhood without the pressure of getting married or having romantic relationships because while Temperance is happily married, Jenny has never had a romantic relationship and does not seem particularly interested in having one.

Subgenre-wise, I do think there is that cozy horror voice but the plot itself is closer to a traditional quest fantasy and has a very strong historical setting in England during the witch trials that uses the Wild Hunt and Arthruian lore and Celtic mythological creatures like kelpies and goblins and pixies. I finally settled on this being historical fantasy and not a retelling or a reimagining, but, ultimately, it pulls elements from so many different subgenres that I’m sure one could make the argument that it is cozy fantasy or a reimagining. The historical setting mixed with the fantastical was just what felt the strongest to me while the aspects from other subgenres felt like added elements.

I would recommend this to fans of the mixing of cozy and horror, readers who enjoy fantasy centering Celtic folklore, and those looking for an adult fantasy with a strong voice

4.5 stars

This debut fantasy novel is a breath of fresh air, despite (or because of) its loving embrace of the traditional myths and legends of England, Scotland, and Wales.

Our point-of-view protagonist is Jenny Greenteeth, one of many Jenny Greenteeths—lake monsters known for stealing and eating children who wander into the brackish waters of their domain. Jenny, however, is not evil, and in fact displays kindness, bravery, and self-sacrifice throughout the found-family adventures that occur when she, a witch, and a goblin quest to save their home from a malignant new threat.

What’s particularly nice about the novel is the unpretentious way it explores the themes of motherhood and monsterhood, all while cleaving to a traditionally structured quest straight out of Mallory or The Mabinogion. Reading it felt a little like reading classic fantasy à la The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, or contemporary reimagined fairy tales by T. Kingfisher—but not exactly like any of them at all. It is proudly its own style of story.

As a lover of classic fairy stories, I am a little bit hesitant about the Erl King’s characterization, but I also think that the many liberties O’Neill takes with the plentiful (and often contradictory) traditional legends do serve the plot of her story, and I love the way that Jenny’s character developed throughout the plot. I will be following O’Neill’s future writing career with great interest.

Pick up this novel if you like: Arthurian legend, fairy tales, found family, friendly monsters, dangerous fae, or dogs.

A cozy mystery that warmed my heart. It was amazing, especially the characters. They'd stay in my mind forever. It was just too good and is a perfect palate cleanser.

So fun! This is really different than what I normally read so I was a little apprehensive at first but I forget how fun books about going on quests can be. Also, I did kind of see the twist coming but it didn't make the pay off any less enjoyable :) I think this is a really nice, light read about community and found family and also a little bit about magic.

Greenteeth is a fun read and an easy recommendation for readers of fantasy, epic quests, and the works of T. Kingfisher. People who like monstrous protagonists will also find a lot to love in Jenny Greenteeth, our vicious but very sensible lake monster hero who is chock full of good advice, survival knowledge, and isn't afraid to get her claws dirty if she has to. Her interactions with humanity and the magical world she comes from are fascinating, with some of the most fun in the whole book for me being the depiction of the fae world and how its otherworldly denizens are kind of layered onto Britain, with the story leaning into the idea of the end of an age of myth and magic to add a layer of quiet tragedy to everything.

Libraries and readers should definitely pick this up for their collection.

This was a fun read. Jenny provides a unique perspective and makes for a very interesting first-person narrator. The other characters are fun as well, and I like that Jenny is allowed to be flawed. Although this is a cozy fantasy and the focus is more on the friendships and hardships that come with that, there is also an interesting quest narrative so I never got bored. The world-building is nice too, with an ambiguous time period that works well for the atmosphere of the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for providing a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great debut novel! I love stories about unusual mythical creatures. Jenny was a great main character, and I loved that despite her very much going outside of her comfort zone throughout the story, she's still, technically, a monster, and she's proud of it. And despite being a monster, she's often more human than a lot of the human characters. I also really liked the quest plotline, and the connections to Arthurian legends, which I wasn't expecting.