A strong 3⭐️ read but not quite a 4⭐️ for me. Without summarizing the book, here are my thoughts:

* Beautifully written prose. There is no doubt the writing is well done and moving.

* The beginning grabbed me right away however the story lolled in the middle. The end picked back up but nothing met the engagement of the first 25% for me.

* I received an audiobook arc from Macmillian Audio. The narrator was incredible. This book is set in a private high school so there was a decent chance of YA tones overthrowing the novel if it had certain narrators. This was not the case and the narrator even brought an element of maturity or “not a teenager” to it, which I appreciated.

* For the story itself, the FMCs desire to find out what happened to her cousin is admirable but her obsession got a bit weird after a while. Like were these cousins closer than they should have been?

* I see people talk about Dark Academia books all the time and often I’m left questioning why a certain book is considered such. THIS is dark academia. It’s also totally those kids in high school that read one philosophy book and made it their whole personality and became so full of themselves. Kind of funny even thought it’s not meant to be.

All in all if you’re a fan of dark academia this is a solid choice.

Boys with Sharp Teeth is a dark academic steeped in the philosophical grapplings of contradictions. Love and hate. Disgust and fascination. Murder and suicide. The premise paired with strong, poetic writing made for a strong introduction and a level of intrigue that I have not felt towards a YA book in some time. In fact, for me this book beat nearly all of the YA downfalls, save a level of melodrama and self-absorption that still managed to feel earned within the atmosphere built around the elite, immoral academy juxtaposed with the supposed squalor of townie life.

Our main character is well established from the get-go, and her self reflection and inner conflicts paint a clear picture. The philosophical quandaries paired with the academia setting do sometimes leave Jamie un-relatable and certainly detached from the small town connections of her past. The toxic draw of Jamie to Graves and Henry is potent, but perhaps established too early and without sufficient affliction for a character who supposedly suspects them of murdering her cousin. Basil’s character is a necessary motivator and distraction from this triangle, and she is unfortunately not fully developed, leaving the impact of certain plot-points lacking in conviction.

In terms of plot, pacing is a huge downfall. The hook of the dark fantastical elements is somewhat lost to its late and unclear introduction. Where I think the author was shooting for puzzlement and intrigue, the lack of clarity even late in the novel resulted in an anticlimactic feeling overall. Although I had lost hope of surprise by the final quarter, I was pleasantly surprised by some final act plot-twists; however, they failed to weave a completely logical or coherent story.

Overall, this was a strong debut novel, particularly within the realm of Young Adult novels. Potent atmosphere and writing style persist above some inconsistencies in plot and character development, and I would definitely give this author’s next book a chance. 3.25 stars.

Jesus Christ. I can honestly say this has been the worst book I’ve read so far this year. I will never get those hours of my life back reading this shitty racist book.

To start: There is barely any chemistry between the characters. The plot is a mess and there isn’t much character development. I was snoring throughout this entire book.

More egregiously: The main character is a white girl who is in a love triangle/square with a white boy, an Asian boy, and a Black girl (but there is no queer romantic tension - the Black girl is portrayed as just being in the way of the white girl getting what boy she wants). The Asian boy is described as having “hooded eyes” and the Black girl has “frizzy spirals” of hair - can white authors PLEASE stop writing like this?

In the end, the Asian boy is the ultimate villain, the white girl attempts to murder the Black girl for no fucking reason… and white girl gets with the white boy, who calls her the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen (despite having history with the Black girl). The multiple subtle racist tropes just kept building up throughout this book that the racism became not-so-subtle in the end.

Lots of parallels and references are made to philosophy and Shakespeare… neither are which my jam. Maybe someone else who is more into philosophy and Shakespeare (and who is white) would appreciate this book more.

This book was an author’s debut attempt to write a book with a modicum of diversity, which just went so awry that it’s offensive.

I enjoyed Boys with Sharp Teeth for its haunting atmosphere and lyrical prose, but I felt it was missing some key elements that would have helped me better understand the 'why' behind the story. While the mood and characters were compelling, I wanted more depth or clarity in the underlying themes and motivations.
If you enjoy stories that feel like a fever dream—beautiful, eerie, and unsettling—this book is worth picking up.

Thank you netgalley and Macmillan Audio

Dnf at 35%

This book was very predictable and wasn’t for me necessarily I saw each twist and turn and Marin as a character was not relatable.. I couldn’t really connect with her and the story just felt really flat for me so I might pick it back up but for now it’s a soft DNF.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the audio arc of this book. It was very entertaining and it was a fun time. It was giving We were liars vibes and I loved it.

I had the opportunity to listen to Boys with Sharp Teeth as an audiobook, and overall, it was an engaging and intense experience. The narration was a standout feature — the narrator delivered the story with the right balance of emotion and suspense, making it easy to stay immersed in the plot. The pacing was well-executed, with natural pauses and inflections that heightened the tension and emotion of the story.

The plot itself was gripping, with dark and complex themes that were handled thoughtfully. The characters were well-developed and authentic, which added to the overall atmosphere of the book. The combination of suspense, emotional depth, and a touch of darkness kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Overall, Boys with Sharp Teeth is a powerful and well-narrated audiobook that will appeal to fans of dark academia. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a gripping and intense listen!

I honestly don't even know how to rate this one.
The cover and premise hooked me from the start. The tags queer, romance, and thriller are all what made me request a ALC copy of this book. However, queer is a stretch and a romance it certainly is not.

I don't know if the message and prose of this story went over my head, but it was very philosophical. It delivered on the dark academia vibes, but that's about it. The dialogue was so strange and the actions of these students literally made no sense. In my opinion, it tried too hard to be mysterious. While I know how the events played out, I'm not sure I understand exactly what happened here.

I'm kind of disappointed over all because this was a highly anticipated release for me, but maybe I am just not the target audience.

But a round of applause to the cover designer and the narrator. I think the narrator's voice was a perfect pair to the FMC.

I didn't finish this book. It wasn't because of bad writing, there were times when the writing really sucked ( no pun intended ) me into the story , but there were also parts that just refused to hold my attention and I would find myself wandering off, and because I listened to the audio, I would have to go back and rewind to find my place so I could hear what I missed. There were also times when I had no idea what was going on in the book.

I am a very visual person, and I love books that have probably overly descriptive descriptions, I like to be able to visualize the surroundings, the people etc in my head, i found that hard to do with the part of the book I read.

Also. I know this is fantasy, but some of the parts felt unbelievable. Yes, I know it doesn't have to be believable, but...I don't know, even for fantasy it seemed farfetched for me. Maybe this is why I don't like fantasy, I have a hard time...Im a skeptic I suppose. It also just felt messy.. I had to stop

What did I like about the book? I loved the cover, maybe I judged it a bit by that, and you what they say by judging a book by its cover. BUT. I do that a lot, I am a sucker for a pretty cover. Some times it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I also really liked the narrator, they had the perfect voice for this book. So, yeah. It wasn't for me, but I def recommend reading it, I will never not tell someone to read a book, books are subjective and a lot of you out there will love this.

This book was very intriguing, and something that I would have made my entire personality as a teenager. I thought the beginning was intriguing, and the end left me thinking for days afterward. However, the middle fell a little bit flat for me. I found my mind wandering elsewhere and then completely losing parts of the plot. I think I was probably meant to feel more scandalized than I was (like I said, 15 year old me would have eaten this up!).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

If you enjoy dark academia filled with intense angst and morally complex characters, *Boys With Sharp Teeth* is perfect for you. I was genuinely so excited to see that I received the eARC. The cover of the book in addition to the blurb immediately drew me in. I downloaded the audio within the first 30 minutes of getting the notification.

The Narrator does a great job, she fits the characters vibes wonderfully. You really get the dark, tortured vibes from them. She has a great gravely, angsty, throaty dark voice that fits the MFC perfectly.

Jenni’s writing is spot on for anyone craving dark academia and paranormal!

This story took me by surprise in the best way. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I ended up really enjoying it. We follow the main character as she steps into "Jamie's" identity at an elite boarding school, navigating her new fake life while getting drawn into the intoxicating world of the main squad—an obsession she never saw coming.

The ending was a little predictable, but overall, it was a great read. I can't wait to see what else this up-and-coming author puts out!

Boys with Sharp Teeth sounded fantastic because I do love morally gray/black characters, murder mysteries, and the paranormal, but this just turned into an utter mess.

The gritty and evocative writing in Boys with Sharp Teeth is notable but I felt the story simply didn't feel fresh.

Readers follow Marin James as she infiltrates an elite school to avenge the recent death of her cousin. With a fresh look and an airtight backstory, she begins to navigate the dark and dangerous world of Huntsworth Academy. There she will meet friend and foe and quickly learn that she herself might be just as dangerous as the murderers she's come to kill.

I was taken with the lyricism of the writing, it's philosophical and intimate. I just felt that in a world laden with dark academic stories, this one was wasn't a standout. The narration was notable though, and I did feel as though the choices the narrator made for each character were nuanced and thoughtful.

I enjoyed my time reading it but I do think it will quickly be forgotten.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book I'm going to think about for awhile, mainly because even after reading it I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love books about terrible people doing terrible things to each other, but thus somehow fell a little flat. I wish the supernatural elements were included earlier and were more drawn out, I think this story would've benefitted from being a duology with more elaboration and world building. The writing itself was gorgeous and the narrator was incredibly expressive.

I DON'T GET IT.

And while dark academia is my favourite subgenre, I also just don't think I'm the target audience here. This is angsty. This is poetic. This is deep romantic feelings for fellow teens whom you've known for fewer than 2 weeks.

...There's also very little that actually happens, so as a plot-driven reader I felt lost the whole time. I'm also not sure it's really about characters either. It's mostly about vibes.

This book feels made for the Stephanie Garber girlies who want their metaphors to have fewer cupcakes and more musk and teeth and gravity.

I will at least grant them that there's some actual academia and classes happening here, but it also made me feel SO OLD that I'm sitting here while their Philosophy/English class is using The Matrix to discuss their deep discussions about the human condition. Wild.

Audiobook Notes:
The audiobook was really well executed and very pleasant to listen to.

I am so glad that I listened to this as an audiobook. I thought the narrator was wonderful and really put me into the dark academia vibe of the entire setting. I really liked the general idea of the story but there were a couple places where it dragged and I lost focus. Overall those the ending was really good and I enjoyed it a lot.

Jamie (née Marin) has enrolled herself with a fake check into the prestigious Huntsworth Academy where her security guard cousin died. She can’t believe his death was an accident and is dead set on finding his murderers. Soon Jamie is thrust into a world unlike she’s ever known with careless rich people abusing drugs and alcohol, not caring who they hurt in the process. She’s quickly entangled in Henry’s web, but there’s also his best friend Graves and the sweet and innocent headmistress’s daughter, Bas, who demand Jamie’s attention, but which one is the murderer?

I have a love-hate relationship with purple prose. As someone who’s an English teacher and by default a lover of the English language, I find purple prose a beautiful way to construct sentences, However, it’s a slog to get through and relies heavily on telling rather than showing. In addition to suffering from wildly unlikable characters, this book’s cardinal sin is that nothing much happens in 400 pages. And I understand that this is more a character study than anything else, but you gotta give us something, Also, can I seeth about how I h I hated the so-called love triangle. Abhor! I had such high hopes for this book (super rare to find a character called Jamie these days) and what with this delicious cover! Unfortunately, I didn’t vibe with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Jennifer Pickens was a great narrator, but this book was not for me.

I'm sure this book is for someone, but it certainly was not for me. I'm sorry to say it, but it felt like a wannabe Secret History with tarot cards and a haunted mirror. I just really didn't understand or like any of the characters, and the plot didn't feel cohesive. None of the characters' decisions made sense to me, and the main character was awful at pretending to be Jamie. I thought she was supposed to hate all her peers, but she drifts between loving and hating them every page. This was a very strange and not very sensical read for me.

I read the ebook along with the audiobook, and it appears the audiobook is a later version/draft of the story, which I did prefer to the ebook version. The narrator was good, but I'm confused why we only heard the southern accent once...but that is likely just a detail I missed.

I do think if you enjoy YA dark academia mixed with paranormal elements, a murder mystery, and complicated relationships, this could be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook and audio ARCs!

Boys With Sharp Teeth

I had high hopes for this boarding school revenge book, but I was left unsatisfied by Boys With Sharp Teeth.

I’m going to date myself with this analogy, but readers of a certain age will understand exactly what I’m talking about when I say that BWST reminded me of a Christopher Pike novel. Basically, in every Pike novel, things would start out like standard teen horror novels but slowly devolve into madness and things would just get WEIRD.

And that’s exactly what happened here: our intrepid protagonist infiltrates an exclusive boarding school to find out what really happened to her cousin. She’s got a fake name and a fake check and she’s looking for answers. Everybody is super serious about everything, from philosophy to partying.

But things start to get WEIRD. I’m being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers but there’s a mirror and there are pacts and the whole thing takes place in a span of weeks but it feels like months.

There was a coed dorm. I went to boarding school and yes, it was at the turn of the century, but members of the opposite sex could only come over at specific times and doors had to be open AND there had to be 3 feet on the floor. I could believe in a coed dorm with single-sex floors, but coed suites sharing jack-and-jill bathrooms is just silly.

Sadly, I did not enjoy Boys With Sharp Teeth.


I received an audiobook ARC from Macmillan/NetGalley

This was not for me.

Initially I was hooked, but I quickly lost interest. The prose seemed so long winded and was just trying too hard to be atmospheric and dark. I didn’t care for the love triangle or the relationships at all. There was way too much telling and not showing.