Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - What Big Teeth

Harry Szabo cements themself as one to watch with this killer debut. An excellent story about being an outsider, family, generational trauma, and love, this had me enthralled from beginning to end and in awe of their writing. Do yourself a favor and experience it for yourself.

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nutm3g's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The best summarization of this book's concept is this, highly dysfunctional Addams Family with a nice helping of generational trauma. I really wanted to love this book, but there was just too much that felt lacking. It seemed as if it would be a build-up to healing old wounds, but even to the end tension in the family remained. It is a bit difficult to explain why this book did not reach its potential without giving away any spoilers. Regardless of all it lacked, the concept behind it was creative and entertaining which is why I have it 3 stars in the end.

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stormywolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Coming off of two somewhat disappointing werewolf stories, and having a surprise spot opened up for October, I decided to seek out another werewolf story to see if I could satiate my craving for fangs and fur. Enter What Big Teeth which happened to be available in both e-book and audio formats in my library. I remembered this book mainly from its enticing cover, its wolfish reference to Red Riding Hood, and seeing it doing the rounds on Facebook earlier this year, but otherwise had no idea what it was about. So, deciding not to question my luck, I went ahead and sank my teeth into this story.

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, despite it not being anything like I was expecting, I really came to love this simultaneously familiar and unique story. There was so much here that made me feel like I wanted to dust off my literary analysis skills from high school/college, from the gothic tone, to the dark themes, deep characters, and possible allegories; I think this could easily be a new literary classic. I tried to be somewhat vague in my review, so as not to spoil anything, since I want other readers to be surprised at all the twists and turns the story takes, especially since the cover, title, and summary don't give nearly enough clues. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys gothic themes, young adult narratives, complex characters and relationships, LGBTQIA+ stories, or just monsters in general. Whether you're looking for a spooky gothic tale to fit the time of year, or are simply wanting something out of the norm, What Big Teeth might be just what you're looking for.

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frantic_vampire's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This was such a good read for spooky season! What Big Teeth definitely has some very strong influences from The Addams Family. But I also got some Coraline and The Haunting of Bly Manor vibes. With every passing page things got darker and creepier and it was all just delightfully dreadful. It was a lovely and spooky read.

I loved that at the start of the book every member of this monstrous family seemed relatively harmless. And then they started showing their fangs. Things got progressively darker the more you learned about the family. There were so many things were lurking just beneath the surface with this book, from murders to eldritch terrors. The last 75 pages or so of What Big Teeth are truly the most amazing part of this story. I could not put the book down for anything. Oh and then!! Then it dropped a huge bomb on the story and it ended. I was screaming!!! 😵‍💫

Honestly this book was just delightful! I really loved that we got bi, gay, and sapphic rep in a horror setting. I think my only complaint is that this book moved very slowly. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just like my books to move a little faster. All in all this was a solid book and I’m giving it a four out of five stars. Beware of that ending though! 😳

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