Reviews

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

thatonedudewhoreads's review

5.0

“Mors vincit omnia.”

If you want to read this, please look at the contents first. This book was heavy, it was disturbing, it was raw. But that made it so good. This book talks about the life of people who were “defects” in the society. It’s not pretty. It’s very gory but I loved all of it. It tore me apart and it was so beautiful.

stonzie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Books like this are why I keep reading. 

The characters 

The characters in this book felt so real, when they chose to do something, it was for themselves rather than plot convenience. Their actions made sense and made them fell like real people who were placed in this story. 

The representation 

This book has some of the best representation that I have read in a while. Without even having to state what the character has, I am able to use the information that is given and work it out for myself, which is something I haven’t been able to do with a lot of books recently. I felt like I was able to understand all that the character is going through and I love them for it. 

The plot 

The plot in this book was insane, like every time I felt like something couldn’t get worse, it went crazy. And not like the crazy where it didn’t make sense, but in the sense that it made sense, I could remember the foreshadowing, and yet I didn’t notice and still had my mind blown. 

The writing 

I found the writing in the book so beautiful; it manages to be easy to read while also giving horrifying details. I felt sick with the level of descriptions in some scenes and yet I couldn’t put it down. 

Who would I recommend it to? 

I recommend this book to people who are on the older end of YA and don’t mind lots of gore. I will also say that you should search up your trigger warnings before you go into this book. 

Thank you to Andrew White for the free review copy! 

katelynk's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

biareads02's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

fi_johnston's review against another edition

5.0

This YA gothic horror deals in an alternate reality/history but felt extremely real and authentic in it's depiction of gender, neurodiversity and mental-health. Truly terrible things happen throughout this book [which are well warned at the top, which i appreciated], but it is written with such respect and there are moments of real beauty and hope and kindness aswell.

This was the first of White's books that I've read, but I have instantly jumped his other writing to the top of my TBR list.

kajaanne's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

eacreer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

bubcat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

braincell4rent's review against another edition

4.0

This one could easily become one of my favorite YA reads this year. It has everything I like: An interesting main character, a plot full of mystery and murder and queer characters treated respectfully. I´m not much of horror stories myself, but this one was just nice. I´ve been the entire duration of my reading with that sense of oppression (also felt by Silas, and by pretty much everyone who got to be on that orphanage) of knowing something bad would happen... and it did.
This book is a series of cathastrophic misfortunes for which I still don´t know how Silas and Daphne saved themselves, because each and every adult portrayed here is worse than the previous one. As a matter of fact, when they managed to leave the orphanage and everything seemed to be calm, 20 pages before the book ended, I was still paranoid thinking, okay, it can still end badly for the main characters. I think the author nailed the atmosphere. And I also like what he did with the Veil sickness and how he portrayed the blatant discrimination against certain characters just for being different to what society expected of them.

halflingnana's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma