A review by otherworlds
Queen of Teeth by Hailey Piper
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I love how it has this wacky premise and then it turns into something so raw and tender and brutal, oh my god. It's like a weird 80s body horror movie but add in anti-capitalism, so many dead cops, oh, and love. So much love went into this one.
It's also maybe the one and only vagina-related horror story I've read that wasn't a dysphoria-inducing, "divine feminine" cringefest. I love how Piper focuses on the vagina as more of a locus of personal experience (of sensation, feeling) than a symbol of arbitrary femininity. Its voice is not the divine essence of womanhood, it is the simple insatiable desire to live and a howl of rage against the oppression she's faced.
It's also maybe the one and only vagina-related horror story I've read that wasn't a dysphoria-inducing, "divine feminine" cringefest. I love how Piper focuses on the vagina as more of a locus of personal experience (of sensation, feeling) than a symbol of arbitrary femininity. Its voice is not the divine essence of womanhood, it is the simple insatiable desire to live and a howl of rage against the oppression she's faced.