Rose Szabo’s debut novel, What Big Teeth, presents a unique mix of contemporary gothic horror meets Addams family weirdness with a touch of whodunit. The book promises dark, thrill-inducing horror and delivers a vivid world of monsters but with a lackluster plot.

I wanted to like this book. I desperately wanted to like this book. What Big Teeth had all the elements needed for a contemporary YA gothic horror novel, complete with the eerie, foreboding house and lots of twists and turns. The novel starts off with a memory . . . or is it? We find young Eleanor, the novel’s protagonist, chasing a boy through the forest with her werewolf cousins.

Unlike her furry counterparts, Eleanor chases on foot but with just as much hunger for blood. Right as she pounces, we’re thrust forward to a teenage Eleanor returning home under mysterious circumstances with a parsed memory of the family that awaits. From there we’re introduced to the Zarrin clan. There’s a witchy grandmother; a foreboding aunt who communicates strictly with grunts and gestures; a mom who’s half-polyps, half-human and consistently resides in tubs of water; the mysterious family friend Arthur; and the wolves: Grandpa, Dad, cousin, and sister.

Sounds like everything you’d need for a bloody good read, right? Unfortunately, the plot fizzled out pretty quickly after the familial introductions. There were attempts to pick it up after Eleanor witnesses her grandmother’s sudden death in the middle of a tarot reading, but Szabo struggled to deliver a clear-cut plot that kept me captivated. It was almost as though Szabo didn’t know which plot points to focus on and, instead, tried to pack the story with too much content and not enough contextual elements to back up a lot of those points. So much happens that it was difficult to locate a focal point and allow the weight of certain foreshadowing to sink in and inform as the book progressed. Coupled with drawn-out pacing, it wasn’t until the last third of the novel that anything with serious implications towards the characters unfolded.

While the pacing of the book wasn’t my particular cup of tea, Szabo takes what could stand alone as a novel of mystics and death and injects a strained family dynamic that captured me as a reader. Eleanor returns to her home expecting warmth but instead receives cold shoulders and curt conversations. She’s confused about why her grandmother sent her away to boarding school and feels out of place in a family that was once loving and accepting towards her. Conflict ensues with most family members, often filled with loaded accusations and years of built-up frustration. All that couples with Eleanor’s struggle to belong and protect her family from their wolfish instincts following her grandmother’s death. Despite the fantastical elements, the tense relationships and secrets help ground a lot of the characters making it easier to place yourself in this world and empathize with the stakes placed before Eleanor.

Though Szabo made me feel enamored with this dysfunctional group, I had difficulties connecting with the mysterious family friend, Arthur. This strange gentleman is the main love interest for Eleanor and her sister and her cousin and her father and really just about every other member of the Zarrin family. Though this bizarre love-clan dynamic is eventually explained in the book, that relationship didn’t add much value to What Big Teeth’s overall plot. The whole thing felt like an afterthought that only added more aspects to try and piece together into the book. I would have rather Szabo given more focus and attention to the discovery of what Eleanor is than chunk in a strange love story with little payout. The question of who she is and how she fits into the family is something Eleanor struggles with in the early parts of the book. We’re offered a rushed, muddled explanation in the midst of a chaotic conclusion, and the choice to brush over an essential, character-building moment felt like it did Eleanor and the book a disservice.

That all said, What Big Teeth isn’t without its strengths. While the book struggles to keep its main plot going, Szabo captured the gothic horror essence beautifully. The house the Zarrins reside in is creepy and melancholy and I didn’t want the descriptions to end. In line with classic gothic horror tropes, the house sets the tone and atmosphere for much of the plot—complete with doors that are locked for some and not others as well as trick panels hiding some of the family’s darkest secrets. In fact, it almost seemed like Szabo went down a gothic horror trope list and tried to check off as many as they could within their novel. Not-so-hidden, hidden love child? Check. Attraction to a secretive, dangerous man? Check x6. Diary from a dead family member that conveniently offers up answers to intense, pressing questions? Well, you get the point. While there was a struggle to balance different plots, Szabo wove all these elements together to create a lush, captivating world that I didn’t want to leave.

The book has flaws that are pretty difficult to overlook, but I think What Big Teeth is a great indication of what’s to expect from Szabo in the future. Plot is an essential element for any good story, but the creation of an atmosphere that enhances and engages readers is also important and as difficult to accomplish. While I didn’t come away loving this book, Szabo’s debut leads me to believe that what’s to follow will be more eerie, sinister, and focused.

What Big Teeth has the makings of everything I love in books—that gothic atmosphere, a bit of weirdness, and monstrous creatures with The Addams family-esque dynamics trying to reconcile their family while dealing with a major threat that can blow this family apart—but it doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

I wish it was more dark and weird, and wish it leaned more into the Gothic tropes that was touched upon gently in this novel. Key scenes and descriptions were missing—it felt like I stuttered during a lot of the scenes. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to finish like some unknown force pushing me to.

While I really enjoyed the darker atmosphere of this book, I also was left wanting more. I think I expected more obsurdity, more spookiness, just... A little more of everything to really push it over the edge! I think this would be good for a YA reader just getting into scarier books.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! I will read nearly anything comped to the Addams Family, so. <3

I knew this had mixed reviews going in so I wasn’t really surprised when I found that I was on the “not liking it side”. What I didn’t know was how much on that side I was. I only read until about 30% when I finally couldn’t take it anymore and called it quits. I also ranted to a friend about it – which is always fun to do. I understood absolutely nothing of this book. There was no character motivation for anyone, no one had any personality. I couldn’t see anyone improving at all which is also why I chose not to carry on. I can’t stand reading a book if there’s no character development of any type.

There’s also nothing in this book that made sense. Eleanor hasn’t seen or heard from/spoken to her family in eight years but she’s just gonna magically go back home because she had an incident at the school. Then she complains about how her family’s treating her – like yeah that’ll happen when you never see each other but also then she keeps trying to play by their rules, tries to placate them. Why do all of that when they make it perfectly clear that they don’t like you?

Absolutely NO ONE in the book is interesting or redeemable and I would rather jump off a cliff than be in the same room as ANY of them. Eleanor’s mom was the only remotely interesting character and all we know is that she’s in a bathtub. I don’t think we’re even told what type of supernatural creature she is – which is a shame because then I would be a bit more interested.

I found it very funny (in a bad way that made me not like her – Eleanor – even further) is that Eleanor’s grandmother dies, right? And in a really terrible written way too. And she tells her not to invite anyone who isn’t family to the house. So, of course… what Eleanor does next is that she invites basically the entire town to the funeral. At the house that the grandmother doesn’t want any non-family members to be there. Admittedly, I didn’t read far enough to get to the actual funeral, but I knew it from others’ reviews.

I found it hilarious that Luma, her older sister (about 20 or so reviews have said), was her older sister because I first thought she was about 12/13 – because she acted like that age. I have no idea if she ever went to school with other kids and thus got that type of interaction. I’m not so bothered by characters acting younger or older than they really are but there’s a difference between that and me thinking that a 20 year old was 13.

I think the absolute WORST character is Arthur. He’s said to be middle-aged, bald, and I don’t even know if he’s actually conventionally attractive (not that that’s all important) but literally EVERYONE in the family – from the grandparents to the TEENAGERS – Eleanor whom is said to be 16?? – is utterly infatuated with him. There’s a huge spoiler about him that I won’t say here but uhh he is not what he appears – either at face value or chronologically and that’s all I’ll say. Every time I had to see him on the page I wanted to physically recoil because he was the absolute worst.

I mentioned Luma not acting like her age and Rhys also never acted like his age? He’s in college so I’m guessing about 20. I could not for the life of me imagine he’s that age. Everyone acted like he was this amazing person and super super cool guy and you have me in the corner there’s me in the corner side-eyeing this entire family because why on earth would you want to give a lot of responsibilities to THIS guy – it made entirely no sense whatsoever.

The bit of the plot I experienced was… well, quite an experience! I don’t think even if I liked the characters I could stomach the plot, or vice versa. Honestly I’m amazed that I managed to get to 30% and kept wanting to read other books in January. And that, my friends, is why it’s totally okay to marks books you aren’t enjoying as “will/did not finish”.

YA is one of my favorite book age groups! I read about as much Young Adult fiction as I do Adult which works out well since I am friends with one of our Youth librarians. We constantly recommend titles back and forth to each other for the library. This one was a great title to recommend for the teens at our library. It's got supernatural elements as well as deep family elements.

Perfect for fans of the Adam's Family (especially the new Wednesday Tv show), for readers of Wilder Girls, and for anyone who might have read Stephen Graham Jones' "Mongrels".

10/10 would recommend.

With What Big Teeth, Rose Szabo gives us an intense exploration of generational family trauma, with a heavy supernatural twist. It's beautifully written and darkly atmospheric. The more you find out about the family, the more you realize you know nothing, but you ache to know more. An absolute must read, and probably a must read more than once to truly appreciate all of the layers and nuance thrown into this thing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This was such a wild adventure! If you love the haunted charm of the Addams Family and the unnerving tragedies of Geek Love and want a new take on supernatural elements, then dive right in because this one sure delivers.

The tone of this story was so odd for what it was. I couldn't decide what the narrator was feeling about anything happening in her life... and there were weird things happening in her life.

A family of wolves and a daughter who is the odd one out of the family. The story was great and page turning. I'd love to read more books just like this one. I expected it to be a little red riding hood kind of retelling but it wasn't and im okay with that.

This was a strange and beautiful read. The writing was exceptional and the actual story was interesting, if not slightly confusing (thus the 4 star review.)

I really liked this book and would recommend it to older teens, especially ones who like kind of creepy and strange families.

Oh I wanted to love this book so much!! It's so sad that I couldn't really get a feel for it. Not sure if it was the characters, the story, or the overall expectation I had, but I couldn't get into it. I seen this book everywhere and so many people recommended it, but it didn't sit right with me and I had to shelve it under DNF.

My original plan was to read What Big Teeth around spooky season last year but my life, and therefore my reading schedule, had other plans. As I’m trying to read more spooky books year-round though it worked out that I read in May of this year, haha. I remember when I first came across What Big Teeth, I was super intrigued by the synopsis, and this didn’t change while it sat in my TBR pile, waiting for me to read it.

Now, I can also say that my initial instinct that I should be intrigued was correct. This may have been one of the more—if not the most—unusual YA books I’ve ever read. I’m actually a little unsure about What Big Teeth being categorized under YA, and felt this way throughout the book as I found it to read like an adult book at times—not the subject matter so much as the vibe as well as the author, Rose Szabo’s, storytelling style—and at other times I found that it pushed the boundaries of a number of genres.

Before I continue, please let me clarify that I like how unique What Big Teeth was and that it didn’t quite fit into any specific box. I like that the author didn’t hold back as it made me feel as if the story could go in any direction, which was thrilling and frightening at the same time (which was thrilling in itself, making What Big Teeth double thrilling for me to read! Haha.)

I definitely liked What Big Teeth quite a bit—especially the way the slightly modern, probably Western setting mixed with what felt to me like Eastern European lore and superstition. I look forward to seeing what else Szabo will come out with, including their newer release We All Fall Down which is most definitely on my radar.

This was a very strange book in the best way. Throughout I was compelled by the mystery of what kind of creature the main character could be. I loved thinking about the metaphorical possibilities of the situation of a character going away from home and then returning to find that they see what they once considered normal as monstrous behaviors. I never was able to guess the big reveal. Overall, this was a beautiful, intriguing book about how we understand monstrosity.

There is a lot going on and I really didn't understand any of it. I wanted to like it, but it's really not clear why Eleanor was sent away or what is going on with her family.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

I didn't know much about this book going into it. I just knew that it had people who could turn into wolves. I expected a dark and interesting story and that is exactly what I got. It was such a great story filled with dark twists and turns. The story does take a bit to get into, but once it starts rolling, it's addicting. The characters are amazing and so dynamic. I loved seeing their relationships and how they evolved. The ending was fantastic and so fitting for this dark tale. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Like the Addams Family—but spookier! It's got very bad parents (very unlike the Addamses), and a really complicated and really problematic love, like, hexagon. Compells me, though! Really I'd rate this 3.5 stars.

I ended up giving this a four out of five star: I originally requested because of the cover but the synopsis pulled me in too. I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked most of the characters I liked the main characters cousin Reese the most. I liked how Eleanore uncovers some things from the past.