Andrew has done it again! This gothic horror is everything I wanted. It was gruesome, heartbreaking, and engrossing. If you liked Hell Followed With Us, you will adore this.

The Spirit Bares its Teeth was a refreshingly unique read that was still heartbreaking and devastating to read. I found myself rooting endlessly for our main character Silas as he tried to survive the horrors of this world.

The worldbuilding was simple to navigate and the atmosphere was so eerie and dark that I instantly found myself transported! The setting was like a gothic London in the 1800s but with the British Empire ruling the world and violet eyes being the main commodity that was sought after.

Despite how infuriating and hard it was to read this at times Andrew Joseph White takes you on a harrowing journey of survival, perseverance and growth. Silas journey was incredible to watch and I am beyond proud as a reader. This is certainly a story that will stick with me forever.

Silas knows he's a boy, but society doesn't see him that way. And as his parents get closer and closer to marrying him off, to fulfill his duties as a good Speaker wife, he decides to take matters into his own hands by posing as a man who was supposed to do his initiation. But the night goes awry, and his real identity is exposed. In the aftermath, he learns that his parents have agreed to an engagement to the son of a prominent man who decides to go ahead with the engagement. After all, there's a school for girls with Veil sickness--girls with violet eyes who have interacted with the veil too much and have lost their way. A school run by the father of the person Silas is to marry.
Immediately upon arrival, it's clear to Silas that something terrible is going on at the school. Girls have gone missing, and punishments are cruel. He decides to investigate, and what he uncovers is even worse than he imagined. Through it all, his one source of comfort is the person he's supposed to marry. A person with a secret, who wants the girls in the school to be safe.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I was sucked in right from the very beginning, and could not put it down. Silas is autistic, and it was so beautiful--and so hard--to see that laid out so explicitly on the page. It was a level of representation I've rarely, if ever, gotten, and it was painful and comforting in equal measure. This book was definitely at times a very hard read, but one of the best I've read in a long, long time.

Definitely check the trigger warnings for this one, because there are a lot. I'm worried I may be forgetting some, but they include: transphobia (with a LOT of misgendering), ableism, conversion therapy, self-attempted abortion, lots of medical gore, torture and murder within a conversion therapy setting, and sexual assault.

Oh, Andrew Joseph White, if you keep writing books as good as this one and your debut I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.

I fell in love with White’s 2022 release, Hell Followed With Us, from the moment I first heard of it. It was like nothing I’d ever heard of before and I was ready to board the ship. I enjoyed the ride immensely. Then, when White announced his second novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, I could’ve swooned. Everything about this book made me swoon and behave like Veruca Salt, shouting, “Don’t care how, I want it now!”

Obviously, this is one of my most-anticipated releases this year, and holy hot damn it didn’t disappoint. If I could give this book more than five stars I totally would. This book hits really close to home for me in more than one way. My ex-spouse is both trans and autistic, my older child is gender fluid and autistic, and my younger child is autistic enough that he’s been declared permanently disabled. I myself am bisexual and mildly autistic, besides also being bipolar and having a host of other psychological issues. In the 1880’s (the time period this book takes place in) I’d likely have been placed in an asylum when I was in my early teens and left there to rot. For that matter, any of my family members might have met that unfortunate fate, if not worse.

AJW deserves not only all the accolades but also all the admiration for writing a book with a main protagonist that’s both trans and autistic. It couldn’t have been easy to write, and it couldn’t have been easy to convince agents and editors to publish it. But I’m so ecstatic that this book got written and made it onto book shelves because it’s brilliant and it’s beautiful in its own savage way.

When writing historical fantasy, you need to be just as careful with the “historical” portion of the book as you would be when writing historical fiction so as to not only keep your world building framework steady and make sure your atmosphere is correct, but also to avoid anachronisms where you can. AJW acknowledges in the back of the book that the queer historian he consulted to help him with the research for this book pointed out that such things as the constant chaperoning of unmarried females in Victorian times were definite obstacles to fiction. Therein lies the joys of historical fantasy, where all of a sudden the fantastical parts of the plot can create opportunities to circumvent what would otherwise be seen as an anachronism.

The world AJW created in this book is cold, cruel, grey, dreary, hateful, and wretched. There is no beauty to it except for the ties between the women at Braxton’s, which start out as tenuous and loose as a hasty basting stitch when Silas arrives but steadily tighten and grow stronger like corset laces as the book goes on and the abuses they endure grow with every day that passes.

There is precious little sweetness in this book, but when it is there it’s worth slowing down for, just to sink into a little and revel in it. It’s intimate and soft and a little unraveling. It’s an oasis, a pit stop in the midst of desperate chaos as Silas and the girls try to figure out where the spirits are and how they can escape a place that is sure to only serve up their deaths in the near future.

The climax of this book is manic, horrific, and grotesque. No one escapes without trauma. And even as the book ends, the trauma lingers and the business isn’t quite done.

I can’t recommend this book enough. To all ages. To all readers.

(AJW does include a list of possible CW/TWs inside the book for those who need them.)

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. Any thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Ghost Story/Historical Fantasy/Historical Fiction/Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Occult Horror/Own Voices/Paranormal Fantasy/Paranormal Horror/Secret Society

This book is just as beautiful as it is haunting. There were times when I felt a need to close the book because of its gory details, but it also made me want to keep reading. Andrew Joseph White’s prose is SO addicting! He really knows how to captivate his audience with scene-building and character depictions and developments.

The autism representation is phenomenal, probably the best I’ve ever read. So many of Silas’ internal thoughts hit close to home but in a good way. I felt so seen in ways I haven't before in literature.

This is a masterpiece that deserves all of the praise!!

This book was amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this. As an autisic person myself I could relate to Silas in some ways. I do recommend people to read the trigger warnings because some things can be big triggers to people. The book started a little slow for me but I’m glad I kept reading. If you like horror, supernatural and the victorian age vibe this book will be right up your alley.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for this e-ARC.

This was my first book by Andrew Joseph White and I was immediately impressed by his writing!! The characters (specifically Silas, Daphne and the girls at the school) were so engaging and dynamic. I really loved seeing the growth that they went through. My heart soared a little when Silas felt so viscerally seen by Daphne, it was a wonderful moment between all the horror (and there is plenty of that!). And on that note their chemistry was really adorable.

The final few chapters took quite a turn and for a second I thought it was going to a place that would have made it..... well stereotypical but I'm so glad it didnt. It was quite the pageturner and I was very satisfied with how it was all resolved.

I loved the solidarity Silas felt with the girls at the school and I also loved the way their feminine rage was utilized in this book.

I do have to warn everyone to please read the cw before starting this book because there is a lot of body horror among other possible triggering subjects. Caveat: none of these moment felt gratuitous to me but of course YMMV.

I thought there was absolutely no way White could beat his debut, but goddamn did he prove me wrong. This book chewed me up and spat me out and I still would have gladly accepted more at the end. This may be the first book I've ever read that's so unapologetically neurodivergent and queer and I am absolutely begging for more of this to hit shelves.

This story is dark and twisted and just closely enough rooted in reality that it is physically uncomfortable at times, yet it also has some of the most tender and genuine moments of raw humanity that I've ever read in a YA novel. I spent so much of this book in my feels while also being unbearably anxious for whatever horror was going to happen next. It's the kind of book that makes you ache and want to fight at the same time.

Please do be mindful of the content warnings, if that is something that concerns you. There is A LOT going on in this book and White doesn't sugarcoat a single thing. These depictions are fully exposed and unflinching in all the best and worst ways.

Additional shoutout to the author for including notes about historical relevance and citing some of his source material for further reading. I always love when authors take the time to do this, especially for historical fiction.

A fantastic, heart-wrenching, stomach-turning read that I know I will be thinking about for a long time to come, while also eagerly awaiting whatever White announces next.

Special thanks to Peachtree Teen for an ARC in exchange for review.

I wanted to vibe with this book but just didn’t like it. It was just not for me I guess. Thank you netgalley and the publisher giving me this as an arc for exchange for an honest review.

The Spirit Bares it’s Teeth is a horror novel set in the 1800s following Silas, an autistic trans man who is forced to present as his biological gender after he tries to gain access to the world of mediums which is only dominated by men. He is shipped off to a “”boarding school”” for women who have medium abilities but is seen as something called “veil sickness” and he has to try to A. Escape and B. Not die like the rest of the girls who are slowly picked off one by one.

I really did enjoy the medical part of the story as Silas wants to be a surgeon and helps multiple people in the story. The medical horror was done very well and felt very much like what it had been back when surgery was first becoming a true profession.

I wish there had been more insight to the medium aspect of the story because that part fell flat for me. It didn’t really make sense and the world building there felt a little haphazard like the author needed to make things spooky just for the sake of making the book different. Some expansion on it would have been nice.

I was very impressed at how authentic the autistic experience was portrayed though. The main character even without having the term for it was very clearly autistic with outbursts and stimming and confusion about social norms. I can’t speak to the trans experience personally but that also felt authentic.

Overall a good horror book and I would recommend it to those that enjoy that genre!

Thank you to NetGalley and PeachTree Teen for the eARC! All opinions are my own.

Words cannot explain how I feel about this book. I started reading it at the beginning of last month, but didn't get around to finishing it due to personal events. After I realized that it comes out quite literally tomorrow, I knew I had to start reading it (and fast).

I realize that The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is not something you slowly read. It demands to be read as fast as possible because you get sucked into the world, starting from the first chapter. The world was eloquently designed; taking place in 19th(?) century, but there's a twist to it. People with violet eyes can tear open the Veil (also known as the other side) and speak with the dead and vise versa. The Speaker Society, whom control these people with the violet eyes, has a hold on what is appropriate for people who have these powers. Silas, our main protagonist, would rather do anything than become a Speaker's wife because Silas is a boy, not a girl that everyone insists he is. After being diagnosed with Veil sickness, Silas is sent to Braxton's, where he will be "cured" in order to be the perfect wife for a Speaker family. However, something isn't quite right when Silas arrives. Girls are going missing and no one is sure where they are.

White doesn't shy away about the pressures of a patriarchal society towards trans youth and women and it was done with the precision of a surgeon: clean, factual, informant. Throughout the novel, we see different people telling Silas that he doesn't actually feel that he should be a boy because of the Veil sickness. This mirrors society today due to numerous people in power wanting to erase the identities of trans youth *and* take away the bodily autonomy of numerous women. The girls and Silas all had their ways of surviving Braxton's Finishing School and it made me root for them so much harder (if that makes sense lol). I wanted most of them to survive and be free. When some didn't, it hit a lot harder than I expected it to.

I loved how White illustrated the medical horror in the book. There was something about it that I loved, though I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess the best way to put it was that it was tastefully done. It wasn't excessive in gore; rather, the details of it were meticulously done and perfected into the mind of a surgeon. I enjoyed reading how Silas' mind worked when faced with bodily injuries of himself and the girls. At the forefront of his mind was how he wanted to help the people, not cause them harm. The horror is not for the faint of heart as it goes into graphic detail of different animals being dissected and the bodily injuries that people throughout the novel faced. There's also an on-page Cesarean section that I was not expecting, but it was something I could stomach.

I loved Silas as our MMC. I loved being in his head and following his journey. I think he may top being one of my favorite MCs of all time. In fact, all these characters felt realistic in their own special way. They all wanted to survive and did anything they could to do so. I rooted hard for Silas and Daphne. It didn't feel very insta-love to me; it felt more of that they were two people who knew and understood what the other was going through. They felt like a flicker of hope and I was happy with the outcome.

I enjoyed the plot, as well. I loved the magical realism that this book set up with the Veil. It was well integrated into the plot and it kept me wanting more. And did it deliver. The winter atmosphere held a bite to the Gothic horror that it was. It kept me enticed and kept me wondering what was going on. I liked that all these characters felt realistic and had some depth to them, rather than just being two dimensional.

This novel touched something in me that made me feel understood, amiss a lot of confusion growing up. It's a reminder of the power that one can wield and push back against the expectations that society sets up. It reminds you that you are acceptable as you are and you have no need to conform to what society wants.

I absolutely loved “Hell Followed With Us,” by Andrew Joseph White, so I was super excited to get to read his follow up novel “The Spirit Bares His Teeth.” The author does horror so well, creating unique and fleshed out settings and stories, and characters you will fall in love with immediately. Personally I don’t get scared very easily, but there were parts in this book that made me have to close the book and take a little break. (Totally a compliment, the gore is fantastic.) While set in a supernatural world, the story is strongly rooted in reality, and the mistreatment of trans people throughout history. However, it doesn't leave you feeling hopeless. The story shows the strength, and resilience of queer people and the power of love and friendship.

Huge, huge thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

After really enjoying the author's debut, I was super excited to see what he had in store for us next. And friends, I daresay this one is even better than its predecessor! I was quite impressed because The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is altogether different than Hell Followed With Us, but still maintains a lot of the same messages in a wholly fresh story.

I fell in love with Silas from the start, and as such was instantly invested in his story. He is sent to some kind of finishing school (which is obviously a front for some kind of horrific "taming women into subservient housewives" schtick) because he was deemed "veil sick", which means basically that he didn't conform to some bullshit societal standards. You know, the way they'd lock folks away for being different. So look, he knew this was going to be bad, but I don't think even he had any idea just how bad. There are some good points, though. He gains some friends in the women who were there before he arrived, and he finds that he actually might sort of like the person who is meant to be his husband, and it turns out has more in common with Silas than he could have imagined.

Make no mistake, this is not for the faint of heart, as there is a lot of awfulness that is happening to Silas and the girls at any given time. The secrets that Silas and company uncover are absolutely messed up, but they are also compulsively page-turning, so if you can handle the material, it is very worth it. The found family aspect, especially amidst all the horrific events, gives the book the hope it needs despite the truly awful situation.

Bottom Line: An absolute must read if you can handle the body horror, I cannot wait to see what the author delivers to us next!

It is utterly horrifying to watch others in this book accept & justify of the acts done in this book.

'The Spirit Bares Its Teeth' perfectly utilizes the horrors of society, patriarchs and how a person, whom the world views as a woman, can be used and abused like an object instead of a human being.
While this story is fictional, the expansion of what women, non-binary & transgender folks most likely went through during the Victorian era was not. The era of insane asylum, surgeries, prisons & abuse that many suffered in that time was far from fiction, and I appreciated it, while still feeling sad/sick about it all. If you did not fit the mould that men and those in power chose, you were considered ill or in need of fixing, and they could justify anything in the name of 'saving' you - we have seen this from actual history reports.

My favourite quote from the book is, "Do you know how angry the dead can be?" because this book portrays rage, grief, injustice and vengeance as such incredible fuel for Silas & us as readers.

This was excellent! I rarely read horror or gore but idk AJW just makes me want to read it! Can’t wait for more people to get their hands on this book! It was a wild ride. Took me a few sittings to finish it because the gore had my skin crawling.

The term autism isn’t used even once in this novel. If you want to leave a one star review then please read the book otherwise just don’t (also yes i did finish this book just to prove this person wrong.)

I also want to mention that i won’t be commenting of the trans and autistic rep because it just isn’t my place, i you want to know more about the rep please seek out own voices reviews.

I requested this ARC because i love Gothic fiction, I’m writing a whole master’s thesis about neo-gothic, its more complex than that but at least you can understand that I LOVE Gothic fiction and I kinda know what I’m talking about. This novel lacked one major thing; it doesn’t let the reader think for themself. It hands out everything and lacks nuance.

Even if the authors says that the anachronisms were left for a reason I couldn’t get past them. Please i urge authors to read about more about corsets, they weren’t a symbol of restriction, they didn’t hurt (except if they weren’t the right size, same as bras actually.)

Protecting one’s stomach doesn’t mean that one is pregnant, please and thank you. The other comments on women left a weird taste in my mouth, like how all men want to be with women because they want to control them but Silas isn’t like other men so he doesn’t to be a woman to control her, and even though the intent wasn’t to objectify women, it felt like that. Also a miscarriage isn’t just a ‘little tragedy’, this felt so disrespectful to anyone who has ever gone through one.

The characters were likeable but not really memorable. I wasn’t really enjoying myself but I just couldn’t stop reading, it was fast past and quite smooth to read. I would still recommend this book if you like the Gothic aesthetic (like really just the aesthetic not the thinking that usually comes with it) and you don’t care about anachronisms as much as I did.

I love how terrifying everything is in this book. The supernatural aspects were chilling, but the societal aspects were worst. The intersections between being trans, experiencing misogyny, and being autistic are perfectly interwoven. Silas is a great mc and I loved his voice. Overall the book is amazing and I can’t wait for it to get the love it deserves.

I loved so many things about this book. Just like White's previous book, it connects a trans teen's fight for life with blood, gore and monsters, and i adored every page of it. I found Silas to be an incredibly relatable main character and was moved by the description of his autistic traits - all of them seemed so natural to him as a character, matched the tone of the book well, and didn't seem forced or oversimplified for the sake of a neurotypical reader. The t4t romance made me super happy, although I wish we could've seen them interact a bit more. Silas' relationship with gender (both his and otherwise) showed the complicated feelings I've personally dealt with really well, and I'm super grateful for that. I think the last third of the book could've been stronger and felt a tiny bit dissapointed by the end, but I still had a great time and am glad to have discovered an apparent new favourite sub-genre of mine - trans horror.

4.5 stars

wow wow, this book! i read "hell followed with us" by the same author last year and was completely in awe of andrew joseph white's writing, and "the spirit bares its teeth" did not disappoint.

"'Mors vincit omnia'...
Death conquers all. Everyone will die and there is not a soul who can escape it."

"the spirit bares its teeth" is not for the faint of heart. it is perhaps even more gory and brutal that the author's previous book, and filled with such trauma and cruelty that sometimes i just wanted to shy away from it all. but that's not to say that this book didn't have some lightness and comfort in it as well, because our main couple - daphne and silas - were the most precious little duo of beans, and i wanted to hug them tight the entire novel.

"She smiles. Her eyes shine like something vicious, and I have never been more attracted to anything in my sixteen years of being alive."

our story follows silas, a trans, autistic boy who has a great interest in surgery, and can tear the veil to talk with ghosts, a trait specific to all those with purple eyes. i adored silas - he was such a brilliantly realistic character, and the entire book i felt such love for him. his relationship with daphne was so beautiful and i loved the way it was written, i may be an adamant insta-love hater, but it wasn't really insta-love. it was like a connection between souls, as two people who understood each other finally found someone they could trust.

i also loved the magical realism aspect, with the ghosts adding an occasional perspective to the book, which was really interesting. the entire book i begged for the girls to be allowed their revenge, and i really appreciated the sense of fulfillment that white gave me regarding that aspect.

"if we still had the fingers to take out their eyes
we would feast on them like witches"

all in all, this was such a beautifully written and highly captivating novel. it was dark and heartbreaking in parts, but overall had such a powerful ending, and the characters were each so realistic (especially mary!! i LOVED mary). highly recommended! (but check those trigger warnings)

thank you so much to the author, publisher and netgalley for the free copy provided in exchange for an honest review!!

WHAT.A.BOOK!! It feels like I read it in one sitting, and I still need more! I enjoyed Hell Followed With Us, but The Spirit Bares Its Teeth blew my mind. I can't find anything I didn't like, so GO AND READ IT!

Thanks to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.