I just want to scream about this book it was so good. I'm definitely buying this as soon as it comes out. Yeah it was gory and incredibly sad and I did cry so many times that I had to take off my glasses but it was beautiful. I loved Daphne and Silas and the autism representation was amazing and so relatable I am going to force all the people around me to read this book I will not stop talking about it ever! The love between Daphne and Silas too was just so cute and perfect they had me screaming. Thank you for writing such a masterpiece.

Dark, twisted, haunting, visceral story about an autistic Trans man wanting to just live his life in Victorian England. Gothic horror is my favorite genre and throw in asylms I'm hooked. This book, left me in awe. Definitely a favorite of 2023.
Thank you Netgalley and Peachtree for an ARC in exchange for my honest review

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a tale about reclaiming one’s own body and mind in a time when everything that deviated from the norm was seen as a sickness, shamefully hidden and forcefully corrected. It is a tale about the power men hold through systematic oppression, about silenced women and trans men who won’t bear anymore the injustices and horrors they are being put through. It is a small act of defiance that roars where there once was a fearful silence, a scream of an identity that doesn’t want to be caged, that wants to be free of living.

In Victorian-era England, people with violet eyes have the power to commune with the spirits behind the Veil and the Royal Speaker Society regulates these practices, making them forbidden for women and anyone else they deem unfit. Silas Bell, an autistic trans boy, desperately wants to become a doctor and avoid marriage with a Speaker at all cost. But he is diagnosed with Veil-sickness, an alleged disease affecting violet-eyed women, and he is sent to an asylum, where he either becomes a compliant housewife or disappears.

I have read dark fantasy before but never horror, so this book was my first of this genre. It didn’t disappoint, but, quite the opposite, it was so good I couldn’t put it down. It is horrific, not just because of the surgeries described down to the last detail or the violence. No, the scariest part of this novel is that these horrors originate from systematic oppression, they are silently accepted by other people for that’s how the world has always been and would ever be. It is real, not sugar-coated history.

Despite the horrors, there is also so much hope and a love so tender it got me teary-eyed and brought me some comfort. Silas Bell is not the usual tough main character, he is soft but also smart and determined. I do not particularly enjoy reading books written in first person point of view, but this is an exception. It feels like the voice of a real person, with his own personality: this feeling is emphasized by the unique way it is narrated, with all the medical metaphors, as medicine, specifically surgery, is Silas’ special interest. His raw emotions seep through the pages, through the beautiful writing style they are written in.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is gut-wrenching, visceral, brutal. It takes your sanity and throws it out of the window. It punches you in the gut multiple times and you thank it for doing so.

It’s full of angry, murderous ghosts, and only a thin veil is blocking them from destroying everything.


Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for providing me with this ARC for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book is phenomenal but definitely not for the faint of heart. Horrifying in both its imagery and ties to actual historical events, this will repulse you, break your heart and heal it all over again. I’ve never read a story with more horror, more anger or more love

words can’t possibly describe how much i loved this. there was so much going on for a ya novel – the queer rep was absolutely delightful in general, but the way ajw reflected on trans experiences and the way trans men regard their own masculinity in relation to their bodies and how there’s so much about gender that has simply been imposed on us! i’m just so thrilled to see that there’s such high-quality ya out there and that many young peeps are gonna read this & feel seen & understood :’) i also loved the way it delved into the pathologisation of homosexuality & pretty much every little thing that women did & went out of the norm. plus the writing’s just stunning! i can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

After loving Hell Followed With Us, I knew I had to read everything else Andrew Joseph White wrote in future. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth has cemented this fact.

This book just flowed in a way no book has for me in a while. I barely felt like I was reading, it was just the act of consuming a story, of pleasantly drinking it up. It's not a light-hearted novel, the content warnings are certainly warranted, but it was so easy to read.

I loved Silas as an MC and Daphne as his LI. I especially loved the details of Daphne having got her name from Ovid's Metamorphoses. I also adored the historical details of mentioning James Barry.

Because this flowed so beautifully, I don't have much more to say. This was just beautifully written. I loved the trans rep, the t4t relationship, the autistic rep and the sapphic/lesbian rep in Mary & Frances. I loved the characters and character dynamics - especially Silas/Daphne and Silas & Isabella. All in all, a good book that I'd definitely recommend.

The only downside was just in the formatting of the eARC as sometimes the first word of a chapter came after the rest of that first sentence and there were also random black boxes that I couldn't quite discern the meaning of. I'm guessing maybe the pale ghost text was meant to be on those so that it was more readable (as pale grey on white isn't the clearest). Luckily I was able to read and understand the book still but I can see that being a potential accessibility issue - hoping that was just an eARC issue and won't carry over to the published eBook.

I could not put this book down!

Everything feels very put together from behind to end. The author had an idea in mind and he executed it wonderfully.

It’s really interesting to read about trans people in non-contemporary settings, same with autism, so you can imagine that I liked the mix!

It really felt that the author is both trans and autistic, because the representation of them both in the text felt very real, like an actual lived experience. But with more ghosts.

Speaking of the ghosts, the implementation of black pages to show their thoughts! So good!

I love that Silas comes to terms with himself through the book, despite the numerous attempts to make him conform to the model of a good aristocratic girl. And that it is contrasted by Daphne is marvelous.

The horror bits a gruesome, with anatomical language making them feel very objective and real. I also love that it works as a way to characterize Silas.

All in all a wonderful, horrifying story to read!

Andrew Joseph White did it again! he has a way of creating characters that you'll love and relate to from the first page. even tho i'm not a fan of horror, i loved this book so much!

thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I've been a fan of Andrew Joseph White for a little over a year now and he continues to amaze me with his insane storytelling abilities. This book is just perfect in every single way: horror, t4t romance, autistic representation, historical fiction. It's like Andrew looked inside my brain and new exactly what I wanted to read. I really hope he continues to write, because his books are perfect and so underrated.

Please read this if you get the chance and don't forget to read the content warnings on Andrew's website! Take care of yourself.

⭐️=4.25 | 😘=2.75 | 🤬=5 | ⚔️=5 | 17/18+

summary: set in faux-Victorian England where people have magic powers and can see into/interfere with the spirit world; trans autistic boy who wants to be a doctor is sent to (basically) an asylum/school meant to “fix” sick girls; girls go missing, spirits go haunting, men are disgusting, and it’s really difficult to read but so so good

thoughts: incredible. heart-breaking and terrifying and tragic but also a fascinating and salient discussion of the intersection between neurodivergency and gender identity. ugh. it’s really good. (also I’ll just note that genre labeling this is weird, because I guess technically it’s YA but I doubt there’s a teenager on the planet mentally stable enough to handle this.)

content note(s): like… everything. gore, sexual assault, trans and homophobia, mentions of rape, just Victorian men being gross and disgusting in general

This book was such a spectacular and visceral experience to read. 5 messy, gory, horrifying stars. I was glued to it from the very first chapter in an absolute chokehold. I think I am potentially still in shock from the whole thing honestly.

The horror of this story really exists on so many levels, and while the fantasy elements of it had its unsettling moments, I think the true horror lies in the historical aspects of it and the number of queer people and women who were subject to such unspeakable horrors and violations in the efforts to 'fix them'.

This story had an exceptional cast of complex characters who's successes you cheer for and villains who comeuppance you crave. Daphne and Silas made a lovely little safe port in the storm of this story and I feel myself grateful that these fictional characters were able to find themselves in each other.

I am (kindly) going to be throwing this book at everyone I know (who has a strong stomach cause of gosh).

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrew Joseph White, for the ARC of this and the opportunity to be able to leave my honest and uninfluenced review for this amazing book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for the eARC in exchange for honest review!

The Spirit Bares Its teeth was really good if you want to be absolutely horrified. I tend to be pretty prose-blind when it comes to most books, except in three cases: the writing is bad, the writing is too flowy for my taste, or the writing is superb. This book was the latter. I noticed the writing and word choice in a good way (and sometimes bad but it being bad was the point when Silas is describing the horrors of being trans in a magic cult in Victorian England). I thought Silas as a main character was very compelling, and I loved how him wanting to be a doctor and surgeon tied so well in with all the other themes in the book. The stakes were high, the pacing was snappy and kept me wanting to read more, and the side characters were hateable (and others loveable). This was pretty much everything I could want from a YA horror, which was really nice since I have a bad track record with the genre in the past and I don't usually like it very much.

4.5/5

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a t4t historical horror novel primarily about the medical experimentation on societal outcasts that while perhaps illegal are often encouraged and funded by well-regarded organizations under the guise of things like cure rhetoric and institutionalization.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth did a horrifyingly good job at representing the terrible truth of what it's meant historically to exist as we are in this world and the ways we find each other despite everything being against us.
I don't know that I'll ever be able to fully articulate what it means to read books from the perspective of trans and autistic protagonists. Having my own experiences reflected back to me in this book frequently brought me to tears.
The authors note included book recommendations for nonfiction titles about the history of medical experimentation that primarily impacted Black communities. As a disabled reviewer who has read both of these titles, I highly recommend reading these for further context on the history of medical experimentation.

After how much I loved Hell followed with us I was so excited to read The Spirit Bares its Teeth, and I was not disappointed!
Definitely heed the trigger warnings, as the gore and other heavy themes are quite explicit.
I immensely enjoyed the historical research that went into this - historical fashion and victorian medicine are great interests of mine, and this book does not disappoint in that regard. Any anschronisms are well tailored to the fantasy aspects of the world, making the whole story feel realistic in the given lore.
Also the way Autism and transness is handled and described without modern terms is so immensely well done.
I loved this book to bits and will definitely reread it once it's out.

As a reader, I am often fixated on seeking out books about and by trans men & transmasculine people, hoping that I’ll find little fragments of recognition in them. And honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever found as much of myself reflected back as in this book.

One aspect of this is that Silas, the protagonist, is autistic, and the way his autism is depicted feels incredibly real to me as a fellow autistic person. The descriptions of stimming, of autistic people being seen as unfeeling just because we express our emotions differently, of moulding yourself to behave in a certain way, the constant need to apologise after messing up a social interaction, his inner voice (the ‘rabbit) as a manifestation of his intrusive thoughts - just a few things that made me pause in recognition. What also stood out was this one heartwarming scene where Silas meets another autistic person and recognises a part of himself in another person - it was such a joyful and beautiful scene.

Another part of why I feel so strongly about this book are the visceral descriptions of surgery, anatomy and the human body woven through. Silas’ need to have a hysterectomy and to literally rip out the parts of himself that feel wrong is something I can very much relate to, down to the literal violence of it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone capture this in such a raw and unfiltered way.

My personal connections to this book’s subject matter aside, this book was a very enjoyable though intense read. The worldbuilding and supernatural elements were woven into the story seamlessly & the alternate history felt convincing. I wish we could have gotten to see a little more of this, but I also understand why it was beyond the scope of this book. What I also found interesting was the contrast between surgery and spirit-work in Silas’ eyes - surgery as something physical with fixed rules that feels right for him, versus spirit work as something that feels wrong, as if it shouldn’t exist.

I also really liked the character of Daphne, Silas’ transfemme love interest. She was strong in a completely different way to Silas and despite the fact that as a reader I didn’t get to spend a huge amount of time with her, I feel like her chracater and voice was fleshed out well. Their romance developed very quickly which in most cases I would call unconvincing, but in this case I would say that it worked - I can imagine that meeting another trans person after years of thinking that you’re the only one would lead to an intense connection, especially under ciscumstances such as these.

Speaking of relationships, one of my favourite aspects of the book was Silas’ relationship with his brother George - I can’t discuss it as much as I’d like in order to avoid spoilers, but the way their relationship developed captured well the conditional love trans & autistic people often receive from family and friends.

Overall definitely one of my top 3 books this year. I loved elements of Joseph-White’s Hell Followed With Us but it wasn’t quite a five star read for me, but The Spirit Bares Its Teeth took everything that I loved from Hell Followed and built on that. Thank you to Netgalley & Peachtree for an ARC of this! Incredibly excited that I got the chance to read this book early.

"This is what happens to people like me if we don't have the money for tutors, if we refuse to listen, if we don't have wombs that are worth the effort. He's scared. He's cornered. Like me."

THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH, at its core, is a tale of solidarity and strength.

Andrew Joseph White's second novel follows Silas, an autistic trans boy, and his gnashing battle with a world that attempts to shape his flesh as it deems fit—and how hard he fights to take control of his body and life.

Juxtaposing the times he claws his way out of the basement, painted with mangled wounds where stitching was torn back by scalpel, are the times in which he burrows his exhausted face in the neck of his lover.

Daphne was an exquisite character. She is a delicate, brave woman, with an adoration for Silas so genuine it made me weep. Every moment the pair shared was held in place by incorrigibly horrendous events that occurred both before and after, which only made the sweetness more bitter. Even so, the few specks of time in which solace was found in their shared company were perfect.

Silas's story is raw, tender down to the fragile bone. Every moment had me chewing my lip, clawing at my chest in an attempt to calm my racing heart. Every emotion was visceral, as bloody and brutal as the surgeries our ravenous protagonist performs.

"It distracts me for just long enough to make me laugh, and Daphne does too. Her eyes shine when she laughs. She's beautiful.

A beautiful thing. Here. I almost don't believe it."

as someone who also got an arc for hell followed with us (one of my favorite books of all time), i was very happy and overjoyed to also receive an arc for the spirit bares its teeth! but i’m going to start off by saying that this book is just…wow. absolutely phenomenal and i felt like i was right there with the characters the entire time.

one of my favorite things about this book was the descriptions of silas’s struggles with his masculinity while also maintaining an acknowledgment for his femininity. in other words, he put the feeling of gender dysphoria AND not wanting to lose your old self into WORDS. i’ve always had a hard time trying to decipher ways to tell people what it feels like to not be gender conforming (i, myself, am non-binary with a masc lean)… but the way the author did it in this book, especially with the time period making this topic extremely difficult, was absolutely insane. insane in a GOOD way. insane like i could never imagine seeing myself within a character the way i did with silas.

please read this book, it is amazing and i can’t wait to read more by andrew!

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!

This story did not disappoint. There are a lot of major themes that I was happy were represented such as transgender and neurodivergence. The fact that this was part historical fiction, part fantasy/magic, and part horror/gore was just simply delightful.

As a nurse the medical and surgery components were intriguing, especially because I am ALSO fascinated by these things. The character was very relatable regardless of gender identity and this book made me feel seen as far as being expected to “act” within certain rules.

Beautifully done, please check this out around Halloween season when it releases.

There are a lot of content warnings for this book in the beginning by the author himself, which was very much appreciated. It made me hesitant to read the book, but I decided to follow through. Silas is autistic and trans in 1883 London and can speak to the spirits due to the color of her eyes. Something happens and she winds up at a boarding school for girls just like her – and at the school, she is exposed to the spirits of past patients. The book wound up being very unique and intense, but do not read this book if you don’t like gore and descriptive narration in that genre; this is a dark and brutal read, but in a good way thanks to the author. The author also makes great use of the characters having voices, particularly the historically “different” ones (for instance, those in the LGBQ+ community).

I received this book from NetGalley and Holiday House/Peachtree/Pixel+Ink in exchange for an honest review.

I was so enthralled, it only took 4 hours to read this. I felt so close to Silas, the main character. AJW is writing about autism, and trans identity and abuse in poetic language, but it’s crystal clear what he’s getting at. The world he created is a fantasy setting but it is so grounded in history that it feels real.