*4,5
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a horror book set during the Victorian era in London.

I am currently struggling to formulate coherent sentences because thoughts are jostling in my head. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth different than any other book I’ve ever read. I started this book not really knowing what it was about and expecting nothing. It turned out to be a gripping and visceral page turner. It is definitely one of the most memorable books I have ever read.

The author depicts flawed and realistic main characters that endure too much despite their young age. Reading about what they go through will make you sad and uncomfortable and make your heart tighten.

Pacing wise, the story was perfect. It was neither too slow nor too fast, easily keeping you hooked till the end.

To sum up, this story blew me away and had me staring at the wall. I recommend it if you’re looking for your next gruesome read.

Wow, wow, wow. This book had me on edge! Definitely not an easy read but I still read it in two days. This is my first time reading Andrew Joseph White and he did not disappoint. The writing was beautiful, the world building was amazing and the Gothic atmosphere was well done. I would highly recommend reading the trigger warnings online before picking this up.

i knew going into this book that it was going to be bloody and disgusting, and it was, but in a way that made it impossible to stop reading.

the spirit bares it’s teeth is based around an autistic transmasc mc who has been forced to be the perfect daughter/wife. eventually he is sent to a school for “sick girls”, and realises just how cruel the men running it are.

one thing i particularly enjoyed in this book (and also in hell followed with us) is despite the mc being a trans man, you still see how being raised and perceived as a girl affects him. silas is not cruel like most of the other men, but instead someone men are cruel to. there’s also discussions on what masculinity really means, and if it is always linked to violence.

the girls at the school were all compelling characters themselves, and i truly rooted for them all (even charlotte, who only wants to please the men)

i highly recommend this book, but please check tws!

// I want to stitch together a person’s body, not dissect their soul. //

This book promises to be gross and include trans people and oh does it deliver! I read Hell Followed With Us at the end of the last year and looooved this author’s style, and I knew I’d want to read everything else they’d written, too! I love body horror elements and the way they portrait everything. The writing is haunting and raw. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth had my heart pounding from the start to the end and it was a gut-wrenching read I’ll be digesting for a while.

Silas is a tortured protagonist, but by the people around him and his own self. Despite his circumstances in the book, he’s managed to grow into himself firmer, and I’ve loved the questions he’s posed throughout the book (“Am I misplacing comfort for love? Does it matter?”, what is it that defines masculinity and manhood and, in contrast, femininity and womanhood, etc.) I’m honestly not sure how to put the way I’ve related to him in proper words without spoiling anything, but Silas doesn’t only battle with those around him but himself as well, poses questions and gives answers according to his situation, and acknowledges that things within him change with external force as well.

The novel is a haunted house, and it’s fitting that the setting is a haunted house too! There is some worldbuilding, although I was honestly more fond of the different characters he came across and I’d love reading more about any of them, but especially of him and Daphne.

This was a horrible, horrifying read that I enjoyed so much that I’m afraid it’ll put me in a reading slump. I loved it!

I don't know that I have the vocabulary to properly explain how I feel this book, or even celebrate it. Don't get me wrong it is painful, it is gruesome, it is vile, it can and will fill you with such rage. And yet, it is undeniable how desperately I needed to read this book. As much as this book is a horror masterpiece, it is also a reminder of queer historical perspectives. I recommend this book to my fellow trans siblings who are full of anger and fear, to all of those who have a scream residing deep inside of them, that can't be let out. This book feels like a primal scream after being backed into a corner, painful and agonizing, and yet full of relief, like weight has been taken off your shoulders. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy and annotate and let my tears hit the pages. I truly loved this book.

Just a quick note about some of the more painful moments to warn anyone. There are many horrifying elements (it is a horror book), but body horror, body dysmorphia, and transphobia is a big part of the book, if that is triggering for you please don't read and/or keep that in mind.

If I wanted to describe this book in a word, it would be violent. Everything from the characters, the horrifying plot the descriptions, the way it made me feel. It's very rare that I read books about people like me, queer and autistic, and I treasured this book as I devoured it.
I found solace in Silas worldview, and found myself nodding alone when he was talking about human biology and experiencing the world in black and white.
I found the romance to be VERY rushed, but I understood how those characters bonded so fast by being similar.
I really loved the descriptions, the horrors, the gore. I would have loved more world building though, at many points in the book the violet-eyes aspect seemed pretty unessecary and easily replaceable with the old good trope of ghosts just lurking around. I want to know more about this alternate england.
And of course I have to mention, how the book depicts womanhood. Even though the protagonist is trans, he doesn't detest it, and instead the narrative celebrates women, their endurance, bravery and rage. Overall, it was a haunting read that I'll remember and recommend.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! 
I greatly enjoyed The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. It was a raw and emotional read. (I'm pretty sure I was crying for 50% of it.)
I absolutely loved Hell Followed With Us, so I was ecstatic to get to read The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. It is safe to say my expectations were high, and this book did not disappoint.
It was fast-paced and had an interesting plot. The characters were all unique, and I wanted to get to know them all! The mystery and horror were fantastic and had me on the edge of my seat. 
There were many graphic and raw descriptions, and this book was simply very honest. The mystical fantasy aspect spiced it up, but it definitely wasn’t as well fleshed out as it could’ve been. Compared to the rest of the book, the spirits and mediums felt irrelevant and put on the back burner. 
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is definitely one of my favorite reads of 2023 so far. I am anxiously awaiting more books from this author.

"If violet-eyed men are a gift from God, violet-eyed women are an unfortunate side effect. We are prized for giving our husbands violet-eyed sons and hated for our weakness of mind. For us to tamper with the dead will make us unstable, unfit, dangers to ourselves and others."

Silas is stuck. Stuck as someone he doesn't want to be and in an inescapable culture full of expectations he is terrified of having to live through. He has never fit in, being forced to deal with unforgiving parents and tutors who do nothing but tell him how wrong he is for feeling the way he does or by acting the way he does. Silas is forced to live a lie as a violet eyed woman, destined for nothing more than a loveless marriage and birthing children, but Silas would rather escape than be something he is not.

The range of emotions I felt when I devoured this book in just over 3 hours because I couldn't. put. it. DOWN. was indescribable. I felt desolation. I felt righteous anger. I cried. I squealed with glee. I said "No" to myself more times than I could count at every wrong turn for Silas.

It's hard to describe too much of what Silas goes through in this book without spoiling too much content, but I will say that the content & trigger warnings should not be ignored. I wasn't expected some of the body horror and I should have taken the warnings more seriously, even as a YA novel.

I hope that Andrew continues to write and shed light on the misogyny that gender non-confirming people struggle with on a daily basis, not to mention the ableism that is also an indescribable fight for neurodivergent people.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth was inspired by Victorian England's sordid history of labeling certain people "'ill" or "other" to justify cruelty against them.
I knew to expect to be shocked, repulsed, and horrified. And boy, did this deliver. Visceral and shuddering, the horror didn’t come from the haunting aspects, but the acts of humanity.

If violet-eyed men are a gift from God, violet-eyed women are an unfortunate side effect. We are prized for giving our husbands violet-eyed sons and hated for our weakness of mind. For us to tamper with the dead will make us unstable, unfit, dangers to ourselves and others.

Silas is engaged against his will, always seen as wrong and different due to his ‘peculiarities’. These would include society’s view of anti-autistic ableism, his being born in the wrong body and transphobia, and the need to control women and ensure their subservience and men’s dominance and superiority.
He tries to escape but is unsuccessful which ultimately leads to him being placed in a school to ‘cure’ his ‘sickness’ which is blamed on woman’s weakness and incapability to handle the veil.

White’s writing at times reads like poetry. Just pure emotion or rage fuelling pages of cutting prose. This should be required reading for our new society attempting to understand and empathise with what we are not familiar with. Saying that, there are quite a few TWs, including abuse, violence, sexual assault, miscarriage etc.

I hope this books inspires other authors and publishers to write about these issues. To give their experiences a voice. Reading the portrayal of autism was so touching to me and it felt brutally raw and honest.
At times it felt like the author was ripping into their heart, cleaving out their feelings to give us a much needed book.

We are the same species. We're all human. It's not that people cannot understand me; it's simply that most of them don't want to.

I originally just planned on reading just the first chapter of this to see if I liked it, and here I am five hours later writing this review after devouring this book. From the writing style to the plot itself, this book is captivating. Silas is a fantastic MC, and I love how his relationship with Daphne grows throughout this story. I also thought every character was so well crafted. I'm a big horror fan, so even though I was surprised by the amount of body horror in this YA novel, I thought it was very well done. You don't need to love horror to appreciate the brilliance of this novel though. It is beautiful, brutal, and filled with queer rage, and I loved every second of it.

I haven't read Andrew Joseph White's other book, Hell Followed With Us, but it's now officially at the top of my list.

Big thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

I’ve been counting down the days to the release date since I binge read Hell Followed With Us, so I’m thrilled that I got to read The Spirit Bares its Teeth on Netgalley. This was easily my most anticipated read of the year, and it exceeded every expectation I had. I’m going to read this several more times and get a copy.

This was horrifying, I was nauseous, and I loved this story so much. I’m so glad this book exists, and I can’t recommend it enough. This isn’t an easy read though, so please check out the trigger warnings before you grab a copy.

https://andrewjosephwhite.com/content-warnings%3A-tsbit

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!

I’m not sure I can say I “enjoyed” this book in the usual sense, as it is filled with graphic and disturbing scenes, but it was a very good book. This is the first time, I think, that I’ve read a book with an openly autistic main character, which is one of the things that caught my interest in the first place. The author does a good job of showing Silas’s struggles in a neurotypical and patriarchal world, as he is also a transgender boy who is still viewed as a “girl” who needs to be fixed.

A horrible, heartbreaking, but amazing book. The Spirit Bares It’s Teeth is absolutely disgusting, but I loved it.

As a person who has experienced the world as a woman, as an autistic person, and as a trans person, this book hit all the rough spots. It made me sob my eyes out because I could relate to the experience of the main character so much, and it hurt to see myself like that. And even though it hurt a lot, it was incredible. I could finally see a character who is similar to me, which just made me love this book even more.

Of course, I also loved the story itself. It’s incredibly well written, and it made me gag and cry at times. There were moments just so disgusting that I had to stop reading, and I personally really like that in a horror novel (these moments usually made me cry too).

I adored the blossoming relationship between Silas and Daphne as well. The way they found each other wasn’t great, but what they got out of it is amazing. I’m so happy to see two trans people in love and trying to heal together. I hope they get their revenge.

Rating: 4,25

So after Hell Followed with Us was an absolute banger, I highly anticipated the new book by the author. I still can't believe I got an arc of it.

But to the review we go - this book is very different in the vibe than the previous one. The post-apocalyptic landscapes are replaced with a historical setting, high society, and mediums. Our main character, Silas, is one such medium, but he has the misfortune of being born a woman. Women with purple eyes - a trait distinguishing those who can interact with the Veil from other people are used only to marry and birth children. For Silas, who knows he is a boy and is also autistic, fitting into the image of a good, obedient wife is a nightmare. When he fails his only attempt at getting out of the arranged marriage prepared for him by his parents, he is sent to Braxton - a school for women with Veil sickness, that supposedly drives them mad. But is the illness real or just another way to control those who misbehave?

This book is messed up. Like, seriously messed up. Sure, there is graphic gore and body horror but the real messed up part is the system Silas finds himself to be a part of. He and the girls of Braxton can either submit and let the cis men control them or disappear from the school never to be heard from again. Both of those options seem like a death sentence but how are you supposed to fight if nobody who could do something is on your side? Throughout the book, we are accompanied by dread and helplessness. Every time a character does something out of the line, the tension reaches its peak. You fear what will happen if they get caught. You are afraid for them even if they aren't doing anything that's considered wrong. Desperation leads Silas to consider terrible things many, many times. This is a story about young people who fight the system not out of their own choice, but out of the lack of it. In many cases, succumbing means death or suffering either way, so it's better to go down fighting.

I really liked Silas as the main character. He was terrified and anxious and he had every reason to be. He was also strong and smart and I really loved how his passion for medicine made him act calm and collected, because it was something he had confidence in. The rest of the characters, however, didn't seem that fleshed out. It's clear that Andrew Joseph White is more of a plot author than a character author and I know this is how many people love their books, but unfortunately, I prefer character-driven stories. This is a personal preference but to me, the rest of the characters seem to just be there. Daphne, for example, didn't have much going on outside of being Silas' love interest. The characters were okay, just not very memorable to me and I had the same book with the author's other book.

When it comes to worldbuilding, it was a bit messy at the time and I didn't feel like it was explained that well but I vaguely understood it, so it didn't pose a problem for me. I really like real historical settings with magical elements and this story fits perfectly into that description. It has mediums and ghosts and people who put all that magic under their strict societal rules. What else is there to want?

The writing style flowed very well and there were a lot of lovely quotes that I wanted to highlight. I love how Andrew's writing can go from profound lines to visceral gore in no time.

All in all, I think this book is another great success by this author and he is slowly becoming an auto-buy author for me. The grips I had with it were mostly based on personal preferences and I'm sure a lot of people out there are not gonna mind them. I do recommend checking the trigger warnings before going into this one because it is raw and heavy and touches upon many topics that can be upsetting or triggering.

did someone say queer feminist victorian asylum novel with ghosts?

i believe in queer characters who should be kept away from sharp objects and have a homicidal streak supremacy. and angry ghosts. really angry ghosts.

i was so lucky (i sold my soul to the devil) to get an arc of this wonderful book, after i had gotten an arc of andrew joseph white’s debut, hell followed with us, last year. meaning my expectations were set high.

this book is an exploration of society’s need to ‘cure’ those who refuse to fall in line and victorian-era psychiatry as tools of oppression, told through the perspective of an autistic trans boy, silas. it takes place in a victorian england, where the veil between the living and the dead is thinning, and those with purple eyes are able to communicate with spirits.

this book was at times frustrating to read – how painful it is to read about something as true as the treatment of people, especially women, in the psychology field. how easy it is to put yourself in the shoes of people who dared show more emotion than allowed, who society deemed had to be fixed in order to become the perfect wife or, what they considered, a normal person. how easy it is to imagine the fear and exasperation they must have felt, knowing they would have to be broken down into pieces in order to be cured, and that no one believes them – they are simply mad. the way the fictional ‘veil sickness’ is described hits extra hard, because it relates to things like female hysteria and lobotomies and doctors with no real knowledge of what they’re doing, actively harming people in the name of research or rehabilitation. how bitter it feels to read about men thinking they can take and destroy what they like, because they believe they own everything.

and how angry this made me feel. the dehumanisation described made me want to just jump into the book and slap certain characters.

because the characters feel so real.

the characterisation is extremely well done – the main character, silas’, personality and interests influences the writing style and metaphors used. silas is an autistic trans boy and his special interest is surgery, so that means that the story is told through this surgical lens – he has a very clear voice.

your honour, he is real to me.

the side characters also shine through, with their own and very distinct personalities. i am absolutely obsessed with how real these characters felt, which allowed me to have shifting opinions about them – how fierce my love for certain characters is, and how fierce my hate for others is.

having already read hell followed with us, i have been searching for a character as relatable as benji. boy did i find it!

listen,

listen!

i was highlighting a passage on every page, just sitting there telling my invisible audience just how me this screamed. in ways this is a very dark book, tackling serious issues. it’s heartbreaking and frustrating and disgusting. it takes place in an alternate victorian england, far from modern society, but still, in the midst of this and despite the distance, the main character hits closer to home in a way none other character has ever done.

and i think it is so important that readers get to see reflections of themselves in the books they read.

this book had some extra insane and emotional scenes and i can’t wait for the world to see them, so we can scream about it together. (*that* scene).

i truly don’t know what kind of witchcraft is going on, because white’s books always have the most stunning covers with the best titles.

having now read two of white’s books, i knew a bit what to expect from this book – the characterisation, the unmistakable writing style, the body horror (one of the best subgenres of horror imo), the fierce characters and strong themes – which is why, with only two released books, he stands strong as one of my favourite authors (he just knows how to write horror – the genre wouldn’t exist without its transgressiveness, and he gets that), and i can’t wait for what he releases in the future.

thanks to netgalley for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

cw: graphic violence, sexual assault, medical gore, transphobia, ableism, medical abuse

I don't even know where to begin with this review, because this book was incredible! It had all of my favorite aspects of horror: ghosts, gore, terrible people, and medical history.

Silas is an incredible MC, and I loved being inside of his mind. The way he thought of everything from a medical side was fascinating because of his main goal to be a trained surgeon. Being diagnosed with Veil Sickness reminded me a lot of Hysteria from medical history, so it was really fun to read White's depiction of female's being "treated" aka studied and made to believe they're crazy. I really wish we got more background on the Headmaster and his wife - that would be fun short story.

Silas' relationship with his brother George was heartwarming at first, and then the plot twist!? Where is George after the ending!?

Daphne is such a sweet partner to Silas, and I was a little hesitant when they first met, but she was the support system that Silas needed and I am so thrilled they found each other!

I cannot wait to buy this book for a few friends for Christmas - yes I am already adding it to my gift lists.

Thanks NetGalley and PeachTree for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Fantasy Horror that immediately haunts you in the best way, sucking you in to the world and refusing to let go as you turn for “just one more page, just one more chapter” to see what comes next.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is about girls, transphobia and ableism. It’s about men and friendships and family and death. It’s about forging your future, when the world is against you, about screaming, punching, fighting your way out because that’s the only option left. It’s about murder. Rape. Monsters who aren’t very different from the ones we see today. This book is about how society sees those who are different from the standard mold, especially the actions of privileged, cis men. I would say this book handles much more serious topics than Hell Followed With Us, and to a much larger extent, so please, please, keep that in mind while reading.

As a transmasc autistic teen (not to mention a big history lover), I loved The Spirit Bares It’s Teeth. It WAS very heavy at times, and I found myself having to put it down and physically walking away so it wouldn’t get too overwhelming.The prose was lovely, as well as the description. Unlike in Hell Followed With Us, I felt like I could actually get to know all the characters and their personalities, despite the large cast, and of course, my little classics heart was always bound to love Daphne, with our shared love of Ovid. The plot took a while to take place, but when it did, it moved quickly with its high stakes. The worldbuilding was solid enough, perhaps a little vague at times, but the historical snippets of informations was really fun to read. THE BLACK PAGES!! I loved the stream-of-consciousness style in the black pages which makes sense, when you think about it, and I don’t know what it was about it, but my heart was thumping and three times the rate whenever I came across any of them. And Silas. I loved Silas, with his careful, medical gaze, and the rabbit metaphor. I loved how I could see myself to closely mirrored in his character, how his freedom almost felt like my own.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a swirling potion of deep purples and blood red, the type that shimmers when you get near it, ready to bite bite bite and not let go until it has consumed your entire being. The only type of parasite you would ever want.

Thank you netgalley & Peachtree Teen for providing me with an earc of this.

I wasn't sure if i was interested in it at first because I'm not usually a horror reader but the more i heard about it the more i wanted to read it. So i requested the arc.
Hell followed with us is definitely going up on my tbr .

This book was visceral, saddening & difficult at part but amazing. This was everything i wanted, and everything i didn't know i wanted. It was just amazing.

The rawness of the mc and haunting story keep me engaged for all of it. The writing style helps give the bring life to the voice of the mc which is disgusting, hopeful and overall unique. I loved him so much.
Really enjoyed the spirit bares it's Teeth and definitely recommend but check trigger warnings

Holy hell.

This book.

After Andrew Joseph White's first book, this was already one of my most anticipated of 2024 and he blew it out of the fucking water.

And boy did this book make me feel seen in a way I think I'll be trying to put into words for some time.

White somehow manages to weave a beautiful, hopeful, absolutely disgustingly horrifying narrative that intersects and interrogates issues of women who are seen only as women, and women who are seen as men, and men who are seen as women, and medical abuse and ableism, and bodily autonomy, and intersections of multiple identities, and so much more. The way he allows his characters to feel their rage so viscerally on the page is incredibly cathartic and will be lifesaving for so many teens (and honestly people of all ages who read his book).

I was also so excited as well to be able to read White's first book with an openly autistic MC, and uh, yeah. Wow did I identify with so much of Silas' experiences there. At this point, that was not a surprise to me, but definitely some really powerful and needed validation.

Honestly, I'm mostly sitting here on the porch, having devoured this book in just a few hours, sitting mostly speechless as I try to capture the power of this book in these few paragraphs. All I know is that I won't possibly be able to do it justice, but I'm so incredibly glad this book exists and I hope it gets every bit of attention it deserves.