Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Things with sharp teeth that are NOT in this book: vampires.

The prose in this book is beautiful and atmospheric, and the mystery had me hooked from the start. However, I found that the story's pitch set slightly different expectations; while there are queer moments and hints of romance, this isn’t primarily a queer book or a romance. The dynamic between Marin, Jamie, Henry, and Adrian centers on a compelling love triangle fueled by obsession, and I would’ve loved to see this play out over a longer time to deepen these connections. Though there were a few descriptive details that felt a bit unrealistic, this debut is still highly enjoyable. The characters, relationships, and plot were all intriguing, and I’d absolutely recommend giving this a try. I look forward to seeing what this author does next!

I tried really hard to like this book. The main character is probably one of, if not the only, best part of this novel. The other characters just annoyed the crap out of me and the whole fantasy element was not obvious and just plain confusing by the end.

3.5*

Boys with Sharp Teeth filled a void that had been empty since finishing The Raven Boys.

The crafting of the world and the characters was beautifully done, balancing humanity against fantasy.

Though the book doesn't have the strongest opening, and I'm not the biggest lover of love triangles, it was worth suspending disbelief and sticking with it.

I love boarding school books that involve murder and intrigue with a flair of magical realism in them. This one read like a dream; it was the equivalent of biting into something hard and crisp with a soft, melting inside. I love the fact that the main character is not who she says she is, hiding in an untruth to reveal the truth at the boarding school.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved the dark academia vibes of this books. The book was very atmospheric and I was very drawn in by the Raven Boys comparison. However, this is where things went downhill for me. There wasn't very much that happened and the characters fell flat. It felt like I was being told what was happening in a very direct manor and character motivations were told to the reader very bluntly instead of shown.

I also think that book overall was very far fetched from the start. The MC signs herself up to go to a fancy boarding school and writes a check that bounces and they still let her attend and live there? The premise in itself was bit much.

I was really looking forward to this book, it simply did not hit the mark for me. The cover art is super sick though.

This one is a really difficult one to rate! The prose was beautiful and atmospheric, I was hooked with the mystery, and I really loved Adrian and Henry's characters. I think this is going to be a huge hit and will be some the book of the year for a lot of readers. I do, however, think that the story's pitch left me with some mixed feelings because I went in expecting one thing, but got another.

BOYS WITH SHARP TEETH is unquestionably good. This book sinks its fangs into your soul from the very first page. I loved it obsessively, and you will, too.

I really appreciated that this was a dark academy that really dove into and utilized academia, not just the aesthetic. It reminded me of The Secret History — with that tension, close knit mysterious group, and outsider in their midst — but with an extra, paranormal sort of mystery layer added on. The writing was beautiful, almost literary leaning. I was completely in awe that this is the authors debut.

This book is 60% vibes, 25% characters, 15% wtf. I looooved the writing style and the dark academia vibes are solid. On the one hand, there are pretentious try hard edgelord teenagers. On the other hand, there are...pretentious try hard edgelord teenagers. They're interesting though! Everyone in school is obsessed with the blond bad boy (can bad boys even BE blond? is that allowed? feels wrong). He's the love interest..ish, his nickname is Graves, and he's kind of the nihilist blond boy version of Wednesday Addams but he plays the violin instead of the cello and is an artist. I found Henry the most compelling character even though he was a horribly manipulative unhinged evil disaster. At least he had a spark of anti-life. Graves was just there to brood and smolder and doodle and bleed. Baz as the last part of their trio just made me feel bad.

This book also kinda gave me slight The Covenant vibes? Except unfortunately we don't have Sebastian Stan kissing another boy. If you have hopes for some quality queerness between Graves and Henry, dash those. It's more tension-filled queerbaity vibes from 10ish years ago. Like that's fun to read? maybe? idk? but not truly gay so not truly that fun. Only Heterosexuals In The Building here. Even though Graves and Henry's relationship is the most romantic/interesting/toxic. I just wanted to point this out since I keep seeing this book tagged as LGBT, and as a queer myself, I do not feel that's accurate.

Immense suspension of belief is needed to get past how the MC Maren cons her way into a fancy prep school and somehow has a male roommate. There were separate dorms in my prep school and you'd get immediately expelled for "intervisitation", do not pass go, do not collect $200. But I'm fine with that, whatever, we're moving on. Maren's master plan to get back at the boy who killed her cousin, however, is to... steal his friends? Make him lonely? And that plan is actually somewhat working because they all instantly obsess over her, even after a single day?

I had some more questions. The four of them live in a tower on the same floor but can see through each other's windows? (Maybe my brain is just bad at architectural layouts)
Why was Graves running in the woods?
What was up with Henry and his death nap? Was he just hungry?

65% vibes!! Remember that since I keep forgetting while writing this review. It was poetic and atmospheric and a quick overall entertaining read, and I did love the good bad ending. I wish this had been stretched out into a series like The Raven Cycle.

Boys with Sharp Teeth is a truly atmospheric dark academia novel that makes you question EVERYTHING. I loved it!

And that ENDING?!

Read if you love:
Dark Academia
Paranormal
Murder Mysteries
PHILOSOPHY

While the premise seemed promising at first (enrolling at the school where beloved cousin died to avenge the people responsible) it was just too slow in moving along that I could not will myself to finish the book. Getting placed in a room in the senior floor as an underclassman and sharing a living area with the opposite gender? What kind of school would actually do that even in the modern era? And the MC's personality was really dry. Unfortunately a DNF for me.

I absolutely DEVOURED this book! I love dark academia and found this book to be very compelling, easy to become engaged and enraptured in given its setting and Howell's atmospheric writing. This book isn't necessarily a romance by any means (not that it's really being marketed as such, but I do think it's worth noting if people are drawn to it based off the cover (which, by the way, is stunning)); that being said, there is SO MUCH charged tension between our three MCs that I can definitely see people making their own inferences/headcanons while reading on whether said tension is rooted more in attraction or repulsion. I found this book to be such a delight and commend Howell on her debut work, as her writing style flowed beautifully and BwST is, overall, a very twisted & ambitious tale of obsession, revenge, power, and the razor thin line that exists between love and hate. Highly recommend and can't wait to read more of Howell's work in the future!

4.5 stars.

I kid you not, I read this within ONE DAY of being approved for it on NetGalley, and truly I would've read it in one sitting if I didn't care about my sleep schedule so much. Marin, Henry, and Adrian are the perfect combination of pretentious and raw, sinister and sweet. I was entranced by the relationship these three had, the way it danced from friendship to romance to something far deeper than either of those but a thousand times more menacing. The sheer toxicity of it all, and the careful threading of dynamics, had me zipping through pages right from the beginning. My only qualm: The author rightfully says that this book isn't queer, I would've loved to see on-page dissections of the queer undertones between Henry and Adrian, and Marin and Baz, because they undeniably exist. Other than that, this a wonderfully disturbing read that I'll be thinking about for a while.

Do heed the trigger warnings. There were several beautifully written, horribly disgusting scenes that followed me into my sleep, that could definitely be too much if I wasn't prepared for it. There are mentions of suicide, descriptions of dead bodies, self-harm, auditory and visual hallucinations, and some supernatural elements. Protect and listen to yourself while reading.

When I got the notification my request for the e-arc had been approved I genuinely screamed. I knew this was right up my alley as soon as I read the description so I pretty much spent months hyping it up in my head.

For the most part it lived up to those expectations, though it wasn’t without a rocky start.

To get to the good stuff you have to be willing to overlook the lack of realism quite a bit. I’m not gonna lie for about the first fifty pages I wasn’t sure I was going to like this because it required a suspension of disbelief I wasn’t sure I was capable of — and this coming from someone who can normally look the other way when things are “for the plot.” Even though I ended up liking the rest of the book I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me that Marin was SO easily able to infiltrate an elite boarding school with nothing more than a forged signature and fake printed test scores, no sort of background checks or anything. She’s also got a life she ran away from, and no one reported her missing for the weeks she was gone. Oh and, perhaps the most realistic of all, boys and girls share suites in this school. Realistically speaking, parents who are paying $23,000 tuition aren’t doing it because they want to see their daughters come home pregnant. And again realistically speaking, no boarding school where guys and girls share rooms wouldn’t be considered “elite” to begin with — even the worst college campuses usually have separate dorms.

There were also a few basic details in terms of establishing the setting that I think could have been added to make things easier for the reader to visualize. It’s established that Henry lives on the same floor as Marin, and she shares a room with Adrian while Henry shares a room with Baz. Somehow Henry and Marin can see each other from their rooms though and she can tell when the lights are on in there?? The thing is, there’s probably a clear explanation for how this is — we just aren’t given one. Even just a couple sentences describing the layout would have cleared things up completely. There were a couple smaller instances too where it’s so hard to imagine the room the characters are in that also could have been cleared up with a few small details.

The writing may have had an issue with a lack a clarification at times, but the style was gorgeous, especially considering this is a debut. It immediately sucks you in to the story, creating a gorgeous atmosphere that persists throughout. There were multiple times that I was so engrossed in the story I had no clue what was going on around me. In the end it has this fever dream quality to it, which is something I love as it is kind of similar to other books I really enjoyed in the past (for example Bunny by Mona Awad came to mind first).

I also really liked that this leaned into the more mature side of YA. I was a little scared that the story’s potential would be hindered by juvenile storytelling, but none of that was found here. It was just the right balance of the YA themes while still having mature topics and storytelling.

I want to talk about the characters so bad, because that was another thing that stood out here, but I don’t know how to do it without spoiling. So, all I’ll say is that I thought they all were very compelling and so were there dynamics, and I really enjoyed seeing all the different sides of them.

And in terms of romance, while they both were…interesting love interests to say the least, the better option was clear to me. And it wasn’t the guy I thought I would root for either.

When it comes to the ending, there were some minor flaws again in terms of believability. I’m pretty sure there’s no way people were looking for her but never found her when all she did was die her hair. Otherwise though I thought it was pretty fitting even though it didn’t work out for everyone I liked.

Overall, despite some flaws with descriptive details and realism, this was still an enjoyable debut. The characters, dynamics, plot and writing were all interesting so I would definitely recommend people give this a try. I would also definitely be interested in checking out any of this authors future work.


Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

🅞🅥🅔🅡🅐🅛🅛 🅡🅐🅣🅘🅝🅖: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The thing with being an arc reader is that you have no idea what to expect. Aside from the blurb, there’s nothing else to suggest whether you’ll like a book, especially when it comes to debut novels. Initially, I had hoped that Boys With Sharp Teeth would be a 5-star read. Instead, I’m here about to share my issues.

Had I known Boys With Sharp Teeth has paranormal elements, I would not have picked this book up. Paranormal has never been for me. You’ll either catch me reading full-on fantasy or contemporary. This is because I prefer detailed world-building with explanation for the fantastical elements. That didn’t happen here and I was disappointed.

My second pet peeve: I was forced to take philosophy classes at university and I absolutely hated every minute. Imagine my surprise when the only class our MCs consistently attend is philosophy. There’s nothing wrong with this plot point. In fact, I think it fits well. I just did not want to hear another Descartes discussion, let alone during my R&R (rest and relaxation).

As a whole, Boys With Sharp Teeth felt like pages on pages of filler. The characters dance incessantly around what they already know about themselves and each other. This book is endless banter. The back-and-forth remarks dragged on so long that the final reveal felt underwhelming. Essentially, the more I read, the less I cared.

Also, I couldn’t comprehend why Marin, aka Jamie, would be interested in either boy. To me, this isn’t a romance. Their relationship is dark and twisted and needy, but it’s not a romance. It’s an obsession. Plus, reading about all these wealthy kids wasting their lives and their parents’ money rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn’t enjoy myself because this isn't a story I want to be a part of.

Speaking of wealthy students in a small town, I need someone to explain to me how nobody noticed Marin entering a tight-knit environment. Am I expected to believe that everyone would accept Marin’s story? How did the school administration allow this to happen? As someone who attended a small, private high school, I can guarantee you that more people would be questioning who the new girl is and where she came from.

I never feel right about leaving my reviews on a negative note, so here’s who I would recommend Boys With Sharp Teeth to:
– dark academia fans
– anyone interested in small-town secrets
– readers who love when morally-gray is pushed to the limits

Bottom line: Boys With Sharp Teeth feels like a fever dream.

What in the haunted Donna Tartt did I just read? No. Wait. That isn't right. What I just wrote implies a proficiency (to say nothing of craftsmanship) that was not...That isn't what we're dealing with here.

This book has a lot of beautiful writing in it, I highlighted a lot of quotes. It reminds me of the college I went to and gave poet society vibes. Plot wise I don’t think much happened but I’m giving the stars for how pretty the writing was

What a darkly twisted tale of power, obsession, and revenge. A story uniquely its own, Boys With Sharp Teeth will keep you on edge and leave you feeling off-center until the very last page.

This book definitely has the dark atmosphere and all the fall vibes ! The characters are brooding and mysterious. This book is comparable to the raven boys series. It was not written in a style I enjoy ? I will recommend it to the people who do enjoy this type of style of book overall it was a good time.

A dark academia for the philosophical folks, Boys with Sharp Teeth is a twisted story of delusion, obsession, love, hate and more. Jenni's writing is a gem to those looking for a dark academia that hits every mark, her style so easily capturing the spiralling obsession of our main quad and how they almost luxuriate in their own egos. We're reading a story infused with lies, unreliable in narration and constantly shifting in surety. It keeps you on your toes, wondering if you're reading a story of paranoia or the paranormal as everything we're being told becomes suspect.

Jenni Howell is a talent soon discovered and an author I cannot wait to see flourish, as I'm sure many will become just as enthralled with this one as I.