This book unfortunately did not live up to my expectations. There was not a lot of depth to the characters or storyline or writing. The main plot line was very unbelievable and nothing about this situation seemed realistic.

DNF @ 43%

I really loved the themes of revenge, dark academia, and close knit friend groups but unfortunately I could not get into the writing. It felt overly dramatic and distracted from letting me follow the plot. I was also a bit bored- things were happening but none of them felt like they advanced the mystery of why Marin's cousin died. There were a lot of things I can see readers being interested in- the commentary on class was interesting, and I liked the sense of place but I could not get into this!

I had high hopes for this book, but it was just ok. Too many cliches and unlikable characters. I think it will appeal to some teens, but many will find it dry.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Roaring Brook Press for the digital ARC of the debut “Boys with Sharp Teeth” by Jenni Howell.

I was a little skeptical over this book since it was compared to “The Raven Boys” (which I didn’t like) but the premise was enough to compel me to request the book - I had to see for myself.

The big downside for me was it felt like it was following a lot of cliches and myths about boarding schools - the conditions are not realistic to what you would see at a typical boarding school for teens… you would not see the excessive partying and drinking exhibited here, or being able to leave campus outside of specified times - unless you’re at Andover or something.

Overall I think I enjoyed “Boys with Sharp Teeth” - I have a weakness for the dark academia vibe books, and books that reference Shakespeare. I also found the lengths we will go due to grief and the need to vengeance interesting. - Although when it comes to Marin/Jamie infiltration and vengeance, she doesn’t exactly do the best job accomplishing this since she’s so incredibly naive; it feels like she was only able to truly accomplish this with Graves' assistance. The only characters that I really found tolerable were Graves, since he was a more complex character, and possibly Baz… but she was very one dimensional.

Overall, I liked the atmosphere that the book created, and I can definitely see the appeal.

3.5/5

Where to start..
That cover instantly pulled me in. I don't think I've seen a more gorgeous cover.
I was so excited I got this arc, I was ready to be served revenge at an elite prep school but the plot got lost somewhere because I found myself less intrigued and more confused than anything. There was just so much going on, the prose was written beautifully but it was hard to follow everything. You also have to suspend belief for this one despite having a paranormal element. It's just not believable how Marin was able to infiltrate the academy.

One of the biggest problems for me is I disliked all the characters, especially Marin who we are supposed to sympathize with. Her cousin was murdered and these elite students most likely had something to do with it. But then solving her cousin's murder stopped being as important? I also wanted more romance, it was like a crumb and I wanted to see it explored more.
Overall, it was ok, I finished it, still wanted to see what happened and the ending did catch me off guard because I was not expecting that. I just wish less telling, more showing and certain points were fleshed out more.

Read this if you are into
Murder Mystery
Forbidden Love
Dark Academia Setting

Thank you Netgalley, and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. This was DELICIOUS. I loved every minute of it. It was the perfect blend of my favorite enemies-to-lovers tropes, it was dark an gothic, and even though the characters were written to be unlikable.. I loved them??

A gothic tale which would appeal to YA readers!

I was initially very excited to start this, and I loved the beginning. but it just fell short. All the characters were quite unlikeable and the plot was confusing and I just couldn't follow it very well. I still didn't hate it, but definitely dashed a couple high expectations.
The writing was nice though, and I enjoyed some of the phrasing Howell used.

Overall, it was difficult but interesting, so if you're a fan of gothic and dark academia vibes (and can look past some less than favorable characters) then you might really enjoy this!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan for the ARC copy!

This book is certainly for someone, but it sadly wasn’t me. The concept itself was interesting, but overall I found myself frustrated and confused.

This was such a good dark academia novel! There was mystery, suspense, twists and turns, and it had some morally grey characters with different motives.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

First, thank you, NetGalley for this ARC. Boys with Sharp Teeth was probably my most highly anticipated ARC and I was literally giddy when I got the notification that I was getting it.

I’m torn between giving this book two stars and three stars because genuinely it kept me interested enough to want to keep reading but I also stayed pretty confused and I did not like a single character. Marin, to me, was massively unlikable. She came into Huntsworth to find out the truth about her cousins death but spent most of the book refusing to acknowledge any of the truth and going with her preconceived assumptions about Adrian.

Jenni Howell’s writing flowed nicely and was poetic in a gothic sort of style. It was easy to want to continue reading because of her writing style.

I was most excited for a paranormal, revenge romance and unfortunately I got none of that. The romance is basically nonexistent because it’s covered up with resentment and hatred. The paranormal really doesn’t start to come into play until you’re already 50% into the book.

Thank you, Children's Publishing Group | Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley, for my ARC of Boys with Sharp Teeth. This book had me on the edge of my seat and gave me goosebumps. Everybody will enjoy it.

This book was very intriguing, and something that I would have made my entire personality as a teenager. I thought the beginning was intriguing, and the end left me thinking for days afterward. However, the middle fell a little bit flat for me. I found my mind wandering elsewhere and then completely losing parts of the plot. I think I was probably meant to feel more scandalized than I was (like I said, 15 year old me would have eaten this up!).

The gritty and evocative writing in Boys with Sharp Teeth is notable but I felt the story simply didn't feel fresh.

Readers follow Marin James as she infiltrates an elite school to avenge the recent death of her cousin. With a fresh look and an airtight backstory, she begins to navigate the dark and dangerous world of Huntsworth Academy. There she will meet friend and foe and quickly learn that she herself might be just as dangerous as the murderers she's come to kill.

I was taken with the lyricism of the writing, it's philosophical and intimate. I just felt that in a world laden with dark academic stories, this one was wasn't a standout. I enjoyed my time reading it but I do think it will quickly be forgotten.

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

got me interested at the first 40% of the book, and then it went downhill at the last 60%, which i was bored so much that i read it very slowly 😭

there's a love triangle happening (i mean, what do you expect from the cover?) there's also some unhinged moments that i want to read it again.

at least there's a romantic tension between these two characters i ship, that we didn't get more moments with them (and yep, i was rooting for them) 😞

nonetheless, great debut from jenni howell (and i love how the author mentioned maggie stiefvater at the acknowledgments page 🥹)

This book invoked a lot of different emotions for me. The story itself is a kind of dark academia with a horror twist. I wouldn’t say there’s a strong romance element in the book more so a light taste of it. I will say this book for me was written in a way that was eerie but somehow almost poetic at the same time. I had a feeling of wanting to slowly read to savor it all but then also speed read at the same time! There were a couple part that I felt I needed to reread to follow the plot lines but I don’t feel that took away from the story as a whole. If you are a fan of creepy/eerie stories that don’t give you the warm and fuzzies then I would say hop on board this train because it’s a wild ride!

Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell follows Marin James as she deceptively enrolls herself into a prestigious boarding school to investigate and avenge her cousin’s death. Under the alias of Jamie Vane, Marin befriends the three people she believes may be responsible for Sam’s murder–Adrian “Graves” Hargraves, Basille “Baz” Hallward, and Henry Wu. Jenni Howell writes a plot filled with philosophical horror and romance that takes us deep into the psyche of these characters while unraveling the mysteries within the walls of Huntsworth Preparatory Academy.

If you have not read Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes, I highly recommend reading it in conjunction with this book. The way Howell weaves and mirrors Descartes’ philosophy into her novel is fascinating. Most people know Descartes for the quote, “I think, therefore, I am”. While Howell’s novel touches upon that, it also explores Descartes’ view of duality with absolute brilliance. The idea that the mind exists independent of the body is an elusive concept for humans to grasp. Boys with Sharp Teeth is a haunting, artistic interpretation of this abstraction that makes Descartes’ thoughts easier to conceptualize.

Jenni Howell writes a story of emotional vampirism, and in some ways this is much heavier and darker than your traditional vampire book. Even though this is paranormal fiction, the author still explores critical, real-world themes that are relevant today. She explores classism, the disparity of educational opportunities between socioeconomic classes, living with chronic illness, the opioid epidemic, and mental health.

Boys with Sharp Teeth is a complex fever dream, but it truly makes you think. As an example, the author points out that two things can be true at the same time due to the fine lines that exist between extremes–the line between love and hate, between good and evil, between life and death, between what is real and what is not, etc... This idea interwoven with the plot pushes readers to embark on a philosophical journey to understand the heart of her story. I love this approach, and think it is a really great technique to engage readers.

“How would you know? What if the liar has no predictable tells? If lying presents the exact same way as truth? Is there, then, any measurable difference between a lie and the truth? Every single one of you could be lying right now, and we wouldn’t know.”
- Jenni Howell, Boys with Sharp Teeth

Thank you to NetGalley, Roaring Brook Press, and Jenni Howell for allowing me to read this copy in advance in exchange for my honest review.
This book is scheduled to release on April 8, 2025.

I enjoyed this book! The titular boys with sharp teeth - Henry is a sociopath and Graves is Ronan coded. Dark academia fans, particularly those who enjoyed The Atlas Six, would probably like this one.

My nitpicks:
I feel like the set up was a bit contrived… the fake check.
I also feel like the timeline was odd as well, all this just in a couple of weeks?
The school felt very small because the focus was on Marin/Jamie, Henry, Graves, Jamie and some teachers/admin along with stereotypical mean girl Victoria (very little page time).

I enjoyed the philosophical debate and musings. The prose is gorgeous. I feel like the supernatural elements could have been weaved into the first 50% a bit more because it got crazy towards the ending. I’m team Graves but I like both.
I didn’t realize I had this many nitpicks because this was a fast and enjoyable read. 4 stars.

I'm sure this book is for someone, but it certainly was not for me. I'm sorry to say it, but it felt like a wannabe Secret History with tarot cards and a haunted mirror. I just really didn't understand or like any of the characters, and the plot didn't feel cohesive. None of the characters' decisions made sense to me, and the main character was awful at pretending to be Jamie. I thought she was supposed to hate all her peers, but she drifts between loving and hating them every page. This was a very strange and not very sensical read for me.

I read the ebook along with the audiobook, and it appears the audiobook is a later version/draft of the story, which I did prefer to the ebook version. The narrator was good, but I'm confused why we only heard the southern accent once...but that is likely just a detail I missed.

I do think if you enjoy YA dark academia mixed with paranormal elements, a murder mystery, and complicated relationships, this could be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook and audio ARCs!

I have no idea what even was going on in this book. She knows from the beginning who was responsible for murdering her cousin. But there is a paranormal element here which convolutes it a lot. You have to suspend a lot of reality here (what school allows coed rooms in high school?).

I’ll admit, I was very excited for this one, the cover is gorgeous, the tagline is intriguing. I was definitely hooked in the beginning, it’s this murder mystery and secret identity vibe— that’s so cool!

But then I felt a bit lost. Perhaps this book was simply just not for me, though I’d be willing to give it another try.

For the general plot line we have Marin who becomes Jamie to attend an elite boarding school. She believes that the people who killed her cousin are in said school and she’s going to find out everything and anything she can. There she meets the three people that were with her cousin the night he died: Baz, Henry, and Graves.

I did like the complexity of the characters, the air of mystery around them. The dark academia vibe was definitely there, but I’d say the romance was a bit more of a subplot, as there were much bigger themes and elements.

To sum it up: high hopes, slightly let down, but willing to give it another chance.