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

At the outset, Boys With Sharp Teeth promises a juicy, sordid mystery with all the trappings of a dark academia hit. There's a murder, an elite boarding school, an assumed fake identity, dangerous and sexy rich boys...certainly everything you'd want to sink your teeth into. But alas, I found the book to be more about aesthetics than substance, leaving me disappointed and hungry in the end.

This book immediately drew me in as it's set 45 minutes from my hometown. I was immediately charmed by the familiar locale and a main character that I found intriguing and relatable. The mystery was enticing from the jump and the characters at the boarding school felt like shadows I wanted to uncover and shine a light on.

But I was quickly let down. Sadly, a lot of this book relied upon telling not showing. The relationship between the mc and her deceased cousin is the emotional crux of the story, yet we never even get so much as one flashback to understand their importance to each other. The setting I was so excited about reading about does nothing to inform the story, and the two male leads were cut out caricatures with no real substance. All of the dialogue felt stilted for the sake of pretension and mystery, and I never felt like any of the characters had any sort of REAL conversation or connection.

This book also takes "nothing happens" to a whole new level. I'm a huge fan of pretentious, dialogue-heavy novels that are more idea than action, but none of the scenes or conversations stood out to me or managed to grab my attention.

I'm so sad to give this one a poor review. I hope other readers really love it and see things in it that I missed. On the outside, it has all the components of my favorite kind of novel, but it didn't hit the mark for me.

The roaring engines and the tension from Summer Sons meet the mirrors from Beholder in this eerie and thrilling young adult dark academia story.

‘Where Graves is stone and lightning, Henry is softer, slipperier, a boy I’m never quite sure if he’s there to save me or because he likes watching me struggle.’
 
Okay, first of all, this is not a romance, not even close. There’s so much attraction and repulsion without knowing if there’s a sexual charge underneath that it made me gasp for air and want to read on and on and on. Eyes lock, fingers brush, bodies touch until the tension is almost unbearable, but there’s never a sweet kiss, a shiver out of anticipation, a smile of recognition. This story is twisted and obsessive and sooo addictive.

‘The movement brushes my hair against his cheek and lets his breath tickle my ear.’

Jenni Howell’s writing is phenomenal, lush, and feverish, as if it were screaming in capital letters. Sometimes, I was wondering what the eff I was reading and where it would lead to, IF it would lead to something. But at the same time, I didn’t care because I highlighted so many passages and felt the constant thrill tugging at my heart.

‘Graves’s mouth moves, but I can’t hear him, all I can hear is the engine’s roar and the violins’ whine and then there’s Henry, his hand moving to mine.’

Jenni said either you’re team Henry or team Graves, and I think she’s right. I had a soft spot for the violin-playing, wicked smart boy seeming to be made of stone, but he felt so much softer on the inside to me, constantly hiding his true self.

‘I can feel his eyes on me, reminding me of every time he’s had me inside out, splayed across the table in front of him. He says nothing.’

This book grips you at your throat and tries to suffocate you, so you probably end up loving or hating it. But that’s exactly what this story is about. Hate is not that far from love, after all. I’m a lover and can’t wait for what Jenni Howell has in store for us next!