Reviews - The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

5.09k reviews for:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Andrew Joseph White

4.51 AVERAGE

chrysanthemum17's review

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book actually slayed so hard??? It ate??? It devoured??? I couldn’t put it down
The only thing I wish was there was more information on the groundskeeper at the end. Why wouldn’t they take him with them :(

Content Warnings

jaaay_reads's review against another edition

3.75

dark sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

After DNFing two other books, this book was nice as it kept up my reading motivation. Lots of horrifying things happened. Definitely look at content warnings!!

My personal reading taste isn't that into YA or softer magic systems so some of the how the author's prose just feeling very modern or the softer magic system didn't fully land for me but I still enjoyed the book.

Great representation at the end of the day.

Content Warnings

stagedoormerch's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jd_jinkies's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hisnameis_panik's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

lexigrce's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i feel like this could’ve been so much shorter and i found myself getting lost at some points but it was very interesting!

dembury's review against another edition

5.0

The spirit may bare its teeth but Andrew White really bared his soul with this one.
It's remorseless and brutal and heart-wrenching, and truly one of the goriest books I've ever read; it simply refuses to let the reader (or its characters) catch a breath. Yet every scene ends up weaving together so smartly! I loved how well White couples together themes and symbols to build this very cohesive and haunting narrative. He also has crafted some characters that, for one reason or another, made me want to cry, or punch them, or hug them. They feel so fully realized, and it's clear White has put a lot of thought and emotion into writing this.
Get ready for a fucking gut punch, but would highly recommended to anyone looking for a queer horror story that will (quite literally) peel back layers of identity, violence, belonging, and the things that make people monsters.

"[...] and what beautiful luck it is, then, that there's such a sweet thing in such a terrible place."