Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

142 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I will forever love AJW. This book squeezed my heart so bad. I related way too much with Silas, but that made it do much better...

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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: No

Psychic medium trans boy and his badass trans girlfriend solve murders in Victorian England. Need I say more?

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dark emotional sad fast-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

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adventurous dark emotional 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

The premise is interesting, the worldbuilding grounded, and the narrative beautifully written.

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dark mysterious reflective 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

I felt this book was a great representation of a trans autistic character. It described what being trans and neurodivergent can feel like, and the wording is so beautiful when describing the main characters thoughts and feelings. I love the personification of Silas’s anxiety with the rabbit in his chest. I was also kept on the edge of my seat with the intense murder investigation taking place throughout. Loved reading this for Halloween season!

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challenging 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: No

Very readable, while also tackling extremely important topics, including misogyny and the way young people handle and adapt to societal pressure. It includes neurodivergence and LGBTQ+ representation that, in my opinion as someone without much experience, seems to be done very well. As a romance hater, I really appreciated the romantic subplot and the way it progressed. Was it a bit too fast? Yes, but that made sense in context, which is something I don't see often enough. The gore was present and often described in detail, which for me was a plus but may be a problem for other readers.

Please check the trigger warnings before proceeding!

Subjectively, having grown up in a very religious community (although not being religious myself), the portrayal of misogyny and patriarchy really rang a bell. Above all else, what really stood out for me was the way different characters responded to the culture they were forced into. While frustrating at times, the book very accurately showed the double standards, the internalised misogyny, the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response each person has. It may be hard to understand or believe the actions of some characters by the end, but having personally experienced a similar cultural context, they were entirely believable and reminiscent of people in my own life.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Been a while since I've read a book where I had to take a break due to how graphic a scene was. An enthralling, compelling read that had my heart beating as fast as the rabbit in Silas' chest and a story that uses it's fantasy elements to dismantle the cruelty of the victorian era and show it for what it was. 

I also loved how Silas' experiences of transness and autism felt real and how these facets of himself are able to be explored without the modern terminology. 

The one thing that kept it from being perfect was the love story, while it was sweet I felt that it needed more time to be fully convincing rather than just a relationship for survival. 

However, I am still deeply impressed and I hope to read more of White's work in the future.

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

It's hard to put into words how I feel about this book. It's difficult. It's wonderful. It's relatable. The way it is written made me feel everything the narrator was feeling to the point of almost being overwhelming. 

I am not as in touch with my identity, whether that be me being autistic or trans, as I'd like to be. Reading some of these descriptions and explanations and just the thoughts of the narrator was healing and safe as well as scary.

I enjoy reading fiction more than nonfiction/informational books, so being able to read someone's thoughts and feelings as an autistic trans person during certain events rather than in a clinical way was refreshing and comforting.

I like how the narrator talks about and compares things to surgery and the body. It was very interesting. The gorey scenes were also very well written and detailed in an interesting and easily understandable way.

Though the ending was beautifully and satisfyingly done, I'm sad to see these characters go.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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