Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

362 reviews

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

This book is soooo good but I had to set it down a couple times after particularly heavy chapters.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The Spirit Bares It's Teeth is set in an alternate Victorian London where those with purple eyes can open the veil to the spirit world. Women are forbidden from accessing the veil but the society of the Speakers uses them to throw out purple eyed sons by marrying purple eyed girls to their sons. Purple eyed Silas was born in the body of a girl. He'd give anything to be a surgeon but instead, he's sent to a creepy sanitarium/finishing school to become the perfect wife for the head Speakers son. With murderers afoot, hijinks ensue.

This book is heavy - definitely check the content warnings for this one. The supernatural element takes a bit of a backseat with horror being the central element to the story. Whilst there are classic horror aspects throughout the story, it's often the experience of the trans and female characters in a male dominated Victorian world that is scariest. The suspense is immense and coupled with the main character's fixation on describing aspects of life in relation to surgery, the book is visceral.

It's ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. Though a great book that kept me hooked, I can't say that I fully enjoyed it. I felt for the characters throughout, their fear and hope, but ultimately the unease was too much for me to rate it five stars. Then again, for a horror story, is there a better compliment than that?

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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...

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense
Loveable characters: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective sad 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings