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debussy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Look, the beginning of this book is confusing. You don't know what's going on, or why, but the weird monster family vibes and visuals are pretty on point so I continued. The story snaps into focus when Grandmere shows up, but it eventually starts to run out of steam when the mystery gets convoluted and Arthur's backstory is revealed and I completely stopped caring about everyone. Most of the reveals are done in heavy monologue, which took me out of the story. The characters were interesting but not to the point that I wanted to watch them bicker and threaten to murder each other. I also was not sure of the theme--stick with your family, even though they continually fear and abuse you? For what? I also took issue with the weird amount of unchallenged homophobia. It felt like the author was attempting to critique it, but did not at all succeed.
The vibes and visuals were great, and the concept was on point, but the confused plot and character choices were just ruinous and made it an unsatisfying experience.
The vibes and visuals were great, and the concept was on point, but the confused plot and character choices were just ruinous and made it an unsatisfying experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
nutm3g's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The best summarization of this book's concept is this, highly dysfunctional Addams Family with a nice helping of generational trauma. I really wanted to love this book, but there was just too much that felt lacking. It seemed as if it would be a build-up to healing old wounds, but even to the end tension in the family remained. It is a bit difficult to explain why this book did not reach its potential without giving away any spoilers. Regardless of all it lacked, the concept behind it was creative and entertaining which is why I have it 3 stars in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and War
frantic_vampire's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
This was such a good read for spooky season! What Big Teeth definitely has some very strong influences from The Addams Family. But I also got some Coraline and The Haunting of Bly Manor vibes. With every passing page things got darker and creepier and it was all just delightfully dreadful. It was a lovely and spooky read.
I loved that at the start of the book every member of this monstrous family seemed relatively harmless. And then they started showing their fangs. Things got progressively darker the more you learned about the family. There were so many things were lurking just beneath the surface with this book, from murders to eldritch terrors. The last 75 pages or so of What Big Teeth are truly the most amazing part of this story. I could not put the book down for anything. Oh and then!! Then it dropped a huge bomb on the story and it ended. I was screaming!!! šµāš«
Honestly this book was just delightful! I really loved that we got bi, gay, and sapphic rep in a horror setting. I think my only complaint is that this book moved very slowly. And thatās not necessarily a bad thing. I just like my books to move a little faster. All in all this was a solid book and Iām giving it a four out of five stars. Beware of that ending though! š³
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Grief
Minor: Domestic abuse and Animal death
- Some graphic depictions of death/dying - The Arthur/Eleanor relationship -Eleanorās father hits her at least once -discussions of murder that have been committedbooksthatburn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I thought at first that this was just going to be a thriller version of a werewolf book. I was wrong, and happy to be so. WHAT BIG TEETH is about a girl returning home after being sent away as a kid, only to find her family stranger than she remembered and wary at her reappearance.
The beginning is a little slow, and at first it felt like the emotional stakes were just going to be how well Eleanor does or does not fit in with her strange and monstrous family. Instead, that family becomes the thing worth fighting for when Eleanor reaches for help to handle her familyās grief and instead finds only smiling terror. The real monsters arenāt whatās strange but rather whatās cruel, and this story rides that line without denying the wolves their teeth, but not hunting them for it.
Thereās a lot of catharsis for grief, old and new. When a major character dies early on, everyone whoās left reacts differently to their death, and the story gives space for the different shapes of their grief. I particularly love Arthurās story. Heās a fascinating character handled very well.
Thereās a semi-speaking character, Margaret, who is treated rather poorly. When the other characters are people who turn into wolves, a person who seems to be half-coral, and [SPOILER], having the other person be someone who hardly ever speaks seems to equate this thing that is very real with these other definitely fictional forms of strangeness. I love her as a character, and sheās a crucial and active part of the finale, so I think overall the book understands her as a whole person but the other characters donāt always have that view. After much thought, I donāt see it as a problem for the story, and Iām glad that the overall message is that the years of subtle ableism were bad. These are messy characters who have hurt each other a lot over the years, so Margaretās treatment is frustrating mostly because itās thing that really happens, not because itās worse than anything else.
Since the title invokes the idea of Red Riding Hood (āWhat big teeth you haveā), I pondered whether this is a retelling of that story. My final answer is that itās definitely not a plot-based retelling, but certain events (a girl traveling to her grandmother, the presence of wolves, people being swallowed) lead me to say that if you love retellings already this can happily be enjoyed in that light, though I think itās probably inspired by that fairy tale but not strictly attempting to retell it. It does have a closer connection to its probable inspiration than some retellings Iāve read which were explicitly marketed as such, for whatever thatās worth.
The beginning is a little slow, and at first it felt like the emotional stakes were just going to be how well Eleanor does or does not fit in with her strange and monstrous family. Instead, that family becomes the thing worth fighting for when Eleanor reaches for help to handle her familyās grief and instead finds only smiling terror. The real monsters arenāt whatās strange but rather whatās cruel, and this story rides that line without denying the wolves their teeth, but not hunting them for it.
Thereās a lot of catharsis for grief, old and new. When a major character dies early on, everyone whoās left reacts differently to their death, and the story gives space for the different shapes of their grief. I particularly love Arthurās story. Heās a fascinating character handled very well.
Thereās a semi-speaking character, Margaret, who is treated rather poorly. When the other characters are people who turn into wolves, a person who seems to be half-coral, and [SPOILER], having the other person be someone who hardly ever speaks seems to equate this thing that is very real with these other definitely fictional forms of strangeness. I love her as a character, and sheās a crucial and active part of the finale, so I think overall the book understands her as a whole person but the other characters donāt always have that view. After much thought, I donāt see it as a problem for the story, and Iām glad that the overall message is that the years of subtle ableism were bad. These are messy characters who have hurt each other a lot over the years, so Margaretās treatment is frustrating mostly because itās thing that really happens, not because itās worse than anything else.
Since the title invokes the idea of Red Riding Hood (āWhat big teeth you haveā), I pondered whether this is a retelling of that story. My final answer is that itās definitely not a plot-based retelling, but certain events (a girl traveling to her grandmother, the presence of wolves, people being swallowed) lead me to say that if you love retellings already this can happily be enjoyed in that light, though I think itās probably inspired by that fairy tale but not strictly attempting to retell it. It does have a closer connection to its probable inspiration than some retellings Iāve read which were explicitly marketed as such, for whatever thatās worth.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Bullying, Confinement, Grief, Blood, Gore, Violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Cannibalism and Child death
CW for major character death.
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