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blazeofredreads 's review for:
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
by Andrew Joseph White
Thank you to NetGalley and Daphne Press for this eARC!
Wow! I enjoyed this even more than Hell Followed With Us (this author’s debut novel) I feel like this improves on every issue I had with it.
I loved the writing style- it was so poetic but still sharp, to the point and not overly fluffy like some writing can be. Like hfwu, it was simultaneously disgusting and horrifying but beautiful. I also really liked all of the medical metaphors relating to Silas’ ambitions as a surgeon.
I also really liked the characters- all felt distinct from one another and more developed than in hfwu- though some more backstory perhaps could have been nice.The main character Silas in particular was a really great point of view. His internal struggles were really well written. I ended up really invested in him and Daphne- I just want them to be happy!!
The plot was fairly simple I suppose but that worked in its favour, and made it all the more effective! It was horrific at points, affecting and ended up satisfying. The pacing was also pretty much perfect (which is the only thing I didn’t like about hfwu) and I was so hooked that I finished this in two days flat!
I feel like I did want a bit more worldbuilding in terms of the medium abilities- how they with and how they’ve affected the history of this world, but that’s really just personal preference and didn’t affect my overall reading experience so much.
I’d really recommend this to anyone looking for a supernatural/horror novel with a twist. The only thing it suffers from is its very small page count, which meant some worldbuilding and character develop aspects were missing.