twilightkafka 's review for:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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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utterly divine and gut-wrenching. a harsh exploration of the gendered expectations placed on women and the way men control women’s autonomy, robbing them of the ability to be their authentic selves. breaking women and reducing them to nothing until they believe their only purpose is to be a mother. just a fantastic exploration of patriarchy’s grasp on society and the way women such as mrs. forrester or charlotte will be betray women because they believe in what men tell them they are. they are blind sheep who have willingly reduced themselves to nothing because that’s what they believe they are. and they will stop at nothing to drag women down with them. all of this explored through the lens of a closeted trans boy who’s only support is his brother (who eventually betrays him). there is a rich exploration of the ways binary sex is imposed, parents will do quell deviation from the norm such as the way silas’s parents hired tutors to destroy his identity until he was just “a good girl.” not what he truly was. a boy. the t4t romance is utterly saccharine and melted my heart. it is beautiful to see queer people find each other in harsh world that wants them to hide in the shadows, disappear, or be “fixed.” the horror in this is written extremely well and made my skin crawl. but honestly what terrified me the most is the way the girls were dehumanized. truly a fantastic book. a hard read at times and i had to take breaks because of how painful it was. especially silas’s inner rabbit. but when i got to the last 60 pages i couldn’t set it down.