A review by welgan
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

I new I was going into a story that was raw and punched you to you guts, and I was ready for it ; I wanted to feel this righteous anger about the horrors who happened, about what they say of the horrors that still are. It delivered - it was raw, and hard, but not as much to me as it may be for someone who would feel represented as autistic or trans person, I think (giving how I emotional I was when I reacted to a book that represented *me*, I can only see how this book would open an autistic/trans person insides and lay them bare). I was very grateful for the autistic representation as I was looking to learn about the experience from first person point of view to better understand autistic people, but as so I can not judge if the representation was accurate or a bit exagerated. At some points it felt a bit forced (as the character explained "I am like this", "my brains does this"), but I think I'd need that to fully grasp something that is foreign to me, so I think it was the right thing to do. 
I enjoyed all the imagery and metaphors about surgery and body gore because I could really feel the special interest of the main character, and also it fit very well in the narrative, I could feel the despair and rage to control one's own body, and the adequacy of the imagery with the horrors happening. 
I also appreciated that there was hope and comfort to be found in kinship - this person is like me, I can be myself and true and safe with them. It helped going through a story with such hard events. 

Be warned if you're a sensitive person though : beyond the horrors that would happen to a person perceived as a girl who is not complying to society's standards, and to a trans person, in a Victorian era, the writing also invite quite a gore imagery. It fits very well, but if you're bothered by body and wounds imagery, it will probably be hard to read for you. There are also a lot of sensitive topics touched, so please look at the warnings if you're unsure. I felt the book did a great job exploring the topics without too much voyeurism, but the subjects are here nonetheless. 

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