dark_marble_eyes 's review for:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

4.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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: Yes

---

It may be unfair, but having read Hell Followed With Us first, I automatically compare the two. Overall enjoyment, close but a little less, overall quality of writing, close but slightly lower. That said, there are a handful of things I liked even more, and I’d rather elaborate on that. So rarely do we get an autistic protagonist, and I’m grateful for his portrayal as well as the other autistic character. (I won’t go into much detail because I don’t want to do any spoilers in this review). I also enjoyed the small romance aspect.* I enjoyed the depth of the other characters. No one felt overly one-dimensional, which I usually find is a problem in some YA books. The approach to gore in this one was fascinating too.

A note though: check the tags/trigger warnings! The author does put a warning at the front, and I greatly appreciate that. But if you have any specific triggers, definitely check.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment