Review by stepfarmer - The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

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stepfarmer 's review for:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

2.5

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

i wanted to like this book so, so bad. i really did. but i think it just has too many flaws unfortunately.

for starters, this book is set in the 1880s. why? i honestly have no idea. the dialogue and narration does not read like it was appropriate for the time period, and comes off as very modern. silas feels plucked from modern day and shoved into victorian england due to his opinions and viewpoints regarding gender and sexism. this would have been more of an interesting book if an attempt was made to reconcile silas' transness through the lens of victorian england sensibilities. the narrative itself would've been stronger if it was straight fantasy with its own world instead of historical fiction with fantasy elements.

likewise, i found the fantasy portion of the book intriguing but flat. i wanted sooo much more about the spirit world and how mediums worked. again, if just more care was taken to properly flesh out the world instead of (poorly) trying to fit it into a historical setting, i think the fantasy elements could've been used more effectively.

silas himself is a frustrating protagonist, though it's partly the way he's written. i read the entire book and i only know three things about silas: that he's autistic, that he's trans, and that he wants to be a surgeon. later in the novel he speaks about himself and lists off traits that are in no way shape or form adequately explored. i've seen other reviewers mention this and at times he does seem like a checklist of symptoms. while i did resonate with several descriptions that related to his autistic experiences, i just think that it was too heavy-handed, though it's especially egregious due to the absence of any other traits. not going to lie, i didn't really care for silas, and as the book veered into torture-porn territory i just didn't care what happened to him.

the book felt very "us vs them" in the fact that no one was kind to silas unless they were also queer or neurodivergent. the fact that

lord luckenbill turned on him in the end was especially frustrating and honestly the last straw for me.

like, i get it. i do. but the fact that silas didn't have anyone in his corner that couldn't directly relate to his experiences just felt so disheartening, even in a book like this. maybe even especially in a book like this.

regarding silas and daphne: i get the joy that comes with finding out someone is like you, and i understand silas is 16, but man. i wish there wasn't instalove, and i wish there was more pushback regarding

their marriage.

like i wish it had been explored more as a strong infatuation rather than definitive love.

i was getting very bored not even halfway through. the best part of it was toward the end when the characters were finally doing things rather than having things done to them. and, while i enjoyed the prose, the constant thematic references toward surgery and related topics started to grate on my nerves after a bit. also the whole bit with the rabbit was extremely stupid, i'm sorry to say. it didn't really add anything to the novel and i found it a bit eye-rolling.

i can understand why people love and enjoy this book. i wanted to do the same very badly, but i'm unfortunately a very picky reader. the queer and neurodivergent rep isn't enough to make this narrative compelling. i will however continue to read white's novels, as i'm confident he'll have a book for me sometime down the line.

Content Warnings