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tayanapier 's review for:
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
by Andrew Joseph White
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
To write something so deeply unsettling and so beautiful at the same time is truely a feat.
The horror was never the paranormal, it is and always has been the damage humans are willing to inflict on people they deem as ‘other’.
Please check trigger warnings (I mean it).
AJW goes out of his way to make you look. I think he perfectly captures the historical horrors men are willing to do to sate their cruel curiosity. It also perfectly captures the way in which they will stop at nothing to take what they want when they believe they are owed something. There are some lines that filled me with dread without even being close to graphic, just off understanding historical context, you just know something horrible is about to happen.
The characters made this story into something slightly hopeful. Some of them were so complex and morally grey, you didn’t know if you wanted to root for them or not. AJW did a fantastic job with them. I will be thinking about some of the characters for a long time.
While I generally think this one of the best queer horrors I will probably ever read, some small nick picks I had were the romance and some pacing issues.
The romance, while beautiful and I believe does make sense for the characters, I just wish there was more time to develop their relationship. Under the pacing of the story I understand why there wasn’t more time put into it. I would have loved if there was more story time of them together platonically first.
My other small issue was the pacing of the climax, in some parts it felt a tad rushed compared to the rest of the novel. I think I was generally enjoying it so much I just want more of it to read.
The horror was never the paranormal, it is and always has been the damage humans are willing to inflict on people they deem as ‘other’.
Please check trigger warnings (I mean it).
AJW goes out of his way to make you look. I think he perfectly captures the historical horrors men are willing to do to sate their cruel curiosity. It also perfectly captures the way in which they will stop at nothing to take what they want when they believe they are owed something. There are some lines that filled me with dread without even being close to graphic, just off understanding historical context, you just know something horrible is about to happen.
The characters made this story into something slightly hopeful. Some of them were so complex and morally grey, you didn’t know if you wanted to root for them or not. AJW did a fantastic job with them. I will be thinking about some of the characters for a long time.
While I generally think this one of the best queer horrors I will probably ever read, some small nick picks I had were the romance and some pacing issues.
The romance, while beautiful and I believe does make sense for the characters, I just wish there was more time to develop their relationship. Under the pacing of the story I understand why there wasn’t more time put into it. I would have loved if there was more story time of them together platonically first.
My other small issue was the pacing of the climax, in some parts it felt a tad rushed compared to the rest of the novel. I think I was generally enjoying it so much I just want more of it to read.