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

dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I have only read one other book by Andrew Joseph White, but what I can tell from his writing is he is someone who knows how to make super complex and interesting worlds. I think I liked this book a little better than Hell Followed With Us, but both books were so well written.
This book follows Silas, a young trans boy who is in a society that is based in reality (London 1833) with some bits of fantasy in it. He was born with purple eyes that makes it so that he can speak to spirits. This is something only people assigned female at birth are able to do. All Silas wants is to become a surgeon but because everyone around him sees him as a girl he is unable to do so and they determine him to have veil sickness. Although this book is a Fantasy horror, it touches on a lot of things that actually happened to people in this time and like the author mentions at the end specifically people of color and queer people.
I would really recommend this book to others, but please go into reading this knowing that it has a lot of graphic scenes of what is probably best describe as "medical gore." 
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