amiasmoon 's review for:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

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I’ve been saving this book for a good time! The only other book I’ve read by Andrew was a five-star. And the spirit bares its teeth had some of my favorite things, the color purple and boarding school. In hindsight, I realized those story elements made my expectations way too high. I do wish I had read it earlier before I put all my expectations onto it. There is no magic school: it is just a trope I’ve believed it had.

Instead of talking about what I thought it was, I’ll talk about what it is. It is an incredibly raw and gory story. Its setting is a boarding school for violet-eyed “girls” with “veil sickness”. A false illness one created solely to attempt to take “girls'” agency away. This is a metaphor for the themes of such as misogyny. It is inspired by historical events.

I admire that so much. The ending was so tense I wondered how things would be wrapped up by the end. Like

the moment Silas killed lord luckenbill,

I was gagged. To my shock, the story was concluded perfectly. The epilogue was sososogood. Every death was sadding and held meaning.

I miss you Isabela

. I loved Silas and Daphne, aswell as Mary. 

Lastly, my critiques on an otherwise great novel. The rabbit thing felt repetitive over time. At first, I thought there was a real rabbit and was imagining it. My bubble was burst very quickly. Secondly, despite being British and historical it reads as American and modern — It made me forget that it wasn’t such. Again on my false standards, it’s not really an objective issue, it just didn’t meet my personal taste.