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A review by littlebirdbooks
What Big Teeth by Harry Szabo
Firstly, a huge thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
This novel has all the makings of a classic Gothic fairytale from the setting to the characters, Szabo does a great job of capturing the essence of the Gothic and bringing it to a contemporary fairytale.
Eleanor was a very interesting protagonist, sent away to a boarding school when she was young and, even upon returning, felt very much like an outsider in her own family. I really liked the way Szabo illustrated the stone Covenant between Eleanor and the rest of the Zarrin family. In the beginning, you feel just as uncomfortable as she does, with unsettling animalistic descriptions that fell out of place for a typical family dinner – but the Zarrin’s aren’t a typical family.
It doesn’t take long before you start to wonder if Eleanor is treated as an outsider for a reason and that she is being unnecessarily harsh towards her family. I found myself being more drawn to the rest of the family like Grandpa Miklos, Margaret and Rhys and didn’t tie the way they were treated by Eleanor – especially when Grandma was around. The complicated character and family dynamics are one of the ways that this story gets its claws into the reader. There is just so much we don’t understand. The mystery contributed to the uneasy atmosphere which made this a novel that is very difficult to put down, even if it was difficult to follow at times.
At the start of the novel I did find it a little confusing working out what had happened between the prologue to the current day. Whilst this did make the pacing feel a little slow at first, it all quickly ramps up and I was totally inverted in the plot and in the characters. Each one of them has a mystery for you to unravel and Eleanor soon realised that she has no idea who she can trust. The only person she thinks she can trust is Arthur, who seemingly hasn’t aged over the eight years she’s been away and who everyone in her family appears to be infatuated with. I also loved how different Grandma Persephone was from Grandmére, both formidable matriarchs who have a lot of secrets and have very different ideas on how to protect their own.
The way Szabo writes is captivating, I also really enjoyed that there were some aspects that you have to just accept without any explanation which is something we don’t always have in contemporary Gothic stories even though that can be crucial to a successful Gothic novel. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and a must read for any Gothic fans. If the stunning cover hasn’t already sucked you in, the first chapter definitely will.
This novel has all the makings of a classic Gothic fairytale from the setting to the characters, Szabo does a great job of capturing the essence of the Gothic and bringing it to a contemporary fairytale.
Eleanor was a very interesting protagonist, sent away to a boarding school when she was young and, even upon returning, felt very much like an outsider in her own family. I really liked the way Szabo illustrated the stone Covenant between Eleanor and the rest of the Zarrin family. In the beginning, you feel just as uncomfortable as she does, with unsettling animalistic descriptions that fell out of place for a typical family dinner – but the Zarrin’s aren’t a typical family.
It doesn’t take long before you start to wonder if Eleanor is treated as an outsider for a reason and that she is being unnecessarily harsh towards her family. I found myself being more drawn to the rest of the family like Grandpa Miklos, Margaret and Rhys and didn’t tie the way they were treated by Eleanor – especially when Grandma was around. The complicated character and family dynamics are one of the ways that this story gets its claws into the reader. There is just so much we don’t understand. The mystery contributed to the uneasy atmosphere which made this a novel that is very difficult to put down, even if it was difficult to follow at times.
At the start of the novel I did find it a little confusing working out what had happened between the prologue to the current day. Whilst this did make the pacing feel a little slow at first, it all quickly ramps up and I was totally inverted in the plot and in the characters. Each one of them has a mystery for you to unravel and Eleanor soon realised that she has no idea who she can trust. The only person she thinks she can trust is Arthur, who seemingly hasn’t aged over the eight years she’s been away and who everyone in her family appears to be infatuated with. I also loved how different Grandma Persephone was from Grandmére, both formidable matriarchs who have a lot of secrets and have very different ideas on how to protect their own.
The way Szabo writes is captivating, I also really enjoyed that there were some aspects that you have to just accept without any explanation which is something we don’t always have in contemporary Gothic stories even though that can be crucial to a successful Gothic novel. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and a must read for any Gothic fans. If the stunning cover hasn’t already sucked you in, the first chapter definitely will.