From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Andrew Joseph White

Start date: November 5, 2023

Finish date: November 10, 2023

Discussion: 2023 Read Harder Challenge

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2023 Read Harder Challenge

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* 2023 Read Harder Challenge
By Book Riot · 1 post · 2451 views

last updated Dec 07, 2022 08:47AM

Completed the Challenge
By Carole · 33 posts · 443 views

last updated Jan 01, 2024 01:11AM

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What Members Thought

Nov 27, 2023 Renata added it

Shelves: lgbtq, fantasy, historical-fiction, ya

This is the second book by this author that I've been really intrigued by the premise (also Hell Followed With Us) but the execution has been...well really not for me. And part of that I think is that White is really writing for a trans audience and I hope that readers who feel represented by these books will read them and get what they need from them. But also in both cases it feels like the worldbuilding is really...cursory? Like here I just really wanted to know more about this magical appren ...more

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Jan 06, 2025 Kate McCartney rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2025, award-winners, audiobook, teen-fiction, friendship, lgbtq, horror, fantasy, 2024-yma

YMA 2024 Stonewall honor book for Young Adults

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Jul 05, 2024 Shelley rated it really liked it

Shelves: courtship-romance, fantasy, mystery, historical, queer, disabled-lead, 2024

HOLY FUCK this was dark, heavy, and so very good. Autistic Silas was born with violet eyes, and since everyone believes him to be a girl, he is to be wed to bred violet eyed boys who can speak with the dead. Men have diagnosed violet eyed women who don't want to be perfect wives to breed violet eyed boys as having Veil Madness, and Silas is sent to a school to "train" it out of him--where the ghosts of dead students beg him to help them. This is extremely gory, with mutilations and vivisections ...more

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Oct 21, 2023 Jess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2023, 2023-faves

In a lot of ways, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth felt much stronger than White's debut (which is in itself a showstopper) - for me, it filled a lot of the gaps I felt were missing from Hell Followed With Us. The historical setting and its gothic trappings really heightened White's writing style and the subject matter - the rage here is palpable.
My heart was in my throat for a lot of this book, particularly the last quarter - I read through dinner and gave myself indigestion, but it was completely wo ...more

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