The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White (2023) – YOUNG ADULT FICTION
A hallmark of the queer community is our ability to survive, even when society throws our identities, our bodies, and our right to exist into question, and Andrew Joseph White’s second novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, examines the struggle and triumph of that upheaval. Silas Bell is a young man – though everyone insists on his femininity – born with the prized violet eyes of a seer – those mediums who can press into the Veil – in London 1883. His neurodivergence also plays a role in the struggle for his own independence; everyone keeps trying to insist on his future, willing him to find the perfect husband, birth the perfect male child with medium abilities, and live a life they’ve got planned. Silas pushes back, however, and that push lands him in Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School; every terrible asylum-like trapping you’re imagining right now is on the right track, but turn it up three notches. Because during his time there, Silas pokes, prods, and uncovers the grotesque underbelly of the sanatorium, and it almost costs him his life. This book – replete with detailed body horror and some jump scares – is not for the faint of heart; yet while it pulls back the lids of that horror, it also shows the resilience of queer communities and the necessity of a found family: it’s gory but not grotesque, thrilling but not trifling. A thoroughly enjoyable and spooky read.
This review first appeared in the October 2024 print edition of Out in Wichita. Click here to see the review in print.
shelly. walston. writes. 