The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a gothic horror novel set in an alternate Victorian England about Silas, an autistic trans boy who just wants to be himself and wants the opportunity to do what he’s best at, surgery. But, after a failed attempt to get out of an arranged marriage, Silas gets diagnosed with Veil Sickness—a disease that sends violet-eyed women into madness—and gets sent away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. But when the ghosts of missing students come to Silas begging for help, he must risk himself and everything he loves to get justice.

This novel is a tough read (check trigger warnings below) but it was definitely worth it. The writing was beautiful. I found myself highlighting so many quotes. The character work was great. I loved Silas and Daphne and even eventually loved characters that I never thought I would!  I am a gore girlie, so I loved all the medical talk and gory scenes! (Even though there was one scene that was even a lot for ME, the girl who loves horror and watches real surgeries on YouTube) But I loved every second of it. 

I do wish that the ghosts were a little more prevalent. Most of the book focuses on the horror of the humans, as it should’ve, that’s what the story called for. But in the synopsis there was a lot of emphasis put on spirits and being a medium, so there was less of that than I was expecting. Also, there were a lot of characters introduced at once toward the beginning of the book, and it took me a while to remember who was who and keep up with everyone’s names. Those were my only two complaints though, everything else was great!

This book was a hard read at times, very triggering, but it was worth it! And I liked that there was a note in the back of the book that addressed the fact that in reality most of the things that were done to these characters were historically done to people of color. I’m glad the author shed a light on that for his readers that don’t know. I’d definitely recommend this book to someone looking to get lost in gorgeous writing, characters you care about, and a heavy but necessary story.

Thank you Peachtree Teen and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

TW: sexual assault (on page), transphobia, ableism, discussions of forced pregnancy and miscarriage, suicidal ideation, misgendering, misogyny, animal disection, abuse, abortion, medical gore, murder, pedophilia