Welcome to Litsy!

A young trans man in Victorian England with violet eyes is sent to an institution for girls with "veil sickness" when he's caught trying to commune with spirits. The institution and being forced to live as the girl he is not would be bad enough, but something even more sinister is going on here--and Silas is determined to find out what. A dark and heartbreaking read, mostly because despite the supernatural elements so much of it is based in truth.

Finished My Best Friend's Honeymoon this afternoon and started The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. I adored Andrew Joseph White's dystopian religious supernatural horror novel so I'm hoping this one will be just as good. Then I've got a historical fiction book queued up to start after that. #TransRightsReadathon

Oh how I loved this book!! Horrifying in its gory guts but the true terror comes from the historical accuracy this novel stems from. The veil between the death and life has folded in on itself. Set in Victorian England, we follow a young trans boy through a powerful journey of surgery, spirits, “Veil Sickness”, and a fight for his freedom.

Thank you so much @Larkken for recommending this in #audlangspine25!! Absolutely incredible ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

White is quickly becoming a favourite author. Using the late 1800s as a backdrop for a discussion on those that don‘t fit the mold, White seamlessly blends discussions on the use of asylums, trans and autistic individuals, and the spirits these places leave behind.

It‘s gruesome and tragic, but brilliantly constructed.

🎃🎃🎃🎃

How a book, so ghastly in nature, can, in contrast, rouse a sense of hopefulness and comfort in a reader is nothing short of genius. Portraying the Machiavellian control wealthy men oppress the rest of us with and the inconceivable acts they inflict while groping for power, this book is deeply unapologetic and inherently rebellious, a bloodsoaked rage against transphobia, ableism, misogyny, our oppressive system and flawed societal expectations.

The Spooktober books have been chosen. This might be over ambitious but I‘ll be starting them soon. 👻🎃💀

Planned reads include: Gerald‘s Game by King (audio); Welcome to Night Vale by Fink and Cranor (audio); How to Sell a Haunted House by Hendrix (audio not pictured); The Spirit Bares its Teeth by White; Anno Dracula 1899 by Newman; Dead Collections by Fellman; Night Fever by Brubaker; At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft and Tanabe

5*/5 ⭐

Beautiful and horrifying at the same time. Andrew Joseph White manages, without forcing it in the slightest, to take matters like gender, sexuality, disability and discrimination and insert them in a horror-fantasy version of the victorian era. I deeply loved this book from start to finish.

THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. not only was it a GREAT horror read, it followed an autistic trans lead character, was all about trans and womens rights and just had me engaged every step of the way. The plot twists weren‘t incredibly surprising but they were satisfying. I ripped through this one!!!!

I actually just finished this YA Victorian horror novel and it perfectly fits today‘s #springskies prompt since the main protagonist is a transmasc autistic teen. #neurodivergent
This was really well done if brutal and touches on so many very modern issues that the historical setting only helped to highlight. I‘ve been on a YA-avoidance kick lately, but I‘m happy the cover of this one made me dive in anyway.

London 1888, a trans teen who is also a medium is sent to an asylum disguised as a finishing school. When the spirits inside begins to reveal the horrors inside, he will have to battle the conspiracies and corrupt males in order to free the victims being abused in this gory, horror young/teen novel.

I couldn't put this one down!

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth boldly explores a historical setting with an autistic, transgender protagonist, unflinchingly shedding light on the oppressive nature of the patriarchy and the plight of trans youth coerced into conformity, while highlighting the violence they endure.

The book opens with a letter from the author (see photo).

The Spirit Bares It's Teeth is one of the best books I've read this year!
I devoured the pages so quickly and then had the audacity to bemoan finishing it! 🖤🏳️‍⚧️

Hideously beautiful in prose, The Spirit Bares It's Teeth is a peculiar combination of the odious, macabre, and deeply transgressive Victorian era rife with medical experimention & a puissant patriarchal society. Hide-under-the-covers-kind of scary, this gothic horror will twist the usually unflinching gut into knots, challenging a readers' grit with every page turned, a strikingly ethereal trans love story simmering beneath the grisly narrative.

One thing about Andrew Joseph White books—they are not for the faint of heart and they turn me ABSOLUTELY FERAL. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is White at the height of his visceral, shocking, beautiful, monstrous, tender, transgressive powers. I could not stop reading—though I did occasionally have to put the book down to audibly gasp and/or allow my stomach to resettle. One of the best books of the year, hands (scalpel-wielding and bloody) down.