pickWhite 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.
🎃🎃🎃🎃
pickHow 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
pick5*/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.
pickTHIS 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!!!!
pickI 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.
pickLondon 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.
pickI 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! 🖤🏳️⚧️
pickHideously 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.
pickOne 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.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth | 
