Andrew Joseph White's sophomore novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, is a riveting, spellbinding Victorian horror about a neurodivergent trans boy desperate to escape the life his family has planned for him.
Sixteen-year-old Silas has violet eyes that allow him to interact with spirits by lifting the Veil between the mortal world and the spirit world. Silas sees this ability as a curse and wishes he could live as his true self and become a surgeon. His parents, though, exploit his power and force him to suppress his trans identity. They believe that if Silas hides who he is, he will be ideal marriage material. After an unsuccessful attempt to avoid an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with "Veil sickness" and placed against his will in an abusive sanitorium for violet-eyed medium girls. As he investigates why residents keep disappearing, Silas lives closeted: "I just need to find a way out.... And until then, I will keep myself safe."
White shows in this sharp, tense novel the same kind of visceral prose that garnered such acclaim for his debut, Hell Followed with Us. He paints an authentic and painfully tender portrayal of Silas's neurodivergent and trans identities and, in his author's note, explains that the book was inspired by "Victorian England's sordid history of labeling certain people 'ill' or 'other' to justify cruelty against them." The plot's candid, often gory accounts parallel the stunningly rendered characters whose physical and emotional wounds bleed out onto the pages. --Kieran Slattery, freelance reviewer, teacher, co-creator of Gender Inclusive Classrooms