Book Review: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
Eli Styles | November 29, 2023
“How cruel is it, that I only get to be myself as a costume? I do not get to savor the masculine cut of my clothes, or the illusion of short hair, or the fleeting joy of my skin feeling like mine. Instead, I have to worry if my boyhood is convincing enough to keep me safe. There is no joy in that. Only fear.”
Andrew Joseph White has done it again.
The author’s first release, “Hell Follows With Us”, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a hit within queer and trans communities. The representation it provided for trans, queer and disabled people — along with the commentary on the dystopia that organized religion can become — made the young adult horror novel captivating to many.
His second release and the subject of this review, “The Spirit Bares Its Teeth”, was highly anticipated by fans who had already latched onto White’s writing style and subjects. Fortunately, White did not disappoint with this recent book.
“The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” features a transmasculine and autistic main character, Silas Bell, with violet eyes that mark him as a medium in the Royal Speaker Society — a group that “supports” mediums by granting them seals, providing brotherhood for the guardians and giving punishment to those who dissent.
Silas is able to access the Veil, which separates the world of the living from the realm of ghosts.
(A note from White and myself: the diagnosis of “autism” did not exist in 1883, when this book takes place. The word is never used to describe Silas in the book, but in modern times Silas’s disability would warrant an autism diagnosis. This is recognized in an author’s note as well as the book’s description online. “Autism” was first described in 1908 and became a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980.)
Silas himself is an interesting character. He has a special interest in surgery — his older brother’s profession — and practices on pigs to prepare for the day he finally gets to cut into a real body. Throughout the book there are graphic descriptions of his fantasies of ripping out his eyes and uterus as well as the surgeries he does perform.
Additionally, Silas is heavily oppressed by the Speaker society because they think he has “Veil sickness”, a condition that men believed drove violet-eyed women mad and made them speak or act out against the abuse they were facing. Silas is diagnosed with this condition because of the way he acted in order to escape an arranged marriage, and because of his “abnormal” actions due to being autistic.
Silas is a boy, but he is treated as a girl by the Speaker society and therefore experiences threats of violence and verbal abuse from the men in power. When he is sent to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School — a school for girls with Veil sickness — after attempting to escape his arranged marriage, he is suddenly thrown into a terrifying and cold environment where girls either listen to their superiors or disappear forever.
As Silas spends more time at Braxton’s he begins to notice just how much foul play is going on. He has to make a decision: go along with the dangerous agenda of the Speakers, or do his best to break down the system from the inside.
This book is one of my favorites. While at first I was wary of the graphic descriptions included, I found the book as a whole to be unlike anything I have ever experienced.
The horror aspect — which, to be honest, the “aspect” is the entire book — resonated with me, bringing to light all of the disgusting things that women, transgender people and autistic people have to go through just to live their lives.
One of my favorite aspects of “The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” was the relationships that Silas formed with the girls at Braxton’s and with his eventual transfeminine romantic partner.
Silas puts into words what many struggle to: “A strange truth about being a boy like me is how difficult it is to untangle the truth of yourself from the world’s perception of you…I still connect with women. I find companionship with them, closeness that cannot be denied, because the world will always do its damnedest to see me as one of them. As long as we are seen the same, we will experience the same.”
The relationships he forms each reflect an aspect of his identity that he had been conditioned to keep inside. Silas is able to explore his trans identity, find community with others who have been through similiar experiences and discover that being autistic is not an obstacle that only he has been forced to try and jump over. He finds “mirrors” for himself in these people, which heals parts of him even as others are simultaneously cracking.
“The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” is a novel full of horror, mystery and tragedy. At each twist and turn I was pulled further into this complicated story, surprised by how honestly I saw my own identities reflected on the page.
I cannot recommend this book enough — though I do think it wise to check the content warnings in the author’s note at the beginning of the book first. The gore is a lot to handle, especially for a young adult book. Even so, it is worth wading through some grisly descriptions for the privilege to experience a story as wonderfully heartbreaking as this one.
Go on, read. After all, mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.