Such Sharp Teeth
-
-
3.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- £6.99
Publisher Description
A witty, moving tale of monsters and modern life from the award-winning author of Cackle and The Return. For readers looking for a story of sisterhood, complicated families and love with a bit more bite...
Rory Morris isn't thrilled to be moving back to her hometown. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she'd put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into Ian, an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she's attacked.
Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She's unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver—and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She's changing into someone else—something else. But does that mean she's putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside her the key to acceptance?
This darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harrison (The Return) tries and fails to carry a metaphor about "the secrets our bodies keep" into a story that simultaneously wants to be body horror, a reckoning with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, and a cute teen-crush-revisited romance. Rory Morris returns to her podunk hometown to help out her pregnant twin. The move, which she insists is temporary, puts her back in contact with her mother, who refuses to take responsibility for the abuse Rory experienced as a child at the hands of her mother's boyfriend, and with Ian Pedretti, Rory's high school crush whom her sister still thinks she should date. But Rory has more immediate problems when a bite from a mysterious creature turns her into a werewolf, complete with superstrength and violent, skin-sloughing transformations at the full moon. There are moments of cathartic rage as Rory puts an aggressively drunk partygoer in his place and visits a smash room with Ian, but she never really gets to work through her issues. The comedic tone of Rory's social interactions rubs weirdly against the trauma plot, and the ultimate management of Rory's werewolf-ism feels too pat, with Harrison failing to drive home an analogy between the transformation and Rory's inner turmoil. It's an emotionally confusing and unsatisfying mess.
