What Big Teeth

If you go in with low expectations it's an ok book. It's not good. It's bad until it's good like Riverdale on Netflix. The monsters were interesting though I guess.

DNF

While things start off interesting, with atmosphere and a flair for the cinematic, there seems to be something irreparably off about this book. The prose doesn't keep pace with itself - meaning that it's weirdly easy to miss important information and actions because nothing is given particular emphasis. There are all these possible mysteries being introduced at once, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be curious about or what I'm supposed to care about. It all just blurs together.

But most importantly, Eleanor is just an absolutely bizarre main character. There is nothing grounded about her, nothing relatable, nothing that actually sounds like a real human being. There is a fine line between making stylistic choices for the sake of creating a particular vision, and just sounding contrived. This is well over that line.

Creepy teeth-related stories always draw me in because I am one for the macabre, but this one just did not do it sadly. Maybe it was the writing style or maybe it was the characters that I just really couldn't get behind. I can see people liking this one - it's weird, yeah, but who doesn't like an odd book from time to time? For me, what really lacked was likable characters and a writing style that flowed. Sadly, this one just did not have that.

I went into this hoping for a werewolf book and I'm pretty disappointed that that isn't what I got, so I lowered it a star. But surprisingly, the book I got instead was still pretty good and gripping! I read the entire thing in one day and I had a really hard time putting it down since I flew through it so quickly. I did feel a little detached from all the characters, but I still enjoyed following them. I'm definitely looking foward to whatever this author writes in the future!





Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

2.5☆

It got good towards 70% into the book. I am still so very unsure if I really liked this book or if it just made me curious?

Literally everything would've not happened if the mc would've just listened and I think I'm mostly just annoyed with that?

WOW that was Complex!!! This was REALLY good, and it makes me want to slam my head into a wall (but like in a Good way)!!!!!! This is Definitely a Gothic Horror book, and one with FANTASTIC characters at that!!!

If you're looking for a creepy book about a big house in Maine with a very weird family this is for you! The audiobook narration is also great if that's your thing!

one of the most nonsensical, plotless, confusing, pointless books ive ever read. no idea what i was supposed to gain or feel or even what half of the plot points even meant. was absolutely dragging myself through the last 100 pages. half a star for some decent writing.

It really hurts me to write a negative review, I recognize that a lot of effort went into writing, publishing, and promoting it. I read this for Stacks of Strange, and had it not been for that I would have DNF'd it early on.
I want to say that my main problem was the writing style, but truthfully I read pretty widely, so I have encountered many types of writing styles. What was going on here, and it drove me nuts, was the withholding of information from the reader.
At first I thought I maybe stumbled across a novel in the vein of The Munsters.
< img src=”https://media0.giphy.com/media/l2SpQlO0t53NoV2Wk/giphy.gif” / >
Was Eleanor the Marilyn? Sadly, there is no humor to be found here at all.
And as much as I caught on that Eleanor was trying very hard to be a character in a Shirley Jackson world that was never going to happen because she couldn't make up her mind who she was. She alternated between “no one loves me” to “I'm special and no one sees it” so often I just started rolling my eyes.
What really ruined this story for me was the character of Arthur. I just want to puke thinking about how useless this whole character is, despite the fact that EVERYONE is physically attracted to him. I couldn't help but think of Gary Oldman in Dracula. Only Dracula actually has a personality.
Le sigh.
I muddled through it, so do the characters.
When we finally get a worthy BIG BAD, I didn't care anymore. But wait, we must go back in time while a ghost fills us in on the backstory we should have had 100 pages ago!
The morale of the story here is that characters need to talk to each other. If everyone had just spoken to Eleanor and explained things, things would not have gone off the rails.
This is one of the most unloving families I've read since the Dollangers.
I still don't understand the mom in the tub. Did she have a name?
And Margaret, who was HAND's DOWN the most interesting character, does not get explored at all. Oh, had the book been from her point of view....