Name: Sharp Teeth
Rating: 3.25 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9781407013398

Toby Barlow

An ancient race of lycanthropes survives in modern L.A. and its numbers are growing as packs convert the city's downtrodden into their fold. Stuck in the middle are a local dogcatcher and the woman he loves, whose secret past haunts her as she fights a bloody one-woman battle to save their relationship. Sharp Teeth is a novel-in-verse that blends epic themes with dark humour, dogs playing cards, crystal meth labs, and acts of heartache and betrayal in Southern California.

Sharp Teeth

Abandoning her growing pack of lycanthropes in New Orleans, a werewolf hides the truth about her nature from her kind-hearted dog-catcher boyfriend, while her former leader, having fallen victim to a rival gang, poses as the adopted pet of a lonely suburban woman. 50,000 first printing.

Amber Laha

Sharp Teeth is described by Nick Hornby as: "stomach-churningly violent in places, and tender, and satisfyingly complicated...it's as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love, death , and all the things we want our books to be about."

I definitely agree on two points in that it is complicated and violent. It is very complicated, insofar that you are basically playing a guessing game with the author on what is really happening and you don't find out until the very end. I like guessing games. I like when an author feels you are smart enough to work the puzzle out and put the pieces together without explaining the details, which I think this author came off well with doing. The second point, that being the violence, I definitely liked. I am not usually into the violent stuff, but this one was just done so well that I couldn't tear my eyes away from the horrifying scenes. 

The writing in this book was so unique and his own style that I just fell in love. I love authors who are willing to take a risk in their writing to do something different. I get tired of people just writing so straight-forward and the same ole same ole, so that when I started reading this, I was like that little kid that got his/her first two-wheeled bike. He made it flow easily, smoothly, and quickly from one scene to the next. 

The characters were fascinating, the subject so great. The one thing that did annoy me, was that everyone had a name, but Anthony's girlfriend didn't. I was super annoyed with it because it didn't make sense as to why he'd leave her this unidentifiable person. This is why it only gets 4 stars. Don't be like she is just gal, a nobody really. She played a major role, she was a person, a three-dimensional being. (If she did have a name and I totally missed it when I re-read through, I apologize and take what I just said back)

"An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down and out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will--and they're bent on domination at any cost. Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kind-hearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack. Anthony has no idea that she's more than she seems, and she wants to keep it that way. But her efforts to protect her secret lead to murderous results"--Publisher.

Sharp Teeth

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