★ 08/28/2023
Silas Bell—a transgender, autistic 16-year-old—has the violet eyes of a Speaker, mediums who can communicate across the Veil between the living and the dead. But to openly use his abilities, he must obtain a seal from the Royal Speaker Society, which has decreed, in the Speaker Act of 1841, that women can’t be Speakers (“I am not a woman, but as long as I am seen as one, I will be forced under the jurisdiction of the law all the same,” Silas laments). An attempt to masquerade as a Speaker initiate lands Silas at Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium, an all-girls academy intended to train rebellious girls to be docile wives. There, Silas learns that girls have been disappearing from the institution, and Silas—along with an unexpected ally—endeavors to investigate Braxton’s treacherous secrets, even as he plots his escape. In this Victorian alternate history, a frank exploration of intentional cruelty, Silas’s identity as an autistic trans teen in a society that does not accept him translates into powerful empathy toward his peers. Via precise, intentional prose, White (Hell Followed with Us) crafts an unsettlingly horrific tale that boasts a rich and fully realized world, propelled by a champion of a protagonist whose determination to fight for his right to survive is both uplifting and empowering. Main characters are white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jennifer March Soloway, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)
02/16/2024
Gr 10 Up—The year is 1883 in London, England, and trans teen Silas realized early in life he was born in the wrong body. Since The Veil between the living and the dead has thinned throughout the country and the world, the Royal Speaker Society has emerged as a powerful group which recruits and trains mediums who can deal with hauntings of spirits directly. When Silas dresses as a man in an attempt to run away and join the Speakers, he is discovered and sent to Braxton's Finishing School and Sanatorium. As Silas resists the Headmaster's and Mrs. Forrester's efforts to "correct" him with the proper role and etiquette as a woman in polite Victorian society, he begins to uncover mysterious past disappearances of several of the Braxton students. His potential suitor and co-conspirator Edward "Daphne" Luckenbill, a kindred spirit in more ways than one, agrees to help Silas get to the bottom of what happened to the girls. This novel provides a valuable lens into the historical perspective of trans identity. Readers will root for Silas, who only wants to do right by the other individuals held prisoner at Braxton, where each of the students face physical and emotional abuse at regular intervals. Some of the descriptions of surgery and vivisection are quite graphic and specific, so the story is definitely not for the faint of heart. While the worldbuilding of The Veil and the Speakers could be a little more established and fleshed out, this tale is nonetheless gripping, entertaining, and will keep readers guessing until the very end. VERDICT A recommended purchase for YA fiction collections.—Ryan P. Donovan
★ 2023-06-21
One by one, the students of Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium for Veil-sick girls disappear, but their spirits remain, trapped and screaming—“HELP US.”
To escape a future of marriage and childbirth, 16-year-old transgender boy Silas needs a medium’s seal from the Royal Speaker Society, a mark granted exclusively to men ever since the Speaker Act of 1841 prohibited women from practicing spirit-work. With a seal as proof of his manhood, Silas can go wherever he wants, including medical school. When Silas is exposed after using a stolen identity to obtain a seal, he expects to hang for his crime. Instead, he’s forced into an engagement and attendance at Braxton’s, an institution that claims to cure girls afflicted with Veil sickness, “a sickness of the mind” said to afflict women who engage in spirit-work. Soon after his arrival, Silas learns that not only are the students subjected to abusive treatment, the ones who resist have been vanishing without a trace. Set in Victorian England, this paranormal alternate history follows an autistic protagonist in vivid first-person prose as he unravels the haunting secret of the missing students with the help of an unexpected partner who feels just as trapped as Silas does by societal rules. Flutters of romance and feelings of kinship offer moments of reprieve from the unflinching brutality of Silas’ reality. White wields prose like a scalpel, cutting deep and spilling guts with gruesome precision. The cast of characters is white.
Visceral and vindicating. (historical note) (Horror. 14-18)
★ "Redefines the concept of a ‘visceral’ book. . . . parallels to the dangerous pressure to conform (especially for trans or autistic teens) and the importance of being seen and understood are masterfully shown. . . . readers, take care."—Booklist, Starred Review
★ "White wields prose like a scalpel, cutting deep and spilling guts with gruesome precision. . . . Visceral and vindicating."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
★ "Via precise, intentional prose, White (Hell Followed with Us) crafts an unsettlingly horrific tale that boasts a rich and fully realized world, propelled by a champion of a protagonist whose determination to fight for his right to survive is both uplifting and empowering."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
★ "White brings such raw agony, power, and desperation to his complex and layered characters that it is impossible to not feel immediately sympathetic and deeply invested in their survival."—The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books, Starred Review
★ "[A] riveting, spellbinding Victorian horror about a neurodivergent trans boy desperate to escape the life his family has planned for him. . . . White shows in this sharp, tense novel the same kind of visceral prose that garnered such acclaim for his debut, Hell Followed with Us."—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review
"Readers’ sympathies are fully engaged. Secondary characters are rounded as well, creating intriguing dynamics."—The Horn Book
"This novel provides a valuable lens into the historical perspective of trans identity."—School Library Journal
"Following on the heels of his game-changing debut, Andrew Joseph White returns with a biting and brilliant gothic horror that captivates from the first sentence… Poised to become another classic of the genre." —Kay Frost, Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA
"A tender, bleeding wound of a story. Andrew Joseph White has ruthlessly sliced through the facade of our society, and invites readers to plunge their bare hands into the grisly and alluring darkness within." —Bri Evans, West Side Books, Denver, CO
“No one can write quite so viscerally beautiful as Andrew Joseph White, and The Spirit Bares Its Teethtwists and writhes into your heart from page one.”—Minna Banawan, Park Road Books, Charlotte, NC
“A fierce, gory, subversive, and timely probe into Victorian society that celebrates trans and queer resilience. This is a scalpel to the eyes and heart only Andrew Joseph White can deliver.”—Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books, Beverly, MA
“Andrew Joseph White continues to break boundaries into new, deeply chilling forms. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a merciless yet masterful dissection of gothic horror that spares no anesthesia, and thankfully so. The hauntings in these pages will find their way into you, so deep that nothing will be able to cut them out.” —Ryan La Sala, bestselling author of The Honeys and Beholder
“With surgical precision, The Spirit Bares its Teeth exposes the menace of conformity in society. I devoured every vicious and human sentence. Let Silas Bell tear you apart, then stitch you back together.” —Trang Thanh Tran, New York Times bestselling author of She is a Haunting
“An absolute sucker punch of a novel. While the gore and body horror are exactly as brutal and artful as you’d expect from Andrew Joseph White, there’s an undercurrent of validating tenderness that makes this story wholly unique. This book will slice you open, shift through your insides, and stitch you closed anew.” —Kayla Cottingham, New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest
“A book that cracks and spreads the ribs before massaging your heart underneath, this is a must-read that will haunt you long after it's over, proving that Andrew Joseph White is the reigning king, draping visceral horror in a feral kind of hope.” —Jamison Shea, author of I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me
“Andrew Joseph White brings his phenomenal talent and searing prose to an unflinching tale of a violet-eyed boy, desperate spirits, and very human monsters. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is as brutal and necessary as a surgical incision.” —Kate Alice Marshall, author of Rules for Vanishing and What Lies in the Woods
Raphael Corkhill takes on this ghoulish version of Victorian London in which violet-eyed mediums commune with ghosts under the jurisdiction of the all-powerful male-led Royal Speaker Society. Silas Bell, who is transgender, would rather perform a hysterectomy on himself than be married off as a violet-eyed breeder. And he has studied enough of modern medicine to know how. Corkhill is an applaudable and respectful choice to portray Silas; he sounds masculine, as Silas sees himself, when telling his story, yet feminine, as the world sees him, when speaking aloud. He also excels at the anxious "inner rabbit" voice that personifies Silas's fears and unnamed autism. Corkhill can truly scare the listener with this audiobook's menacing authority figures, horrifyingly clear descriptions of surgery, and even sexual assault. S.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
