Sharp Teeth

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

About: Werewolves are not a myth. They live on today in L.A., growing in numbers as they convince the lost and beaten to join their ranks, promising power and something more. Changing at will, these beasts are bent on domination...

Opinion: This book is in free verse, which, for those who don't know, is a form of poetry. And it somehow managed to work. When you think of poetry you generally aren't thinking about werewolves, violence, gangs, sex, drugs, and dogcatching, but somehow Toby Barlow manages to build a truly amazing story with poetry and it works brilliantly. Anything you have ever had against werewolves and free verse is forgotten. When I started reading it took a while to get into it, but once the book had me I was stuck. I wanted to keep reading and reading, living this strange world of words and monsters. One of the reviews on the inside cover from Nick Hornby (The Believer) captures how I feel about the book perfectly: "It's stomach-churningly violent in places (they don't mess around, werewolves, do they?), and tender, and satisfyingly complicated: there's an involved plot about rival gangs that lends the book a great deal of noir cool.... And it's as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love death, and all those things we want out books to be about."

Rating: 4 and 1/2