The spirit bares its teeth

Title:

Author:

Summary:

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its guts to the world—so long as the school doesn’t break him first. -- Amazon.

Audience:

Grades 10-12. Peachtree Teen.

Ages 14 and Up. Peachtree Teen.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

381 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Gothic fiction.

Fantasy fiction

Subject Term:

Transgender people -- Fiction.

Autism -- Fiction.

Boarding schools -- Fiction.

Schools -- Fiction.

Secret societies -- Fiction.

Ghosts -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Peachtree Teen,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9781682636114

Publication Information:

Atlanta, Georgia : Peachtree Teen, [2023]

Call Number:

YA WHITE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003685354	New Young Adult	WHITE	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
A Stonewall Honor Book in Young Adult Literature!

A blood-soaked and nauseating triumph that cuts like a scalpel and reads like your darkest nightmare.

New York Times bestselling author Andrew Joseph White returns with the transgressive gothic horror of our time!

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness--a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness--and shipped away to Braxton's Finishing School and Sanitorium. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton's innards and expose its guts to the world--so long as the school doesn't break him first.

Featuring an autistic trans protagonist in a historical setting, Andrew Joseph White's much-anticipated sophomore novel does not back down from exposing the violence of the patriarchy and the harm inflicted on trans youth who are forced into conformity.

A Stonewall Honor Book in Young Adult Literature
A Chicago Public Library 'Best of the Best' Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book!
A Booklist Editors' Choice
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year!
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Author Notes

Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022 and has a habit of cuddling random street cats. Andrew writes about trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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.)