The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

I just finished the Spirit that bares its teeth by Andrew Joseph White and here is my review.

The Veil between the living and the dead has thinned and the violet eyes mediums can open the veil and speak with the dead, under the guidance of the Royal speaker society.

Silas Bell is a biological female but knows he was born in the wrong body. His parents paid a fortune to tutors to hide the things they considered not normal. He would give anything to be a surgeon and not someone's wife but it's 1883 and this is just not possible.

Silas tries to escape his fate of the arranged marriage but fails spectacularly in front of the whole society. He is then diagnosed with Veil sickness, a mysterious disease that only affects Violet eyed women and sends them into madness. He is then shipped to Braxton's Finishing school and Sanitorium... One step away from being Bedlam.

The place deals out daily torture and the end game.... To be cured and become a wife or you disappear. Silas can't ignore the ghosts in the building begging him for help and sets out to find out the real reason the school is operating but will he make it out alive?

The cover of this book is amazing. It was the first thing I noticed when I received it in the mail. It was almost too pretty to read. The synopsis was so original I was really excited to start reading it.

Silas (born Gloria), knows in his heart he isn't a girl and the idea of living his life as one, is more than just depressing. I loved how Silas' brother allowed him to dress like a boy and undertake practicing surgery on pigs. George even used Silas' name and not the one he was born with. It was interesting to see the flip of George on Silas towards the end of the book. I loved Daphne. I think she was my favorite character in the book.

It was interesting how the author used the concept of veil sickness to reign in and control women who could do something that regular men couldn't and used their independence and obvious anger for being repressed as a symptom of an illness to lock them up and “rehabilitate them”. Excellent writing and the book was very well researched, you could tell.

The book was pretty graphic in places and covers a lot of more disturbing content which I loved but you may want to make sure this book is good with your triggers before reading.

I read the whole thing in one sitting and I was really pleased with it from start to finish.

5 stars! Thank you @penginrandomca for my gifted copy.