Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After her beloved cousin, Sam, is found dead in a shallow creek on the campus of Huntsworth Academy, Marin James vows to get revenge. She knows his death was not an accident, and better than that, she knows who is responsible.
Adrian Hargraves and Henry Wu, two untouchable rich boys, who are among the most socially elite in the school had befriended Sam, and pulled him into their toxic world.
Marin is determined to find the truth of what happened to Sam. She ends up infiltrating Huntsworth as a totally new person: Jamie Vain. She’s after one thing, revenge.
From the very start, this novel gave me HEAVY Foul Is Fair vibes. Everything from the set-up, to the strong focus on getting revenge, and the narrative voice, all reminded me of that book, which I loved.
I listened to the audio and thought the narrator did a great job with the initial tone; it was morose, and felt heavy and serious. However, as it continued, I couldn’t help but feel that it was too one-note, which started to get old.
I feel like the further I read, the more it started to lose me. It was a progression of disinterest.
The first half was really strong, I did love the set-up and how mysterious it all felt, but the closer it got to the end, the more it went off the rails for me.
I will say, I do feel this is categorized well as Dark Academia. Over the years, it seems a lot of books get called that, but only loosely fall into that category. This does have all the necessary components of a solid Dark Academia, even though the execution fell a little short, IMO.
I enjoyed the philosophical concepts that were incorporated into the story. I liked how much of a personal battle the MC was having with her own mission and place in this story.
That aspect was really well done. I think if you enjoy this sort of dark tone, paired with a more cerebral storyline, you’ll like this one a lot. Sadly, for me, the ending just left me lost. IDK what the heck happened.
Nevertheless, I am glad that I picked this one up. I would definitely read more from this author in the future, and I know a lot of Readers are going to enjoy this one.
Thank you to the publisher, Roaring Brook Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I really appreciate it!!