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    Sharp Teeth: A Novel
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    Sharp Teeth: A Novel
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    Sharp Teeth: A Novel
    Ebook370 pages3 hours

    Sharp Teeth: A Novel

    By Toby Barlow

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Barlow’s imagery is magnificent . . . [A] kooky combo of grit, goofiness, and gusto . . . demonstrates that fantasy . . . may just be the place to find true exuberance and stylistic innovation.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

    An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.’s down and out to join their pack. Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kind-hearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack.

    Blending dark humor and epic themes with card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing, and carne asada tacos, Sharp Teeth captures the pace and feel of a graphic novel while remaining “as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it’s about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about” [Nick Hornby, The Believer].

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061843471
    Unavailable
    Sharp Teeth: A Novel

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    Reviews for Sharp Teeth

    4/5

    278 ratings35 reviews

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    • 5/5
      THIS WAS SO GOOD. This is probably a new favorite werewolf book.
    • 5/5
      This urban fever dream of a novel is pure gold from start to finish. Truly a masterpiece.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good fantasy about an L.A. dogcatcher caught up with otherworldly beings.
    • 3/5
      fiction (crime werewolves/lycanthropes in modern Los Angeles). This is written in verse, but a reasonable, flowing type of verse rather than that forced,
      "I'm going to arrange
      words awkwardly on the page
      and then call it:
      poetry."
      Which I have seen way too many times in books. Not to worry, this one does a decent job of it.

      This increases the appeal for reluctant readers/teens (Alex Award winner!), though the action-packed supernatural plot should be enough. It's not super graphically violent compared to say, Jo Nesbo, but there are definitely violent acts in here that aren't dwelled upon overmuch, as well as references to "adult relations" and not infrequent swearing, and some drug activity.
    • 5/5
      Loved this. It's like nothing else I've ever read. Not sure it needed to be in free verse, but somehow the staccato line structure fits. He addresses both the idea for the story and the structure he created in an interview included at the end of Harper Perennial's 2009 trade paperback edition."A few years ago, while I was on a long tour of duty in Chicago ..., I came across a portrait of a local dogcatcher in the Chicago Reader. It was a great piece, really vivid and rich. In it, the dogcatcher mentioned that packs usually revolve around one female dog. I was struck by that particular detail: if werewolf packs were organized by the same principle, and if the dogcatcher fell in love with the female wolf, I thought, that would make for an interesting premise for a novel.My initial intention was to try to write something that felt more open, that invited people into the story—a form in which the words worked more like crumbs of bread drawing you through the tale. And once I got going, the style really seemed to fit the nature of the novel. The mystery at the book's core was sort of hard-boiled, so a terse rhythm felt appropriate. In a way, I suppose I just wanted to write an adventure for the ADD generation, a novel propelled by energy and momentum. And the fact that I was writing about altered beasts seemed to marry well to an altered style of language."Works for me. Also rather nifty that Barlow lives in my neighborhood. Cool.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A quick read and an interesting revision/interpretation of the werewolf genre. While at first Sharp Teeth may seem contrived, between the "werewolf" tag and the unique format of the writing it's hard not to infer a gimmick, but through the depth of the novel proves these early notions incorrect and ultimately quite satisfying. While not mind-blowing by any stretch, this is an impressive debut novel from Barlow and possibly a perfect summer read.
    • 4/5
      A werewolf story told in verse. It was fun to read but something were a bit more difficult to "get" due to the form.
    • 5/5
      Wow, am I glad the front of this caught my eye at the library. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, between the graphic novel comparisons and free verse format. Happily, I found the verse to be almost mesmerizing, sucking me and and pulling me along until before I know it, another 50 pages have passed. The story itself is actually pretty classic… a struggle between the bad guys and the kinda good guys, with a love story woven in between. It’s hard to choose just one excerpt. Overall, I was just really, really impressed.

      Tomorrow she knows
      the tactics will have to change
      her luck has held three times
      and Lark has always said,
      luck is stupid as a cow
      and blind as a bat.

      What would you do
      to protect the love you have?
      Would you kill?
      Would you hunt to kill?
      Would you kill without mercy?
      And if you wouldn’t
      Then how precious is your love?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      At first I was put off by the novel in verse, the "Ovid-meets-Marvel" hype on the back, and the LA-ness of it all, but then I relaxed and enjoyed it. Though, like so much mainstream writing (and the NYT Science Times), this book has some really idiotic pop-Darwin ideas about gender and sexuality. Yawn. Still, werewolves are always interesting.
    • 4/5
      What would you do
      To protect the love you have?
      Would you kill?
      Would you hunt to kill?
      Would you kill without mercy?
      And if you wouldn't
      Then how precious is your love?
    • 5/5
      This is a novel written entirely in free verse. About werewolves. Seriously, absolutely nothing about this should work, and yet, somehow, absolutely everything does. The writing flows beautifully and effortlessly,and features some terrific imagery and some real emotional insight, so that what at first seems a faintly ridiculous gimmick quickly comes to feel like the most natural and fitting style of storytelling imaginable. And the story it's telling is a good one, a surprising page-turner with a satisfying plot and well-rendered characters. How the heck it ever occurred to someone to write this thing, let alone taking a chance on publishing it, I have no idea, but it makes me happy that they did.
    • 5/5
      A good-hearted dogcatcher falls for a beautiful woman, who is more than what she seems. The leader of a werewolf pack schemes and makes plans. Small time drug dens are being preyed upon by what appears to be wild animals. A vicious, bloody betrayal occurs, setting off a tumbling, Ruberg machine of events. This noir inspired werewolf story is captivating from the beginning and builds to a crescendo by the end. I've read several "novels in poems" and have general found books, in which prose is strung out in lines to pass it off as poetry. Sharp Teeth is refreshing in that it tells a story with a complex assortment of characters and weaves together the intricate threads of varying storylines, while still managing to actually be poetry. The writing is concise and sharp, every word made valuable, and the lines breaks create an actual rhythm to the reading. It has a beat to it, and whether the lines are short and clipped or long and easy, the choice of line breaks is purposeful and necessary. It actually adds to the reading. One of my favorite quotes from the book is the following: “And were you cornered by her,eye to eye,you would see thatthere are still some watchful creatureswhose essence lies unbound by words.There is still a wilderness.” So, yeah, this book is all kinds of awesome.
    • 3/5
      I never would have picked this up had a friend whose taste in books I very much admire not recommended it. The book is written in stanzas (non-rhyming, thankfully), though it could just as easily have been written in typical prose format. I would be cynical and say that the formating choice was made for marketing reasons, but it kind of worked for the story. I really enjoyed the plot--a bunch of werewolves in LA form various packs and basically try to destroy each other, all the while working toward mysterious goals. It's gritty, violent, and raw. Barlow's strength is his incredible ability to convey emotion in just a few words and this was definitely the draw for me. Unfortunately, there seemed to be too many different characters to keep in mind, which detracted from the story and made them feel two-dimensional. All in all, though, I really enjoyed this and would definitely read more from the same author in the future.
    • 5/5
      A book that goes by very quickly, I felt like I was watching a good movie. There's lots of blood and betrayal. With paranormal romance books feeding off of teen hormones for popularity, we need books like this to remind us that werewolves are meant to be scary, ugly beasts that will devour a man whole. And this being a first novel makes it all the more impressive.This is also the first modern free verse novel I've read, and I look forward to reading more in the near future. As this is a thriller, being written in verse was perfect, as it creates a rhythm that can be manipulated to best convey anything from tension in dialogue to just how fast a dog can tear out someone's throat. I'm glad this is my introduction to modern verse novels.I also liked the social commentary, how the lycanthropes use advertising to attain political goals that prevent dogs from being put down in shelters, and how quickly everyone forgets once the advertisements stop running. The desperation technology is described as having, hungry for our attention to determine its worth. Besides these bits, there's plenty more going on than a scary story, making this worth a second, perhaps third, read-through.I'm going to keep my eye on you, Toby Barlow.
    • 2/5
      Could not get past the poetry. Clever premise, just wasn't for me.
    • 4/5
      Sharp Teeth, a novel about werewolf packs in Los Angeles written in blank verse, is a cracking good read -- I couldn't put it down. Three separate packs of lycanthropes are vying for power in LA. One is made up of lawyers and professionals, led by Lark Tenant, infiltrating their way into the city's power structure. The Long Beach pack is a thug-like group led by Ray and his bitch Sasha, making cash by selling stolen cargo and taking out small meth cookers for a price. The final pack is a small group of surfers centered around Annie and Palo, bent on revenge for past wrongs. Mix in a Pasadena bridge tournament, a Mexican drug cartel, a dog-catcher in love, and an obsessed policeman -- and a highly entertaining, werewolfian mystery ensues.The poetry is very loose -- I'm not sure how poetic it actually is, but it's very readable. And there are moments of suggestion:So get this straightit's not the full moon.That's as ancient and ignorant as any myth.The blood just quickens with a thoughta discipline developsso that one can self-ignitereshaping form, becoming something rather more caninestill conscious, a little hungrier.It's a raw muscular power,a rich sexual energyand the food tastes a whole lot better.
    • 5/5
      A pack of feral dogsroam the hills of East LA. A closer look reveals, these are not ordinary dogs butwerewolves. They are searchingfor a rival pack. In thislycanthrope world,territory is everything.Caught in the middle of this,is a kindly dogcatcher and a young woman he loves, who also may have abandoned her pack.This is a dark, freshly originaltale of survival, told in a free verse style, that flows like a moon-lit stream.
    • 4/5
      An unusual book, because it's written in verse format. It surprised me when I opened it and would have stopped me buying it from the charity shop had I looked inside, but that gut-reaction would have deprived me of a most enjoyable read. A couple of pages in, and I no longer thought about it and was absorbed.On the whole I enjoyed the book a lot, although I wasn't all that comfortable with the depiction of the female characters. It was an interesting take on werewolves and an unusual format, which really worked.
    • 5/5
      There are werewolves in Los Angeles, and they don't just change during the full moon. They can change at will into powerful killing machines. They run in packs and operate like gangs or the mafia--plan illicit schemes, working as hired muscle in drug wars, warring with each other for territory.But there's another side to these werewolves as well. They are also people, often wounded, lonely people who long for a pack and who revel in the dog pleasures of eating, sleeping and sex.Barlow does a masterful job of creating tense, violent page turner, while also portraying the humanity of these creatures so that we empathize with them. For older high school students.
    • 4/5
      This is a novel in "free verse" which apparently means that the text has the first-glance appearance of being in the form of a poem but there aren't any rhymes. Whatever. It reads like novel with lean prose and it's a fast read. It's a story about a dogcatcher named Anthony and various gangs of people who just happen to be werewolves — weredogs, actually. These packs are in the midst of a various turf wars which also involve meth labs. One of the female weredogs takes a serious liking to Anthony but doesn't want him to know her secret. There's also a mystified cop trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The story's set in Southern California, present day and is by turns romantic, exciting and grisly. It's quite a cool read actually. I think I went through it in about four days of riding the train. (And I showed some restraint by actually borrowing this one from the local library.) Woof!
    • 3/5
      I was excited to read "Sharp Teeth" after it won the Alex Award in 2009 and reading a brief description of it online. When I first choose this book to read, I had no idea that is was written as poetry, so that threw me off a bit, and I really had a hard time understanding what exactly was going on for the first 40 pages. The author throws in a lot of different characters and jumps around quite a bit, so it took me awhile to get comfortable with the characters and plot.Once I got the hang of the story, I was mildly entertained. I mean, gangs of werewolves in L.A, cool, right? Well, the basis of the book is cool, but it sort of lacks something. I never really felt anything for the characters. And with the drugs and sex and violence, I'm not really sure who I would recommend this book to.
    • 2/5
      Too violent for me, and didn't suck me in.. Stopped reading after 80 pages. I didn't really care about the future f the characters. But my husband LOVED it. I can see how people would like it, and I will recommend it to some of the boys especially, but I didn't love it.
    • 4/5
      I found the concept of this book an interesting one, and thought that Barlow carried it off very well. The poetry was at times harrowing, and at other points very tender. I thought the story was weaved together nicely, and the poetic brevity of the lines made the images of brutality more incisive than they might otherwise have been in prose. I commend the willingness of Barlow to try something different and he succeeds admirably in my opinion.
    • 4/5
      This book was recently nominated for an Alex Award - meaning it was an adult book that teens would enjoy reading. I don't know if I'd recommend it for teens. They'd have to be pretty mature. But it's definitely an enjoyable read for adults. I loved the prose style. Had only read Ellen Hopkins novels in this style before. I loved LA setting and how something as unreal as werewolves could fit into such a realistic book. I was bothered by the one-bitch-per-pack rule. Most of the women did not do well in this novel.
    • 3/5
      Unique story about modern-day lycanthropes where their individual packs are now the equivalent of waring LA gang members. It took about 10 pages for my eyes to adjust to the prose as it is written in verse. I'd like to give this book a rousing thumbs up, but I really can't. Barlow kept introducing more characters and their storylines never developed. Same thing with the plot. I kept waiting for something to happen. It never did.
    • 3/5
      Sharp Teeth was quite an innovative read for me as I had never read prose written as verse before. I was dubious about finishing the book, after I had begun, but once involved with the story and characters I frankly found it to be quite entertaining. I was disappointed to finish it and will be looking for the next book by Toby Barlow.
    • 1/5
      When I found this book I thought the whole idea of the prose form for a story about dog catchers and Werewolves in contemporary LA was great. The novelty of the “prose” wore out in 10 pages. Prose form or not, at first the book was good, lots of solid character, interesting locations, no over used cliché. I mean werewolves playing bridge. I never really saw that one coming. However, I really had a hard time with werewolves playing a bridge tournament for 6 weeks? I don’t personally play bridge but, I am pretty sure most tournaments last two or three day tops. OK so faulting a book about werewolves for it accuracy of bridge torments sounds pretty picky. But the real problem is this, the author comes up with a large list of unique characters put them in unexpected situations and then nothing else happens. The author pushes the characters along a ragged plot line ignorant of where they are going. He wraps that ignorance is mystery and intrigue which he tries to pass off as mood. The conclusion of book felt like the author had become so attached to his characters that he wrapped each one up in a neat little packages with pretty bows on them. The ending becomes the biggest cliché of the book! I was surprise he didn’t end the book with phrase “…and they all lived happily ever after!” This book was sad, it squander lot of good ideas. It never really dealt with any question deeper than. “Hey, what’s the plan?” And in the end it couldn’t even answer that.
    • 5/5
      Like no other book I have read. I burned through this in a matter of days (which is something for me since I normally read slowly). Having a thriller written in poetry was at first a bit odd... but then I fell into it and could not let it go. The beauty of the language and the organization of the words on the page gave weight to what would normally be just another paragraph of a story. Suddenly, simple sentences about events were so much more meaningful when dribbled out in a creative way. Brilliant book. I only hope for a sequel. oh yeah, take good care of your dog.
    • 5/5
      One may at first be put off by the notion of a werewolf novel as an epic poem. In the minds of many - too many - poetry is an aged, calcified form, difficult to penetrate, and approached not for fun but out of a sense of intellectual obligation. Yet any such concerns should be immediately thrust aside by any potential reader of Toby Barlow's clever, compelling debut novel, "Sharp Teeth." Barlow's plot, at its surface, is a straight forward modern werewolf tale - a pack living in LA under the command of Lark have big plans, having to do with dog pounds. From there the story branches our into many directions - a love story between a werewolf woman and the novel's protagonist, several survivors of a decimated pack dealing with their loneliness, and other wolves hungry for the vengeance of blood. The poetry in which all of this comes is delivered in language at once subtle and raw, visceral as Barlow's topic and modern his book's setting. For example, when writing about a lovers wonder about how well he knows his love. He worries that this Is beginning to feel like driving a car through the mountains, finding a great song on the radio and then as you pass out of its range hearing it flicker and fade. Snap, pop and then its gone. Or another musing Tomorrow she knows the tactics will have to change her luck has held three times and Lark has always said, luck is stupid as a cow and blind as a bat. What would you do to protect the love you have? Would you kill? Would you hunt to kill? Would you kill without mercy? And if you wouldn't Then how precious is your love? Yet for all of this pretty poetry, Barlow never forgets the tradition from which he springs, that Homer and Shakespeare never meant for their audiences to be left to a narrow band of dutiful intellectuals, but saw themselves as appealing to a mass audience. And so, like these predecessors works, "Sharp Teeth" offers no shortage of breathtaking violence, and lurid bawdy details, and fine humor (a group of dogs hustling cards being my personal favorite). Barlow milks moon and dog imagery for every drop of entertainment, all delivered to the reader in a spectacular package. Readers will recognize much of "Sharp Teeth" as familiar, a crime noir taken to the next level, with all of the twists, turns, and character archetypes one might expect. The crime boss down on his luck plotting his way back, his scheming second in command, the beautiful dame who isn't sure what love is, the haggard cop who thinks once too often about eating his gun. Yet again, Barlow's rich vivid language and his mastery of imagery bring all of these things to us in a way that is both fresh and rewarding. Readers who allow themselves to be put off by thoughts of epic poetry will be the loosers, never having enjoyed the bite of "Sharp Teeth."
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. I read a lot of werewolf/ urban fantasy books, so perhaps was not as startled as some reviewers by the idea that werewolves merit a book. And I did find quite a bit of the poetry to be more short sentences that anything of a higher literary order. But there were scenes and snippets I really liked, and plot twists and turns that I enjoyed. And although the tone was so cool and detatched, when the hero ached, so did we, which is always the sign of a good book. Highly recommeneded, interesting and a keeper.