My thoughts on The Spirit Bares Its Teeth and other stuff
Last weekend I purchased The Spirit Bares Its Teeth from my local Barnes & Noble. I started reading it on Saturday and it barely left my hands until I finished it on Sunday!
The reason I decided to get TSBIT is because I had read the first and previous book by the same author, Andrew Joseph White, and loved it. His first book, Hell followed With Us, was visceral, raw, and packed a punch right in the queer, religious trauma. While TSBIT has many of the same themes, I found the story to be even more engaging. Spoilers ahead and all that.
Set in 1883, our main character Silas attempts to escape his future that was decided for him by his violet eyes: to be a Speaker's wife, perfect and submissive, never speaking unless spoken to, and certainly not opening the Veil and communicating with the spirits of the dead. When Silas gets caught, he is sent to a boarding school/sanitorium that promises his parents and his betrothed that he will be healed of his "Veil sickness," including his trans identity, autism, and desire to become a surgeon.
I found Silas to be extremely relatable in so many ways. From very early on in the book, he talks about the rabbit in his chest. The rabbit is the voice of Silas' anxious thoughts, becoming louder in vulnerable moments. The trait of personifying a portion of your thoughts is something I also do. It surprised me to see that represented here, as I've never seen anyone talk about it before.
Silas also briefly touches on the struggle of knowing the correlation or causation of the different parts of his identity, which is something I've also struggled with. It's hard to know what is a symptom and what is a source when the pieces of what makes you YOU does just that, makes you a whole being, pieces of a puzzle or threads woven together.
One of my favorite parts of the book is when Silas meets Daphne for the first time. At this point in the book, Silas has been at the school for a little while. He knows that it is not pleasant when the suitors of the teen girls at the school come to visit. When his betrothed comes to see him and the door closes behind the two of them, Silas is scared and wary of what's about to happen. They had only met once in passing, when Silas had been caught trying to escape. In this meeting, his suitor introduces themself as Daphne, not the name Silas has known them by until this point. Here, literally as we turn the page, Silas realizes what Daphne is telling him. In this moment there is such relief and hope amidst all the pain he's been going through.
I love Silas and Daphne's relationship. They are like two sides of the same coin, the same and opposite. Their meetings are few and brief, as well as the letters from Daphne, but they are like anchors as Silas navigates the abuse he endures at the school. With each other they don't have to hide any parts of themselves. Silas talks about being in love with her, but it's so much deeper than that in such a beautiful way.
One other thought I had about this book is something about the magic system. In this universe, the ability to open the Veil and speak to the dead is determined by your eye color, specifically if you are born with violet-colored eyes. If you are familiar with Tumblr lore, you may remember a popular post that went around for a while about "Alexandria's Genesis." It was a made-up condition that caused you to have violet eyes. Not only that, it meant you didn't have periods (but were still fertile), and didn't grow hair anywhere besides your head. I bring this up because it was what I thought of when I first read the description for TSBIT.
The Alexandria's Genesis post was iconic, mainly because a significant amount of Tumblr users thought it was real, but also because it sparked conversation around Mary Sue characters, women who are so ideal and likeable in every way. I doubt it was intentional by the author, but I love how Silas is very opposite that ideal, but he shares the violet eyes. Silas' character and his internal world are such a contrast from what the external world sees him as. There's a part in the book where he talks about how his parents and tutors would strip away his layers over and over, trying to find the perfect woman underneath, but there would never be more to find. He was only himself.
Overall, I loved The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. It was, as they say, unputdownable. I didn't even touch on the horror elements of this book. It had a constant anxiety and dread throughout the story, up through the last chapter. I think this type of horror is much more my speed. Those who know me know that I am very much not a fan of horror/thriller films. I guess reading about it is easier than watching it.
So, I was taking issue with Blogspot and its lack of customization. I didn't want to get into the html coding whatever; that stuff is jargon to me. I started looking for alternatives yesterday and found bear blog. I pretty much immediately moved all my posts over! I'm a little obsessed with its simplicity. The only issue is that if I want to add pictures and make my blog "discoverable" I'll have to pay $5 a month. That isn't bad at all! But, I think for now I'm alright with keeping things text-based. Taking pictures was stressing me out anyway. As for being discoverable, I think I'd like to build up the blog a little first before I open that door. Not only that, I don't know what this will become.
I started this blog so I'd have an outlet for talking about my collections (which I still plan on doing), but I realize there's more I wouldn't mind putting out there. I know it's only been a couple weeks, but if blogging ends up being a lasting hobby, I expect Jojo's Jumble will evolve and take on new forms.