Barlow, Toby: Sharp Teeth
Sharp Teeth
Writer: Toby Barlow
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 308
When I first heard about this book on the SHU Writing Popular Fiction board, I laughed. A werewolf story written in verse form? Are you KIDDING me? Of course, for all my love of the werewolf, I've struggled with my love of poetry, hence my immediate disdain.
However, Greg, my fiance, found the book in the store and was entranced by the design of the book and intrigued by the whole verse-story concept. So he bought it. And then I started hearing that despite the verse, it's a really good book that's a really easy read.
So when I hit a OMG-I-HAVE-NOTHING-I-WANT-TO-READ slump after Vicki Pettersson's The Scent of Shadows, Barlow's book seemed like it'd be a perfect fit. Boy, was it ever.
The premise: it's poetry, an epic verse poem if you will, telling the story of the competing packs of werewolves in L.A. It's a horror story, in that the werewolves aren't anything at all like we see on the UF shelves, and it's a love story, but nothing like you see in paranormal romance. Everyone is at risk of getting devoured by a competing wolf pack, and unfortunately for dogcatcher Anthony, he's stuck in the middle, all because the girl he loves is a werewolf and he doesn't even know it. And, of course, because he's a DOGCATCHER, of all things.
Spoilers ahead.
I thought this would be a difficult read, I really did. But it took no time to get used to the lilt and rhythm and beauty of the verse. The book is divided into five parts, and each part is divided into chapter/verses. Fortunately, each verse focuses on a particular character's story, so you don't have to worry about head-hopping once you realize the roman numeral signifies a change of pace.
There is some beautiful writing in this book, and that's saying something given the subject content. These aren't just werewolves that change at the full moon and take down a deer or two. No, these guys will hunt humans too, and when it comes to the clean up, it's all digested: skin, blood, and bone. Gruesome, no doubt, but what else would you expect from a werewolf? Barlow gives us monsters, sympathetic, but still monsters. Like I said, these guys are definitely different than the werewolves we're used to.
There are several plot threads to follow: first, you've got Anthony's. He gets a job as a dogcatcher and hates his co-workers and boss, and one by one, they end up missing or dead. When a cute girl he meets as a bar says her brother's looking for work, he's happy to give the man the job, and ends up with the cute girl as a girlfriend too. What he doesn't know is that the cute girl, who is never named in the book (oddly enough, she's the only woman who isn't), is a werewolf, and her brother isn't related to her at all, but one of the pack.
But things go to hell in a handbasket when one of the pack members betrays the pack and has a rival pack kill most of them and recruit the rest. The girl, safe with Anthony, escapes. Bone, "her brother," is recruited. Lark, the pack leader, is gone and comes to find the mess that Baron, the Judas of his pack, left behind. Lark's story is that of survival, building a new pack, and trying to find out what became of his leads from when his pack was still alive. You see, he's investigating the other werewolf packs in the area, and one of them is the one Baron defected to.
Then you've got Peabody, the cop working the missing/murdered dogcatcher case, who keeps getting odd phone calls telling him to pay attention to certain dogs in certain places. What the reader soon learns is that those certain dogs belong to a third pack, who are punishing the men who sold them into dogfighting. Hence, the dead/missing dogcatchers.
How does all of this come together? Very subtly. I was never sure how this story was going to end up, but it was fascinating watching all the parts fit into place. My heart nearly broke when Anthony thought his girl died in the fire at his house and he inadvertently got recruited by Annie's pack and turned. Oh, how I was terrified that he would end up killing his girl or she would kill him, but thankfully, we get a happy ending. Lark's new pack breaks up the tensions between Baron's and Annie's pack, but thanks to Peabody and the Feds he brought in, most all of the dogs in all the packs are shot dead, leaving him to start over, again. Which was a nice note at the end, getting the subtle indication that Lark killed Baron and Baron wasn't coming back to fulfill his master plan of putting a werewolf in the hands of all the L.A. households and having those wolves turn on their masters to take over the city. How I loved the ending for Bonnie. So sweet, and so appropriate.
Also interesting was the knowledge that different wolves have different ways to focus and run their pack, but ALL of them revolve around a "hive" female. In Lark's pack, the girl didn't sleep around (hell, I'm not even certain she slept with Lark), and that kept the pack together. In Ray/Baron's pack, Sasha was used as a reward to wolves Ray wanted to promote in the pack. In Lark's new pack, in the hands of Maria whose basically their LEADER, sex is used as a reward but also a bonding mechanism, which is missing in Ray/Baron's pack. I never figured out how Annie functioned in her pack, other than the fact she WAS their leader and the dogs would do anything to protect her.
Fascinating dynamics, and I loved every minute of it.
My Rating
Must Have: but oh so close to being on the "keeper shelf." I'm no poetry expert, so I can't rate how well Barlow does his verse, but I can say he mixes beauty and readability with a fantastic, expert touch. I would've avoided this book, despite my werewolf fetish, because of the form its told (verse), but that would've been a shame and a mistake. It takes no time to get used to the beauty and rhythm of this book, and the story is complex and engaging, as is the writing itself. Werewolf fans, this is a must. I remember when I was at SHU, there was a panel of editors and agents talking about what they'd like to see in the market, and one of them said she'd like to see something rise up as the "definitive werewolf novel" like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire is the definitive book (well her series really) on vamps. I really, really think that Barlow's Sharp Teeth would've been exactly what she was looking for. This book is not to be missed.
Next up:
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier