This book was really, really weird. Just look at that synopsis. An island with fish that save people from cancer? A half-human, half-fish boy named Teeth? In another author's hands Teeth could have spiraled out of control, but as with her novel Gone, Gone, Gone Hannah Moskowitz creates an insightful story, using magical realism to heighten its intensity. Safe to say, she is now one of my favorite writers. She can haunt me anytime she wants to. This is how I like storytelling to be. I just wish I wasn't such a ghost myself these days, I might have enjoyed this more, so skewer between now and then, I am skewered between then and before. But maybe, maybe not, not just yet. BOO! haha.

Here's where I was supposed to describe the characters, but I changed my mind. Go meet them. Go fall in love with them. Go suffer for them. Go laugh with them. Just go, dammit, just go.] As much as I loved the central idea of the book, there were times when I completely disconnected from it. Like when you’re talking on the phone and the network’s down so the voice at the other end keeps breaking now and again. Something like that. The whole picture was brilliant-weird and I loved it, but there were all these tiny details or ‘um, what?’ moments in between that were just weird-weird and lost on me. But the themes in Teeth are significantly darker than they were in Gone, Gone, Gone, making me hesitant to recommend it to those unable to cope with issues of serious and repetitive sexual abuse. Teeth is dark. Teeth is very, very gothic and depressing and sad. Sometimes I wondered if it was too sad, too dark, too emotive. There’s very little cheer and fun to be had in it. But it turns out it’s just the right amount of dark, sad and emotive for me because I still loved it. I'll admit I hated Diana at first but if I was in Rudy's place I'd want her too. Except that he didn't want her. You have to read this book, in other Little Red Lung's words. Please do read it.But there's a cost of sorts. Enter Fishboy, a.k.a. Teeth - most charming merboy of a peculiar, f-bomb dropping sort I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. He also uses the term "whatever" for words he can't define. He's got sharp teeth, webbed fingers, silver scaly tail, scrawny, and in Rudy's words "The ugliest thing I have ever seen." Teeth is one of those books that is incredibly hard to review. I know that there are plenty of reviewers out there who liked this book, but for me it was a novel that I just could not connect with at this time. It is full of deep metaphorical situations that you could spend hours ruminating over. It is complex and beautiful with amazing writing, but in the end it isn't one of those books that blew me away. If you are in the mood for a dark, gritty read that is brimming with moral questions read this. If you are looking for an interesting and entertaining story, I cannot say I would recommend this one. However, sometimes Moskowitz wasn't very descriptive. I thought the island where the story was set was a part of the US. Then very explicitly we were told it was not. In that too she reminded me of The Man who Rained by Ali Shaw, where he described a place somewhere between the US and Canada, benign nowhere. Except that, Shaw's writing is more decorative. Though Moskwitz's subtle style suits her, it was even magical, bleak, drear, just right, so write away Ms. Moskowitz.

I felt that the MC was believable. His every action, reaction, pain, selfishness, all his thoughts seemed real so that made him real. Though I must point out the profanity felt really excessive here, it felt more like a hindrance than it actually added anything to the authenticity. Maybe I am getting old, haha.I knew this book wouldn't disappoint, and it didn't. The only thing I'm pissed about right now is that Hannah Moskowitz did it again: made me fall in love with fictional characters. You really have to stop doing that, you know. It hurts. A lot. (No, don't stop. I'm secretly masochistic.)