Sharp Teeth

Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow Barlow's free verse novel about the werewolves of L.A. may be a conceit, but I'll be damned if it isn't one that delivers.

Could this book have succeeded as a prose novel? Of course it would have, but Barlow taps into powerful imagery that emphasizes the highs and lows, gore and tenderness that would not have struck home so effectively in a more typical prose format.

I did not know what I was getting into at all with this one, I'd seen it on some year-end lists awhile back and remember it arriving and leaving the new rack at the library but hadn't picked it up. From the cover design I got the impression that it was a young adult horror book and I wasn't in the mood at the time.

If I had picked up the book and flipped through the pages before checking it out and bringing it home I might have just put it back on the shelf. A free verse novel, about werewolves?

But it works, trust me trust me trust me, it works.