{"id":2031,"date":"2020-07-12T12:11:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T16:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2020-07-07T12:11:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T16:11:45","slug":"book-review-teeth-in-the-mist-by-dawn-kurtagich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2031","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Cross Posted from the Circulation Desk.*<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Teeth in the Mist<\/em>\u00a0by Dawn Kurtagich<\/p>\n

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978-0316478472<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD<\/p>\n

Teeth in the Mist<\/em>\u00a0tells the stories of three young women, each from a different time period, navigating the terrors of Mill House, a large house located on Devil\u2019s Peak in an isolated part of Wales. Hermione Smith, writing in 1583, is the young wife of John Smith, the original owner of Mill House, who made a Faustian deal with the Devil.\u00a0 Roan Eddington, living in 1851, is the recently orphaned ward of Dr. Maudley, the eccentric owner of Mill House at that time. Zoey Root, in the present day, is a runaway who inherited occult powers from her father, who went insane after a visit to Mill House, and has gone there looking for answers.<\/p>\n

Kurtagich can really write. The gloomy atmosphere and the evil of Mill House and the mountain are described so effectively that the book is an immersive, visual experience. It has a clever design as well: at times, words are placed deliberately on the page in specific locations with different type and sizes to make a particular impact; there are pages that appear to be pieces of old documents and letters; the story is told not just through traditional narrative, but through diary entries, Facebook posts, transcribed recordings and camera footage, flashbacks, and multiple points of view. It\u2019s a lot to balance. While Hermione\u2019s story is not as strong (she\u2019s just not that dynamic a character), Roan\u2019s is dramatic, suspenseful, and terrifying, and Zoey\u2019s has slowly building suspense that ratchets up as it progresses until an abrupt ending. Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt enough that I was left wondering how and why things wrapped up (or were left loose) the way they were. In sum,\u00a0Teeth in the Mist<\/em>\u00a0is a gripping, compelling, violent, creatively designed, and atmospheric Gothic novel, but with a disappointing ending. I picked up this book with only the knowledge that it was on the preliminary ballot for this year\u2019s Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel. Although it didn\u2019t make the final ballot, it definitely deserved the additional recognition. It won\u2019t be to everyone\u2019s taste, but for the right kids, it will be a guilty pleasure. Recommended.<\/p>\n

Contains: Witchcraft, the occult, body horror, violence, gore, incest, cannibalism, murder, torture, sexual situations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Cross Posted from the Circulation Desk.* Teeth in the Mist\u00a0by Dawn Kurtagich Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019 ISBN-13: 978-0316478472 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD Teeth in the Mist\u00a0tells the stories of three young women, each from a different time period, navigating the terrors of Mill House, a large house located […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,119,53,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-horror","category-witches","category-ya-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-wL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}