Book Review: Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Book #170 of 2022:

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

This title is too straightforward for too long, telling the story of a woman getting bit by a werewolf with little to distinguish it from any other iteration of that plot. It’s all competent, but somewhat unremarkable, and as I read along, I kept impatiently thinking, “Yes, and?” while waiting for some further complicating detail. There’s a hint of what I was after around a third of the way through the text, when the protagonist discloses a childhood assault and starts considering all the rage deep inside her as something that might be universal to women and now possible to express in her wolf form. But I still don’t feel especially hooked on this narrative.

I think part of the problem for me as a reader is that this novel skews close to a few genres that I’m fundamentally less interested in: paranormal romance, romantic comedy, and Hallmark Channel Original Movies. Our heroine is a financially-secure career woman in the big city who has returned to her hometown to support her pregnant sister, where she soon sparks up a fling with the hunky friend who used to have a crush on her back in high school. There’s steamy PG-13 action and tedious drama caused by miscommunication, but as with the supernatural angle, it all seems very by-the-book — as though author Rachel Harrison were content to mash up those tropes without ever quite finding an original spin on any of them.

The end result is a work that I like just fine but do not love. More worldbuilding or other creativity on the fantasy/horror side, or more leaning into the inherent humor of the disparate elements combining, and this could have been a real winner. But as is, although I’m sure there are audiences who will enjoy it better, it gets only a three-star rating from me.

[Content warning for incest, body horror, and gore.]

★★★☆☆

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