What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo (review)

Szabo, Rose What Big Teeth. Farrar, 2021 [400p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780374314309 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780374314316 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 8-12

An unfortunate incident at boarding school sends Eleanor home to a family she hasn't seen in eight years. Her sister, cousin, and grandfather still regularly turn into bloodthirsty wolves to hunt in the nearby forest; her mother, half covered in sucking sea polyps, spends her days mostly in barrel of water; her witchy grandmother Persephone presides over them all—and normal, everyday Eleanor still doesn't belong. Right before her sudden death, Persephone makes Eleanor promise to take care of the family; when it becomes clear that Eleanor cannot manage her family's violent chaos, she writes to her other grandmother in Paris, begging for her help, but what she gets is only life-threatening trouble. This is deliciously Gothic and wonderfully creepy, especially as Szabo sinks the readers into what is clearly a very strange place with descriptions of bloody family feasts and ambiguous magic but then matches it with a matter-of-fact narrative tone from Eleanor, who looks upon the whole affair as messy but familiar. Eleanor herself is a bit of a contradiction, sympathetic in her insecurities but terrifying in not only the power she eventually gains but also her thirst for it. The tight control threatens to tip into chaos at any moment, keeping the reader breathless with anticipation of what is certainly going to be a terrifying climax. Fans of Leno's Horrid (BCCB 9/20) and Ernshaw's The Wicked Deep (BCCB 3/18) will appreciate this story of family legacies gone wrong.