For the shark lovers in your life

Thanks to a newly discovered YouTuber, Mercedes, I was made aware of what promised to be a very beautiful and interesting graphic novel by the name of Everything Is Teeth. Written by Evie Wyld and illustrated by Joe Sumner, this is the story of Evie's childhood obsession with sharks. It was the artwork that drew me in. Both cartoonish and realistic, the characters (most especially the sharks) seem to come to life with every turn of the page. The story follows her as she travels with her family to Australia to visit relatives and there her fascination with sharks truly blossoms. It's a rather surreal portrayal of a little girl who seems to live in a world which is invisible to all others. As she walks down the sidewalk to school what follows along in her wake? A shark. As she lounges on the couch why must she keep her legs from touching the floor? A shark. It's bizarre and at times slightly disjointed. I'm still not entirely sure I understood her relationship with her family or what exactly was going on with her brother. Maybe that's the point? I'd say this book is worth looking into for the artwork (not the cartoonish bits which I didn't really like as much) alone. However, I must caution that there are some rather gory bits if that's not your cup of tea. 😈

The cover

The inside cover

An example of the cartoonish mixed with realistic

Probably my favorite page

This is the mildest of the gore

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

If this was Shark Week I'd be super relevant

The following book was kindly sent to me by the author, Matthew Danza, who requested a review.

I'm going to come right out and say that I didn't care for The Fin. I can see why some people would enjoy it but this just wasn't the book for me. There's a lot of teenage angst combined with gore which sounds like a good time but I felt like it didn't really go anywhere. The story follows Lee, an annoying and obnoxious teenager, living on a small island with her twin brother James and her father. (There's a secondary storyline about her estrangement with her mother which was awkwardly included but ultimately went nowhere.) Her good friend (who obviously likes her and who she likes back) is named Adam and he rounds out the main cast of characters. Based on the title of this book and the cover art, it's obvious that this is a story about a shark attack. Firstly, I felt the storyline was excruciatingly slow especially for a novella. Also, totally predictable. (And I think the author was going for a Jaws homage but it felt super forced and corny to me.) The only good thing about this book was that it was mercifully short. I think that the author was trying to do too much for the length of a novella. This was a 1/10 for me.

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **