Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America

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However, sometimes Moskowitz wasn't very descriptive. I thought the island where the story was set was a part of the US. Then very explicitly we were told it was not. In that too she reminded me of The Man who Rained by Ali Shaw, where he described a place somewhere between the US and Canada, benign nowhere. Except that, Shaw's writing is more decorative. Though Moskwitz's subtle style suits her, it was even magical, bleak, drear, just right, so write away Ms. Moskowitz.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review. Teeth is just as much of a complex character as Rudy. Being abandoned by his mother at four years old because he turned into a fishboy, Teeth now hates humans. He hates the fishermen that come to kill his siblings & he hates the humans that attempt to bond with him- only to push him away. Teeth's emotional damage is intensified when he reveals he has been repeatably raped. Desperate to get out off the island, but harboring his own feelings of guilt & shame, there's nothing left to do but find some sort of solace in the companionship of Rudy. I liked that this book ended on a hopeful note, and it seemed that Rudy managed to find the right balance as he did the right thing for Teeth and his brother. It gives me hope that there is a chance that man might someday get the bigger picture and find the optimum relationship between ourselves and our environment. You know, I would kill to be able to write like you do. Like, literally. I would partake in the act of murdering another human being, if doing so will allow me to be as talented as you are. And if you love Moskowitz, it is likely that her ability to make you feel, to illicit a remarkable amount of empathy for her characters, to bare their soul to you – is one of the biggest attractions. That is what you consistently get with Moskowitz – so if you’re up for another beautifully written tale with a fresh bunch of characters waiting to make your heart bleed, then this is for you. If you’re in the mood for something that will make you laugh and feel good, then maybe you’re better off moving along.We are a groan away from a watery death, and we'll all drown without even waking up. because we're so used to sleeping through unrelenting noise." That is as true in Teeth as it was in Gone, Gone, Gone. Teeth and Rudy are incredibly complex characters – amazingly flawed and dysfunctional. Lonely, desperate, passionate, broken and utterly charming. I’m pretty sure there’s never been a book like Teeth in YA, and I say that not only for the strangeness of its vision, but also for its unusual maturity. Enveloped in magic, Teeth is a story about love, responsibility and sexual identity, where even seemingly innocent things (like magic healing fish) have a dark underside to them. This has to be one of the oddest books I've ever read, ever! Having read Gone Gone Gone by Hannah, I knew her writing was brilliant, her words are some that will enrapture you one hundred percent, and her stories are filled with genuine emotion. Teeth is no exception. We embark on an extraordinary tale of love and loneliness, with characters that are both fantastically bizarre, and incredibly charismatic. What don't I love about this book? I can't really name anything. I guess the worst thing is that it made me think about ALL THE THINGS. Which isn't a bad thing at all, is it?

Teeth, the ugly monster who lives in the ocean, can't swim, can't breath underwater and can't walk, because he has no legs, because he is a mermaid or is it merman? Teeth is stubborn, cheeky and adorable. How Rudy's described him, he isn't the most beautiful thing, no, he is the ugliest thing ever, he is no hero, and he is no brains. Although Teeth can be the biggest metaphor for Queers, it's still can be a metaphor for power, revolution, art, creativity or even you. He can be anything and I salute the author for the brilliant writing. But the themes in Teeth are significantly darker than they were in Gone, Gone, Gone, making me hesitant to recommend it to those unable to cope with issues of serious and repetitive sexual abuse. Teeth is dark. Teeth is very, very gothic and depressing and sad. Sometimes I wondered if it was too sad, too dark, too emotive. There’s very little cheer and fun to be had in it. But it turns out it’s just the right amount of dark, sad and emotive for me because I still loved it. I'm so strong! Nobody hurts me. Nobody can hurt me. This is my game and I didn't do anything wrong and I'm just trying to help and it's not my fault, I didn't do anything, they hurt me, and I hate this."

I have to admit I rolled my eyes when I found out how Teeth came to be. Seriously? I won't spill it here but it was beyond ludicrous. I am sure there was probably some big hidden inference, but I failed to grasp it and it was just nasty.

Rudy -our narrator- is so loud, and talkative. This book is written directly from Rudy's heart and mind, every word is filed to the brim with emotions that you have to remind yourself that Rudy isn't real, and that he is just a fictional character, but the writing style makes you believe his voice, hear it and feel it deep down it actually makes you wince. More than anything, I love how I can see myself re-reading this in the future and getting something new from it each time.This book is sad, beautiful, magical and heartbreaking. The ending tore me up a little because I didn't feel like I had closure but that's my issue, I think. I became completely invested in these spellbinding, loveable characters and I didn't want to let them go. My parents keep him cooped up because they’re afraid that someone will cough on him, but I do it because not everyone is as receptive to endless talk about octopuses and body fluids as we are, you weird kid, come curl up and tell me and leave the normal people out of it.The story centers from the perspective of Rudy, a teen who moves to a town in a last hope effort for a cure for his 5-year old brother Dylan, who has cystic fibrosis. The fish on this "magic island" as Rudy recounts, are said to cure ailments of many kinds, and for a time, eating the fish is actually improving the health of Rudy's little brother. Here's where I was supposed to describe the characters, but I changed my mind. Go meet them. Go fall in love with them. Go suffer for them. Go laugh with them. Just go, dammit, just go.] This book is not a ghost story but it haunted me. Certainly, Moskowitz's writing is haunting. I am not really sure what this book is, how to put it but that's not what makes it so haunting. It's the fact the book knows exactly what it is and how you feel about it that is completely up to you. That's what haunts us. All those words, there, not there. Alone. Try to catch the glimpses of them as they flit by. Despite what I said, this book is full of ghosts. Enter Teeth, a.k.a. fishboy. He is a half-teenage boy, half-fish. He swims around the waters of the island, protecting the magic Enki fish. He also can't breathe underwater, and he speaks good English, but sometimes replaces words he doesn't know with "whatever".