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

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She grins. Her cheeks are getting all flushed. She gets more turned on when we talk about books than when we kiss. I shouldn't be okay with that. I'm beginning to think I'm using this girl as some kind of symbol and that's really not okay with me. I wish I were a different person. I kiss her like that will fix me. The relationships between the characters were so beautiful and endearing that they just ... got to me like few manage. Do we need words to express what we feel? Do we need to put a name on a box? I don't think so. Friendship, guilt, expectations, but love love love. So much love that my heart can't contain it. No. He'll save me. It's his turn. He would never ever miss his turn. I'm smiling just thinking about it. I'm smiling... But there's a cost of sorts. Enter Fishboy, a.k.a. Teeth - most charming merboy of a peculiar, f-bomb dropping sort I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. He also uses the term "whatever" for words he can't define. He's got sharp teeth, webbed fingers, silver scaly tail, scrawny, and in Rudy's words "The ugliest thing I have ever seen." Rudy's younger brother, Dylan, has cystic fibrosis. In a last-ditch effort to save Dylan's life, Rudy and his family move to a remote island where the fish are known to have healing qualities. Rudy suffers his angst alone until he meets Diana, the only other human adolescent on the island, and Teeth, the only non-human adolescent he's encountered... ever. Rudy and Teeth develop a strange and electric bond, but Rudy soon learns that all miracles come at a price - especially the one involving his little brother eating magical fish.

TRIGGER WARNING : GRAPHIC abuse. I would not recommend it to any reader who can't cope with it (and I completely understand why)February is for Ghosts. I have said goodbyes way too many times for it to be anything other than the inside of my skull. I have said plenty, I'll say even more so. The birth of the night happened in this month and it will end here too. Oh, I know. I had loved you and you still love me. Don't speak. I'll say hello and you'd say stay. How are those stars any different from the ones I showed you. But thank you for showing me all the stars on your body. I have said it before and I'll say it again. This is not a goodbye, but a thank you. February. You were good. What happened to your kingdom? You know what? It's so funny. Donald Trump is the reason how I got this book, sort of. See, there is this political writer Jim Wright, he is utterly brilliant, kinda like a much more reasonable Sam Harris though their respective areas of expertise are quite different. Anyway, Moskowitz had written to an elector in Texas politely asking him to reconsider his position on Trump before the formal vote, just that and Wright pointed out it was civic and legal, but she got a rather rude reply, plus emotional name calling, nice adulting there. 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. Even though there were some plot holes in the story, i didn't really mind them that much, because I was blinded by characters.

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. Zubati, naime, svake noći oslobađa ribe iz mreža ili ih prosto rasteruje od ribarskih čamaca. Ribari ga skoro svake noći hvataju, prebijaju i, kao što ćemo saznati, siluju (ne pitajte kako jer ćete, nažalost, saznati. Saznaćete i da je sirenko dete ribe koja je silovala ljudsku ženu, ni za to ne pitajte kako jer, pogađate, saznaćete). I love great writing and I love when a book surprises me. Teeth did both of these things. Let me put it this way. I kept highlighting passages that stunned me with how emotional and gorgeous they were and at the end, I'd highlighted about 50 different passages. That's just a bit crazy. I can honestly say this was one of the best written books I've read in a while. Overall, I feel Teeth is a very brave attempt on Moskowitz' part. Not many YA authors would dare tread on such a delicate and dark territory. My problems with this book don't have anything to do with what Moskowitz did or didn't do right - it's just that I don't love the genius of it even though I recognize it. 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.

I don't even know what to rate this. I hate it and love it at the same time. It's unconventional. Unique. Special. Funny. Annoying. Sweet. Poignant. Silly. Horrifying. Touching.

I guess this is one of those it's-not-you-it's-me incidents. Maybe Teeth is the kind of book that gets better upon a re-read. This book was really, really weird. Just look at that synopsis. An island with fish that save people from cancer? A half-human, half-fish boy named Teeth? In another author's hands Teeth could have spiraled out of control, but as with her novel Gone, Gone, Gone Hannah Moskowitz creates an insightful story, using magical realism to heighten its intensity. In this brilliant debut book, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “a call for sweeping, radical change,” veteran health journalist Mary Otto looks inside America’s mouth, revealing unsettling truths about our unequal society. Moskowitz has a talent for characters, I believe. They are depressing, sad, flawed, and filled with inner darkness. She made me feel a lot of empathy for both Rudy and Teeth. These two characters are layered with many layers. It's just hat ever since we've moved here it's like we became different people. And it's not like we've changed, or gotten better, or worse, it's just that....we stopped being who we really are and started being who we expected each other to be."I'm just going to come right out and say it. Very few books make me twitchy and squirmy. This one did. Moskowitz’s prose is raw. The writing captures the utter gloominess and sadness of this novel perfectly. It isn’t flowery but it is beautiful and clear. I savored each and every of Moskowitz’s words. I even reread passages when I finished the novel.