Sharp Teeth - Hardcover

Barlow, Toby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434017671 ISBN 13: 9780434017676

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2007

Synopsis

An ancient race of lycanthropes survives in modern L.A. and its numbers are growing as packs convert the city's downtrodden into their fold.

Stuck in the middle are a local dogcatcher and the woman he loves, whose secret past haunts her as she fights a bloody one-woman battle to save their relationship. Meanwhile, dog packs fight and scheme all around the them, hiding out in old warehouses, city kennel cages, or the plush comfort of suburban homes. Paying no heed to the moon, these packs change from human to wolf at will, squaring off against one another as they seek dominance at any cost.

Sharp Teeth is a novel-in-verse that blends epic themes with dark humour, dogs playing cards, crystal meth labs, and acts of heartache and betrayal in Southern California.

About this title

Review:

`A hot-tongued, howling wolf of a book, strange and tender,
luscious and cool, frisky as a pup but with a mouthful of fangs. Once
bitten, I was smitten by its beauty.' -- Joseph O'Connor

`A lean, gripping, novel-in-verse ... a hip, quick-moving thriller.' -- Independent

`Forget any reservations you might have about werewolf stories or
verse novels. This is great, engaging, wonderful stuff. Sondheim should
make it his next musical.' -- Michael Moorcock

`If Ovid had been raised on a steady diet of Marvel Comics, Roger
Corman and MTV, he might've written something like Toby Barlow's Sharp
Teeth. Combine a wolf with a man and you get a werewolf; mix epic poetry
and pop culture and you'll end up with a fantastic monster like Sharp
Teeth. It's everything you'd expect from such an odd and potent hybrid:
highly addictive, enormously enjoyable, and unexpectedly moving. Great
stuff.'
-- Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan

`Sharp Teeth is successful, turning an ancient myth into a modern and fast-paced thriller' -- The Observer

`This blending of urban heat and gothic savagery is blackly funny - and written entirely in free verse ... it works beautifully.' -- Telegraph

`Toby Barlow is a true original. SHARP TEETH is darkly funny,
witty, philosophical in its quirky, deceptive way, technically accomplished
and strangely moving. It's eccentric and original, but it might just get
the readership it deserves. It's a fine book.'
-- John Burnside

`Violent ... Tender ... Cool ... Ambitious ... it's about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about.' --Nick Hornby, The Believer

`Werewolves are roaming in Los Angeles. In free verse. Yet Toby Barlow's lycanthropic tale is worth applauding for its originality and pursuing for its dramatic unfolding ... Vigorous, enjoyably bloodthirsty, Sharp Teeth would make a stunning graphic novel.' --The Guardian

`Writing of bracing immediacy. There are passages of ferocious violence... but at its panting heart, Sharp Teeth is really a love story... Flashes of black humour puncture the tension... Achieves a weird kind of profundity.' --Sunday Herald

Book Description:

While Los Angeles is being terrorized by rival gangs of werewolves, a goodhearted dogcatcher and his werewolf girlfriend get caught up in the struggle for survival.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0434017671
• ISBN 13: 9780434017676
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336