Through Our Teeth (YA chiller)

     Happy Halloween!!! My gift to you is a review of an appropriately scary narrative.

     "'Was that what I think it was?' He asks in a hush. 

     I strain my ears for confirmation but only hear the blistering rain and wind. If it was a scream, it definitely wasn't a joyous one. That person sounded frightened like they were fighting for their life."

     It most definitely was a scream. Liv, narrator of Pamela N. Harris's Through Our Teeth, and Dayvon are about to find their first corpse of the night...

     ...So what's going on?

     Well, it started with with Hope, Liv's best friend, being found dead by her swimming pool. Her death 💀 is ruled a suicide. But Liv and her friends aren't convinced. Hope's boyfriend, Brendan, was jealous, controlling  and probably abusive. He had problems with anger management. She could have been pushed off the roof instead of jumping. People were probably too willing to exonerate a male star athlete. 

     They're planning to trap Brendan into confessing. Liv's mother has designed a very weird house way out in the woods. Liv lures him out there. But that's all that goes according to plan. Brendan proves harder to overpower than they thought he would be. And unexpected people show up. 

     When the power goes out the house locks down, becoming impossible to escape from. It's a cell phone dead zone. And the murders have started. 

     But Through Our Teeth goes a lot deeper than the typical last one standing narrative. That's because of the mental health emphasis. Throughout the book, especially the flashbacks, readers become intimately familiar with the psychological challenges characters cope (or fail to cope) with. 

     In her acknowledgement section Harris tells her readers:

     "All my novels have a piece of me in them, and Through Our Teeth is no different. I've struggled with anxiety for decades; however, I wasn't formally diagnosed until I was in my graduate program studying to be a school counselor...when I finally got my diagnosis, I wondered how school and my friendships would have been different had I understood what was going on with me. Maybe if I had certain tools in place, I wouldn't have felt like the odd girl out. Thus, Liv and Kizzy and even Hope were born--to show the different shades of mental health and the resources out there."

On a purrrsonal note, I had me a fine Friday. I spent it mostly being paparazzi for two major events. Student Wellness, Wade Center, and Title IX put on a make your own boo basket. People could fill a bag with sweet snacks, Halloween socks, toiletries, stickers, and all sorts of other goodies. Center for Student Involvement occupied the second floor of the Union with carnival games, fun foods, a prize table, a crafts room, the chance to get your face made up or hair tinseled... Needless to say, both events were hugely popular. A good time was had by all. The only downside for me was being constantly surrounded my really tasty food I could not eat thanks to the diet from Hell. 

A great big shout out goes out to all who participated, especially those who did the planning and work. 

Jules Hathaway 

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