Title: TeethAuthor:Hannah MoskowitzEdition: paperbackSeries: noneReleased Date: January 1st, 2013Publisher: Simon Pulse
Goodreads / Amazon A gritty, romantic modern fairy tale from the author of Breakand Gone, Gone, Gone.
Be careful what you believe in.
Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house.
Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life.
Teeth is one of those novels where you get sucked in and you just find it so good and lyrical and amazing. Literally, the only words you can used to describe the novel are mind-blowing, wonderful, and fantastic. It's hard to even understand why the book deserves these qualities, besides that fact that this book just does.
This book
metaphorically pulls you under. When reading this, I got so invested that I even stopped texting my boyfriend to read chapters upon chapters. He figured I was just reading, but still. It's a rare occurrance that I get so invested in a novel that I refuse to send my boyfriend a quick text. (Literally, I have a shortcut that I type ir and it says "I'm reading. Text you later?" that I've used in rare instances. This was one of them.)Rudy is the character that you just feel for. He gives off that bad-boy feel with his constant swearing and his past life experiences. As the novel progresses, it's clear that Rudy isn't everything you'd expect him to be. Rudy's brother has cystic fibrosis and he was pulled from his old wonderful life to live on an exclusive island that sick people go to in order to eat this magical fish. Rudy handles everything well, because he actually cares for his little brother, Dylan, who is ill. It's crazy the way Rudy feels about his brother. Some people may say that Rudy seems like he should be a much older character, but I just feel Rudy is mature. He understands the way the world works.
What throws Rudy off is Teeth. He's a half-fish, half-human, who he sees being raped by some of the fishermen. It's crazy the first time we finally learn about Teeth. Many questions were brought up with Teeth. He was such an intriguing character! Everything that he ever learned was from eavesdropping on the fishermen. He has difficulties trusting people, but sometimes he just gets a pull towards someone, like he did with Rudy. He quickly opened up to him, and wasn't afraid to make friends with him.
Their relationship is an interesting one. I'm not sure how I'd even describe it. First of all, Rudy has had many romantic partners from his old life. He often thinks about sex, and kissing other girls. Then there's Teeth, who is getting raped by these fishermen. He doesn't really know how to handle this. Then the two become friends and it's hard to put a finger on the extent of this friendship. It just kind of carries into a romantic territory, that isn't clearly defined in the novel. At times, it seems like Rudy feels that Teeth is a younger sibling to him as he feels he needs to protect him. Then again, he looks up to Teeth many times - from his passion and his views on life. When feelings like that intertwine, it almost is love. I feel that's what Hannah Moskowitz was trying to get across.
What I liked most about these two was that there was never a defining moment where they express their love to one another. I was itching for them to tell one another, or to kiss, or something. It never came. After finishing the novel, I was okay with that. The way that these two characters felt for each other was apparent throughout the whole novel.
The one thing I wished there was more of, was the secondary character development. There was Diana, who Rudy had a small fling with because she knew information about Teeth. Sadly, I didn't feel like I really connected with Diana. In the blurb, it says that Diana teaches Rudy about love, but I don't feel like she really did. I think she taught Rudy about betrayal, and how even if someone betrays you, when it comes to a difficult situation, it's crucial to stick by their side. Next, I would have liked some more development on Rudy's parents. They just kind of seemed like bystanders in some instances. Lastly, Fiona was an interesting character who was kind of creepy. I wish there would have been more interaction with her and Rudy. Her creepy-mothering feelings toward Teeth should have been more apparent.
I thought that the swearing in this novel was going to throw me off when I saw it many times it occurred in the first few chapters. I'm not one that generally swears, but the way it was added to this book made it all seem real and tied everything together. This book actually showed me the many purposes of swear words, particularly the word fuck. When it occurred in conversations between Rudy and Teeth, it expressed many meanings: anger, worry, love, humor, among others.
The connection between the two main characters in this novel will blow your mind - there's not doubt about that. There are a couple of parts that are lacking in this novel, particularly the minor characters, but otherwise this novel is spectacular. This was my first novel I read by Hannah Moskowitz, but I have a feeling I will read many more of her novels.
