Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Free Verse Horror Novel about Free Roaming Werewolves
When the werewolves of Barlow's Sharp Teeth are not roaming the streets and suburbs of Los Angeles killing and devouring humans, they are Fidos, Spots, and Fluffys, curled-up at the feet of their masters. Which is why Sharp Teeth is so special, and deserves praise: it's a good novel; who's a good novel; Sharp Teeth is a good novel.
Author Toby Barlow is some kind of genius to devise such an inventive and clever device by which to deliver his domesticated animals from the quintessentially American warmth and comfort of suburbia, back to the primal jungle by way of the intravenous highways coursing with fossil fuel.
The Lost Boys and Girls of Suburbia
Incorporating the James Ellroy brand of investigation and discovery into the proceedings with a detective named Peabody, Barlow's poetic nose follows a trail of blood that will lead to a love story between a dog catcher named Silvo and She, an amorous, salty dog from the beaches of So Cal.
There are four packs that run in different circles, marked by their territorial bounds; but of course as learned in Dennis Hopper's Colors, once one dog's spray strays onto the grass of another, a gang war is sure to ensue; leaving Detective Peabody spinning in circles, and lovers Salvo and She caught in the crossfire.
Sharp Teeth is bloody good fun, in the vein of that long ago heralded oldie but goodie from the 1980's, The Lost Boys. Toby Barlow expertly exploits the delight so many Americans derive from dancing on the head of a pin: balancing a need for domesticity against the desire to tempt the monsters that lie in wait; that which spawned Sharp Teeth, spawned America's favorite holiday, born of suburbia, Halloween.
P.S.
Sharp Teeth was published by Harper Perennial, and one of the coolest things about this publishing house is their packaging of trade paperbacks, in particular the special section called P.S. Like the Extras on a DVD release, P.S. includes interviews with the author, fun facts pertaining to the book you just read, and other assorted book nerd stuff. For instance, in the P.S. for Sharp Teeth, there is a quiz entitled, Is Your Dog a Werewolf?, and best of all a play list of songs Toby Barlow listened to while writing Sharp Teeth with footnotes like mini-reviews. Of course, he opened the book with a line from Werewolves of London, the classic by Warren Zevon: His hair was perfect.
A small sampling of Barlow's play list:
- The Hungry Wolf - X
- Rain Dogs - Tom Waits
- Diamond Dogs - David Bowie
- Werewolf - Cat Power
- Wolves a Howlin' - John Hartford
Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (January 27, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0061430242
ISBN-13: 978-0061430244
Sharp Teeth
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Toby Barlow
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