Synopses & Reviews
An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down and out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will and they're bent on domination at any cost.
Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kind-hearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack. Anthony has no idea that she's more than she seems, and she wants to keep it that way. But her efforts to protect her secret lead to murderous results.
Blending dark humor and epic themes with card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing, and carne asada tacos, Sharp Teeth captures the pace and feel of a graphic novel while remaining "as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about" (Nick Hornby, The Believer).
Review
"Written in a free verse style that perfectly complements the action as it moves from slower-paced narratives to short, jagged scenes of graphic violence and heartbreak, this groundbreaking work commands attention from a wide audience." Library Journal
Review
"Though the free-verse form takes getting used to, it serves to heighten Barlow's visceral imagery. A refreshing leap across genres." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] kooky combo of grit, goofiness and gusto....[It] demonstrates that fantasy, unlike more literary offerings that play it too safe, may just be the place to find true exuberance and stylistic innovation." The Los Angeles Times
Review
"Tremendous....As ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about." Nick Hornby, The Believer
Review
"A sexy, dark and (well, yes) biting story told by a wizard of sleight of hand." Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and What-the-Dickens
Review
"I'm impressed. I always knew stuff like this was going on in L.A. What a cool book!" Christopher Moore, bestselling author of A Dirty Job and You Suck: A Love Story
Review
"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." Scott Smith, author of The Ruins and A Simple Plan
Review
"[A] new take on both the werewolf and urban fantasy genres. In a world where innovation is often shunted before ever being given its due, rare examples such as this should be congratulated for their daring." BookReporter.com
Review
"Every aspect of the book, from premise to form to cover design (black stylized dog snarling against a solid bloodred field), seems to have been focus-grouped to snag the attention of potential readers. It's encrusted in cognitive fishhooks. Even its epigraphs are brilliantly addictive....Such eager primping is not necessarily a bad thing." Sam Anderson, New York Magazine (read the entire New York Magazine review)
Synopsis
"Barlow's imagery is magnificent . . . A] kooky combo of grit, goofiness, and gusto . . . demonstrates that fantasy . . . may just be the place to find true exuberance and stylistic innovation." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down and out to join their pack. Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kind-hearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack.
Blending dark humor and epic themes with card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing, and carne asada tacos, Sharp Teeth captures the pace and feel of a graphic novel while remaining "as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it's about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about" Nick Hornby, The Believer].
Synopsis
Four separate generations of nameless characters struggle for redemption, love, and peace in a lyrically weaved collection of stories.
Synopsis
An anonymous cast spans four generations in the struggle for redemption, love, and peace. An immigrant cobbler sees his son wrongly arrested by a man who shines his shoes. The memory of a boy’s deceased mother is betrayed when his friend use her makeup as gag. A waitress secretly admires a man who atones for his troubled past by refurbishing a house. And a man laments his lost love by tracing her footsteps across the floors of his empty apartment. A storm looms, bringing the stories together across time and place, uniting them all by their common humanity. These intense portraits are packed with intelligent Christian allegory and lyricism that work together to culminate in one bright mosaic picture.
About the Author
David Michael Belczyk is the author of two poetry collections, Sometimes Form, Sometimes Vessel and Call It Perpetual (Culturatti Ink). He is a graduate of George Washington University and Notre Dame with degrees in both engineering and law. David is a theology instructor and active in the Christian community. He lives in Pittsburgh.
Table of Contents
Elynia Prologue I A Trip to the Graveyard II Footsteps Upstairs III The Church and Military Monuments in the Town IV The Shoe Man V A Picture Found in the Salvation Army VI Man Looks too Long into a Window VII Building Ourselves Devotion VIII Reaching Out to Touch the Old Ramparts IX Consuming Romance (The Hypnotist) X The Already-Criminal XI Time Spent as a Picture upon a Shelf XII An Afternoon Game XIII A Man Buys a House XIV The Waitress and the Secret Box XV A Tendency of Staring at the Storm Drain
Epilogue Other Stories I Rope II Train Platform III The Artist is Human IV Aria Night V Cistern VI The Harbormaster