Rose Szabo’s What Big Teeth is a story about monsters.
A more gothic, grounded take on The Munsters, What Big Teeth follows Eleanor Zarrin as she returns home from eight years at boarding school. She doesn’t know why she was sent there, or why her family has never contacted her, and their chilly reception doesn’t make the prospect of finding out particularly appealing. The novel is full of similar mysteries of family and identity, all investigated from Eleanor’s scared and lonely, yet charming, point of view.
But Szabo doesn’t let Eleanor find her answers easily. Eleanor is thwarted at every turn: by her uncommunicative family; by death; by her own fear. The arrival of an estranged grandmother, the first warmth that Eleanor has experienced in years, doesn’t help, as underneath her chic dresses and lavender scent is something dark and yawning and manipulative—something that Eleanor is afraid might be inside her, too.
While mystery is at the heart of the novel, Szabo is also concerned with the concept of “monstrousness”. Szabo tackles both familiar and unfamiliar monsters with incredible deftness, writing werewolves who slide easily between human and wolf form, and crafting her own writhing, sure-voiced, orange-blooded thing that you desperately want to know more about. But she also eagerly explores other types of monstrousness, specifically monstrous actions. The Zarrins might be physically the more “normal” monsters, but they’ve also killed. They’ve committed adultery. They ostracized Eleanor when she was only a child. In contrast, Eleanor, whose power terrifies her family, stands as the most caring and open of the bunch.
It’s impossible to decide which kind of monster is worse.
Fittingly, What Big Teeth’s strengths are also its weaknesses. Szabo’s characters are engaging and realistically frustrating, but the interpersonal conflicts are only minimally resolved, leaving many of the characters two-dimensional, even on the final page. Her mysteries pull you through the novel like an obsession, but most of them take a little too long to resolve.
What Big Teeth might have its imperfections, but they are overwhelmed by its beautiful prose and haunting atmosphere. Szabo’s way with horror and her skilful handling of big themes are intriguing and ingenious, and stick with you long after the story is done. It’s a novel that you devour, and that devours you right back.
WHAT BIG TEETH by Rose Szabo is out now through Titan Books
