If you loved the furrier halves of Twilight and True Blood and you’re tired of reading prose, Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow is everything you never knew you wanted.
Overview of Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow presents an audacious exploration into a world permeated by atypical werewolves.Insofar as any werewolf can be typical.
Whereas the traditional werewolf mythos provides a person who lacks agency over their shapeshifting (i.e., the moon’s phase determine’s how much fur they presently sport), Barlow’s werewolves are homeless vagabonds dwelling in Los Angeles who can metamorphose at will between their wolf and human forms.The moon can pound sand.
That said: these aren’t your everyday hobo lycanthropes.
These werewolves get involved in gang wars and intricate power dynamics fueled by passion, loyalty and betrayal.
And there’s even some dog-catching to be found, too.
It’s undeniably a noir tale at heart—mysterious disappearances, rogue detectives on tireless pursuits, intense showdowns—all happening within the shadowy underbelly of LA.
But this new spin on werewolves isn’t why we’re here.
This is why we’re here:
MMMMMM! FREE VERSE!
Free Verse For Dummies STEM Majors
Free verse is poetry that breaks away from the traditional rules of meter and rhyme. This inherent fluidity and adaptability is what makes it unique.
See, unlike structured forms that adhere to a specific pattern or rhythm, free verse allows poets the freedom to compose their verses without being bound by such constraints.
This liberation in form gives poets the flexibility to focus on the natural rhythm of spoken language, enabling them to capture the nuances, emotions, and imagery in a more organic manner.
It doesn’t confine the poet to a set structure, allowing for a more direct and spontaneous expression of thought and feeling.
This form often mirrors the irregularities and unpredictability of life and thought, making it a powerful tool for conveying raw emotion and intricate ideas.
And the absence of a fixed meter or rhyme scheme means that every word, line break, and punctuation mark is a deliberate choice by the poet, each playing a crucial role in conveying the poem’s essence.
Compared to other common meters, such as iambic pentameterIambic pentameter is line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. Here’s an example from Chaucer’s ‘The Miller’s Tale’: Whilom ther was dwellynge at oxenford; sound it out loud and you’ll hear it. 😂 or trochaic tetrameter,Okay this one is easier. Four feet per line, each foot comprising one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da. Like this: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. free verse might seem like the “wild child” of poetry.
While traditional meters provide a rhythmic and melodic foundation, often evoking a musical quality, free verse thrives on unpredictability.
However, this doesn’t mean that free verse lacks rhythm or musicality.
Instead, its rhythm is derived from the natural cadences of speech and the emotional ebb and flow of the content.
While traditional meters dance to a set beat, free verse creates its own unique dance every time.
Style and Structure
Written entirely in free verse, Sharp Teeth provides its reader with an incomparable reading experience.
The conciseness of the sentences often intentionally leaves gaps to be filled by the reader’s imagination, heightening engagement with the plot.
Though composed of verses that maintain their individuality, these fragments also form coherent chapters together.
Barlow narrates both intimate details and explosive actions in poetic lines without losing intrigue or pace.
Below are some remarkable elements that stress the style and structure of Sharp Teeth:
- Free-Verse Narrative: The entire novel is written in free verse, i.e., unrhymed lines with no consistent meter patterns which lend a distinctive voice to the prose.
- Vivid Imagery: Whether describing a cityscape or character emotions, each scene is painting with exquisite attention to detail using metaphorical language.
- Minimalist Presentation: Each line carries substantial weight both visually and textually, creating impressions stronger than traditional paragraphs could offer.
- Episodic Storytelling: Instead of continuous linear narration, the story unravels as stringing together various intertwined episodes leading up to larger revelations.
By taking bold strides in portraying gritty realism through poetic brevity, Sharp Teeth emphatically reflects Toby Barlow’s unparalleled command over both plot and form.
Through this daring blend of sophistication and rawness emerges an artfully structured narration making Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow genuinely hypnotic.
Themes and Motifs
Among the various themes interwoven into Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow, two primary motifs recurrently emerge. These are the notions of “Survival” and “Identity”.
First, the theme of survival plays a significant role throughout this enthralling novel. The dog pack’s struggle to survive in an urban landscape stresses this motif.
It sheds light on how disparate elements of society grapple with existence amidst challenging circumstances. Listen closely as the plot unravels—you’ll identify characters resorting to fierce methods for self-preservation.
- The pack mates display unquestionable loyalty towards each other to ensure their collective survival.
- Social bonds within the pack often reflect human-like tendencies, emphasizing that fraternity is key to survival.
Second, identity is another powerful motif pervading Sharp Teeth. The dual persona experienced by most characters—human-like emotions contrasted with primal instincts—is a central thread.
- Characters struggling between animalistic urges and inherent humanity underscore identity crises.
- Decisions being made under duress subtly dive deeper into questions about personal identities.
By embedding these motives into his crafty tale, Barlow has practically instituted a reflective mirror within this thriller text: As humans reading about dogs living like humans who once were dogs—are we not all biting at life with sharp teeth?
Are we not all struggling to survive?
Are we not all just werewolves who haven’t yet transformed?
Delving explicitly into these integral themes helps us appreciate Sharp Teeth not just as a unique suspense story but also for its brilliant exploration of profound human conditions often painstakingly hidden beneath mundane realities.
