Books I've Loved: Teeth

I love Hannah Moskowitz.  Her books always strike a chord in me for some reason.  And this one is no exception. Somehow even the bonkers premise works for me.  And it's pretty bonkers.  You see, one of the main characters is part fish.  Yet somehow, it makes perfect sense in the world of the book because everything about Rudy's life is kind of nuts.

Everything revolves around his sick brother and the only thing that can keep him alive is the fish available only on this one remote island.  Isolated and without much supervision, it's no wonder Rudy is desperate enough for a friend that he'll reach out to the strange kid in the ocean.

But as the story unfolds, why Teeth is there, and what he's been through becomes more apparent.

This is a book I read in a single sitting.  It had me mesmerized from the first page and when I was done, I just sat there for a long time, wondering what the hell I'd just read.

If you don't believe me, here's the blurb…

A gritty, romantic modern fairy tale from the author of Break and 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.