Such Big Teeth (The Darkwood, #2)

by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

[HekArtemis]

Thanks to Netgalley and Farrago for an ARC of this book.

This is a fantastic follow up to Darkwood, which I loved reading last year and was among my favourite reads for the year. I can already tell that Such Big Teeth will be among my faves for this year as well.

Gretel and her witchy friends travel to another part of the Darkwood in the hopes of finding new witchy allies. They discover a werewolf, a cursed man-raven, and a bear witch named Gilde Locke who doesn't like things too hot or too cold. Yep. Our friends set about trying to win these three over to their cause, or failing that plan to try to split them apart. I was a bit sad that our super loyal group would attempt to split another group apart, but the story managed to make it seem like a good thing by making one of the characters not so nice. Turning it into more of a rescue than a betrayal, though the sense of betrayal couldn't be entirely erased.

Hansel and Daisy leave Nearby to go to the Citadel and protect it from a monster that Hansel has a vision about. The monster turns out to be not actually what they expected. The Huntsmen are in the middle of an election campaign, a new head Hunstmen is to be chosen. The orange candidate plans to create new abomination lists and punish people more severely and make it so that women don't vote in future - wouldn't you know, the colours used by candidates confuse women voters because the colours clash with their hair. Isn't he kind to try to protect women from such a horrible thing? The green candidate is a nice woman, she wants to get rid of all the torture and abomination lists and the hunting of innocents. Hansel and Daisy set about helping her win. Also she has a super cute puppy. Poems have been written about this puppy. It's uber cute.

My absolute favourite thing about this series is the wholesome loyalty of the characters. Our friends are all loyal to each other of course, but other people are too. This world has great potential to turn people against each other and the back stories of some characters sadly reflect this truth. But we get to focus in on a massive group that don't turn against each other. The entire village of Nearby once again pull together and are willing to sacrifice everything to protect those they love, and those they don't even know that well. They become willing to give all for the Darkwood itself, and all the creatures within. And the way this series breaks the evil step parent trope is great too, I love how much the Mudd family loves each other. The Mudd step parents are so amazing.

Of course the humour is also very good, I laughed out loud - like actually out loud - several times, and smirked and snorted even more. The trope breaking is very well done, and the underlying messages are great. Yes it's funny what the orange candidate says about women, but it's also noted that some people agree with him, and that is something worth learning and recognising about the real world. The book does that a lot without shoving it all in your face. It's great. And the casual inclusion of four LGB people was quite well done. There is nothing sexual in these books, to be clear - it is a kids book after all. The most we get is some hand holding and some discussions that mention kissing and are hilarious.

I very much look forward to the next book.