Of Teeth & Claws is a queer Southern horror novel about Alex Burkhart, who returns to Jasper Mill, Tennessee, after being outed and estranged, only to find his hometown stalked by a brutal creature tied to old secrets, witchcraft, and the boy he once loved: David Stone, now a young officer caught in the monster’s path. Around Alex gathers one of the book’s best inventions: Belle, Justine, and Grace, a grandmotherly trio with wine, weed, bite, and real occult weight. The result is part werewolf story, part small-town mystery, part second-chance romance, with blood on the porch boards and tenderness in the underbrush.

The book can be grisly, campy, foul-mouthed, romantic, and sincerely wounded within a few pages, and that volatility gives it a live-wire charm. The opening murder is nasty and theatrical, but the book’s deeper hook is not gore; it is the way shame travels through families, towns, courtrooms, pulp true-crime books, and queer childhoods. Alex’s voice has a sharp, self-protective humor that keeps the story from sinking into misery, even when the pain underneath is unmistakable.

I liked the chosen-family warmth. Belle, Justine, and Grace could easily have become comic-relief eccentrics, but they feel loved into being: funny, meddlesome, occult, occasionally ridiculous, and fiercely protective. The romance between Alex and David also gives the monster plot a pulse beyond survival. The book is not always subtle, but that bluntness fits its appetite. It’s a novel of big feelings, old wounds, and supernatural retribution, and I respected its refusal to be decorous.

This is perfect for readers looking for LGBTQ+ horror, queer romance, paranormal fiction, Southern gothic, and small-town supernatural mystery. Fans of Grady Hendrix’s blend of horror, humor, and regional texture may find familiar pleasures here, though A.J. Grea leans more openly into queer longing and occult melodrama. Of Teeth & Claws is bloody, funny, wounded, and oddly sweet.

Pages: 304 | ASIN : B0GJ8L2B1T