There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Sharp Teeth is a 300-page novel in verse about werewolves in Los Angeles. If that had you at “werewolves” or “novel in verse,” then this book is definitely for you. But ...

At a certain point, reading Toby Barlow’s Sharp Teeth in bars and coffee shops, I just started lying when people asked me what it was about. “Oh, it’s about, um, savagery in the urban landscape, and ...