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Everything Is Teeth
Evie Wyld was a girl obsessed with sharks. Spending summers in the brutal heat of coastal New South Wales, she fell for the creatures. Their teeth, their skin, their eyes; their hunters and their victims.
Everything is Teeth is a delicate and intimate collection of the memories she brought home to England, a book about family, love and the irresistible forces that pass through life unseen, under the surface, ready to emerge at any point.
Everything is Teeth is a delicate and intimate collection of the memories she brought home to England, a book about family, love and the irresistible forces that pass through life unseen, under the surface, ready to emerge at any point.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2015
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2,877 people want to read
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August 16, 2020
last day of shark week!!! get ready for a feeding frenzy of shark review floats!!
I run a hand over the sandpaper skin I've read about. Survivors find themselves grazed from it when the shark glides by.
Everything is teeth.
this is a family memoir in graphic novel form by evie wyld, focusing on her childhood trips to visit relatives in australia and her lifelong fascination with sharks; their role in both her actual experiences and in the realm of her imagination.
the writing is beautiful:
It's not the images that come first when I think of the parts of my childhood spent in Australia.
Or even the people. It's the sounds
- the butcher birds and the magpies that lived amongst us on the back veranda.
And stronger still, the smells -
eucalyptus, watermelon, and filter mud,
rich and rude and sickly strong.
Most of all, the river, muddy and lined with mangrove.
Salt and sulphur;
at low tide the black mud that smelled bad,
that had stingray burrows hollowed out in it.
The smell I associate with the smell of sharks.
the artwork is also stunning - a combination of cartoon and hyper-realistic pencil drawings which are perfect complements to the text.
even the endpapers are fantastic:
the story itself is fairly quiet. this isn't a bleak memoir about childhood trauma or life-changing circumstances; it's more like a series of snapshots of small memories - some good, some bad, muted by life-distance, and riddled with sharks.
sharks are everywhere in this book and they represent both an alluring magnetism and an embodiment of her fears. she is enthralled by the stories her australian family, fishermen by trade, recount about attacks and near-misses, but she also imagines her parents and brother being eaten by sharks. If I think the worst, then the worst is unlikely to happen.
sharks are also fun at parties
her first childhood crush is on shark attack survivor rodney fox, whose story and photographs she discovers in a book about sharks. in what has to be one of the most romantic and erotic passages ever involving a love-interest's exposed insides:
Rodney Fox, I fall for you at six years old.
I see right inside your viscera and you tell me about surviving. I read about how your abdomen was opened
and all your ribs broken. Your diaphragm punctured,
lung ripped open, shoulder blade pierced,
spleen uncovered.
The main artery from your heart exposed.
The tendons in your hand all cut�
and how the shark left behind a tooth,
still stuck in your wrist.
I see the before photograph, impossible red
sausages stuffed into an empty carcass,
the white skin tender, swollen and peeling away.
And I see the after photograph, the horsehair
stitches, that make a perfect semi-circle from
shoulder to ribs - a cartoon apple bite.
And your face: salty eyes,
strong bone in your nose.
An expression that said
the whole thing was just fine.
Stuck in the mouth, wrestling your thumbs into its eyes till it lets go,
and you feel yourself loose in your skin suit.
The shark is gone and people are nudging your guts back inside,
and when you wake again it hasn't changed your face.
It is all fine.
I solemnly understand you to be the greatest living man.
later, visiting a shark museum, she recognizes him just by a photo of his spleen, which is the truest test of devotion and intimacy.
she also, while watching Jaws, finds other men who appeal to her: I like the moustache on Quint, and the beard on Hooper.
when she's home in england, she regales her school-bullied brother with stories of sharks to distract him from his sadness, and has fantasies of shark attacks where no shark attack outside of a syfy movie could be.
incidentally - this image is actually from ghost shark, one of the best syfy shark movies
sharks stand in for that nameless dread permeating childhood - for all of the situations you don't understand, for the feeling that something bad could happen at any moment, sharks are the boogeyman embodying all of life's anxieties, lurking in the most unexpected places.
but they aren't just manifestations of her fears, they also inspire awe and respect, as the majestic but misunderstood creatures they are. when she is taken to "Vic Hislop's Killer Shark Show," by her father, featuring the attraction of "Conan the Record Breaking White Pointer," she is excited, wanting to be there for feeding time, imagining:
Great hunks of raw meat,
bellowing gops of blood against the bone-white teeth.
but it turns out to be a cheap and sordid spectacle, featuring sacking-cloth sharks, a video in which vic hislop himself characterizes sharks as "killing machines with a taste for human flesh," posing triumphantly with the corpses of sharks, cutting them open to reveal their insides, and a photo of rodney fox's spleen, "but there are no after photographs with your smiling face," which reduces him to a victim instead of a survivor. worst of all is conan, for whom there will be no more gops of blood. instead, his seventeen-foot corpse is suspended in a tank of nauseatingly dirty water, undignified, skin flaking away.
and while many of the images of sharks are sad - hauled out of the water and killed by her relatives, cut open to reveal their young (taking "two puppies back home for frying"),
or definned and rolled unceremoniously, wastefully, back into the water, or left to thrash and wear herself out and die, it's never preachy, just memories of things that happened.
it's a spectacular book in both words and images, and i loved loved loved it.
one more reminder for me to never go to australia:
I run a hand over the sandpaper skin I've read about. Survivors find themselves grazed from it when the shark glides by.
Everything is teeth.
this is a family memoir in graphic novel form by evie wyld, focusing on her childhood trips to visit relatives in australia and her lifelong fascination with sharks; their role in both her actual experiences and in the realm of her imagination.
the writing is beautiful:
It's not the images that come first when I think of the parts of my childhood spent in Australia.
Or even the people. It's the sounds
- the butcher birds and the magpies that lived amongst us on the back veranda.
And stronger still, the smells -
eucalyptus, watermelon, and filter mud,
rich and rude and sickly strong.
Most of all, the river, muddy and lined with mangrove.
Salt and sulphur;
at low tide the black mud that smelled bad,
that had stingray burrows hollowed out in it.
The smell I associate with the smell of sharks.
the artwork is also stunning - a combination of cartoon and hyper-realistic pencil drawings which are perfect complements to the text.
even the endpapers are fantastic:
the story itself is fairly quiet. this isn't a bleak memoir about childhood trauma or life-changing circumstances; it's more like a series of snapshots of small memories - some good, some bad, muted by life-distance, and riddled with sharks.
sharks are everywhere in this book and they represent both an alluring magnetism and an embodiment of her fears. she is enthralled by the stories her australian family, fishermen by trade, recount about attacks and near-misses, but she also imagines her parents and brother being eaten by sharks. If I think the worst, then the worst is unlikely to happen.
sharks are also fun at parties
her first childhood crush is on shark attack survivor rodney fox, whose story and photographs she discovers in a book about sharks. in what has to be one of the most romantic and erotic passages ever involving a love-interest's exposed insides:
Rodney Fox, I fall for you at six years old.
I see right inside your viscera and you tell me about surviving. I read about how your abdomen was opened
and all your ribs broken. Your diaphragm punctured,
lung ripped open, shoulder blade pierced,
spleen uncovered.
The main artery from your heart exposed.
The tendons in your hand all cut�
and how the shark left behind a tooth,
still stuck in your wrist.
I see the before photograph, impossible red
sausages stuffed into an empty carcass,
the white skin tender, swollen and peeling away.
And I see the after photograph, the horsehair
stitches, that make a perfect semi-circle from
shoulder to ribs - a cartoon apple bite.
And your face: salty eyes,
strong bone in your nose.
An expression that said
the whole thing was just fine.
Stuck in the mouth, wrestling your thumbs into its eyes till it lets go,
and you feel yourself loose in your skin suit.
The shark is gone and people are nudging your guts back inside,
and when you wake again it hasn't changed your face.
It is all fine.
I solemnly understand you to be the greatest living man.
later, visiting a shark museum, she recognizes him just by a photo of his spleen, which is the truest test of devotion and intimacy.
she also, while watching Jaws, finds other men who appeal to her: I like the moustache on Quint, and the beard on Hooper.
when she's home in england, she regales her school-bullied brother with stories of sharks to distract him from his sadness, and has fantasies of shark attacks where no shark attack outside of a syfy movie could be.
incidentally - this image is actually from ghost shark, one of the best syfy shark movies
sharks stand in for that nameless dread permeating childhood - for all of the situations you don't understand, for the feeling that something bad could happen at any moment, sharks are the boogeyman embodying all of life's anxieties, lurking in the most unexpected places.
but they aren't just manifestations of her fears, they also inspire awe and respect, as the majestic but misunderstood creatures they are. when she is taken to "Vic Hislop's Killer Shark Show," by her father, featuring the attraction of "Conan the Record Breaking White Pointer," she is excited, wanting to be there for feeding time, imagining:
Great hunks of raw meat,
bellowing gops of blood against the bone-white teeth.
but it turns out to be a cheap and sordid spectacle, featuring sacking-cloth sharks, a video in which vic hislop himself characterizes sharks as "killing machines with a taste for human flesh," posing triumphantly with the corpses of sharks, cutting them open to reveal their insides, and a photo of rodney fox's spleen, "but there are no after photographs with your smiling face," which reduces him to a victim instead of a survivor. worst of all is conan, for whom there will be no more gops of blood. instead, his seventeen-foot corpse is suspended in a tank of nauseatingly dirty water, undignified, skin flaking away.
and while many of the images of sharks are sad - hauled out of the water and killed by her relatives, cut open to reveal their young (taking "two puppies back home for frying"),
or definned and rolled unceremoniously, wastefully, back into the water, or left to thrash and wear herself out and die, it's never preachy, just memories of things that happened.
it's a spectacular book in both words and images, and i loved loved loved it.
one more reminder for me to never go to australia:
June 14, 2016
Everything Is Teeth is a graphic memoir like nothing I've ever seen. The artwork is very good, with deliberate color schemes, realistic and sometimes jarring scenes, and fantastic panels from JAWS. Though I've not lived in Australia, I can truly relate to this all-consuming obsession with sharks, as I, too, felt much of what is depicted here for most of my childhood. Occasionally I still do. I blame Steven Spielberg 100%. In all seriousness though, there was a quiet beauty in this for me and much that was hinted at...a bit of a blurred line between what was real, imagined, and feared. Life is like that, isn't it? 4 stars.
June 28, 2016
This graphic memoir made me think of that proverb, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." In this book, Everything is Teeth, everything is teeth, which is to say that the young Evie, terrified by/obsessed with sharks, tends to associate all of her fears about her young self and her loved ones with the possibility of sharks mutilating her and them.
This is a strange book in a few ways: It has wonderful and strange artwork by Joe Sumner that seems to perfectly match the story. Sometimes, when we see sharks in this book, we see very realistic depictions of them, including some images of bloody mutilations they have caused. The bloody images are somehow more "real" for us as they are more real than anything else for Evie. All the other images in the book are simpler black and white sketches. Evie has a very vivid imagination, and she has heard the most brutal shark killing stories, so she imagines vividly terrible things, and Sumner draws these nightmares (both real and imagined), so what we are seeing sometimes is very much like a horror comic. Evie learns everything she can about sharks, but most of it has to do with the terrible pain and suffering they can inflict on anyone they come in contact with. She knows stories of them, but they are never warm and cuddly shark stories, trust me. She listens mainly to everything horrific about sharks, which feeds her fears.
We don't really get to know too much more about her or her family, really, but I guess that's kind of okay, since this is about her obsession and not a family memoir, per se, but I do think the rest of the family is sort of unmemorable. Bland. Most everything is bland compared to sharks, I guess!
Shark's teeth mean for young Evie any childhood fears of loss, which over time of course do come to her, as she grows up, as people she loves die or go away, but as she grows up she also comes to a place in her life where everything is (metaphorically) not only be teeth, and she's mostly afraid all the time.
Spoiler alert for a somewhat surprising ending: As she grows up, she also learns to conquer some of her fears specifically about sharks, and continue to educate herself about them enough to learn they are not just Evil Predators, and advocate for an organization called Shark Attack Survivors for Shark Conservation!!!
This is a strange book in a few ways: It has wonderful and strange artwork by Joe Sumner that seems to perfectly match the story. Sometimes, when we see sharks in this book, we see very realistic depictions of them, including some images of bloody mutilations they have caused. The bloody images are somehow more "real" for us as they are more real than anything else for Evie. All the other images in the book are simpler black and white sketches. Evie has a very vivid imagination, and she has heard the most brutal shark killing stories, so she imagines vividly terrible things, and Sumner draws these nightmares (both real and imagined), so what we are seeing sometimes is very much like a horror comic. Evie learns everything she can about sharks, but most of it has to do with the terrible pain and suffering they can inflict on anyone they come in contact with. She knows stories of them, but they are never warm and cuddly shark stories, trust me. She listens mainly to everything horrific about sharks, which feeds her fears.
We don't really get to know too much more about her or her family, really, but I guess that's kind of okay, since this is about her obsession and not a family memoir, per se, but I do think the rest of the family is sort of unmemorable. Bland. Most everything is bland compared to sharks, I guess!
Shark's teeth mean for young Evie any childhood fears of loss, which over time of course do come to her, as she grows up, as people she loves die or go away, but as she grows up she also comes to a place in her life where everything is (metaphorically) not only be teeth, and she's mostly afraid all the time.
Spoiler alert for a somewhat surprising ending: As she grows up, she also learns to conquer some of her fears specifically about sharks, and continue to educate herself about them enough to learn they are not just Evil Predators, and advocate for an organization called Shark Attack Survivors for Shark Conservation!!!
October 12, 2016
This graphic memoir is beautiful to look at but I felt disconnected from the story and I think that it is at least in part because it is set up in ways that are thematically connected but unfocused. It explores a young girl's fear and obsession with sharks and also her dawning realization that it is not very often sharks maul humans, and much more common that humans maul sharks. It is a book about an emotional journey, the kind of fear that children must to some extent face on their own, even if their families try to help, because the fear is deep inside, and it is less about the thing feared, and more about the fear of (familial) loss and the unshakeable discovery of human vulnerability.
We walk with Wyld through her childhood curiosity about and fear of sharks and we see the curiosity and fear grow into obsession. She is drawn to images of sharks, like a moth to the flames? and the more grotesque these images are, the deeper her fear and connection becomes. She reads about survivors of shark attacks and appreciates their unlikely survival, their invulnerability. A person can survive a shark attack! Still, she fears for her family's safety when they are swimming and fishing in the ocean. Meanwhile, difficult things happen in her family, and they are not discussed openly, and she is aware of them without fully being able to articulate how they affect her, so they become interpreted through the lens of her shark fears.
Wyld's family both encourages and discourages her interest in sharks (perhaps they think they can help her get past her obsession by helping her moving through it? Or they think it is childish nonsense that will evaporate with time?) They do and don't realize the extent of her inner turmoil which does and doesn't have to do with sharks. It is everything she sees rumbling under the surface of her family life, all the threatening emotional things, that intensifies her fear of sharks rumbling under the surface of various waters.
Why I didn't connect with this book I'm not fully sure. It's a kind of collection of shark-related ideas and memories and the narrative shape and closure feels a little forced. It's good but didn't leave me with any sense of why she took me on the journey. Maybe it just seemed a bit short and not fully explored or developed.
We walk with Wyld through her childhood curiosity about and fear of sharks and we see the curiosity and fear grow into obsession. She is drawn to images of sharks, like a moth to the flames? and the more grotesque these images are, the deeper her fear and connection becomes. She reads about survivors of shark attacks and appreciates their unlikely survival, their invulnerability. A person can survive a shark attack! Still, she fears for her family's safety when they are swimming and fishing in the ocean. Meanwhile, difficult things happen in her family, and they are not discussed openly, and she is aware of them without fully being able to articulate how they affect her, so they become interpreted through the lens of her shark fears.
Wyld's family both encourages and discourages her interest in sharks (perhaps they think they can help her get past her obsession by helping her moving through it? Or they think it is childish nonsense that will evaporate with time?) They do and don't realize the extent of her inner turmoil which does and doesn't have to do with sharks. It is everything she sees rumbling under the surface of her family life, all the threatening emotional things, that intensifies her fear of sharks rumbling under the surface of various waters.
Why I didn't connect with this book I'm not fully sure. It's a kind of collection of shark-related ideas and memories and the narrative shape and closure feels a little forced. It's good but didn't leave me with any sense of why she took me on the journey. Maybe it just seemed a bit short and not fully explored or developed.
January 7, 2016
Warning: This graphic novel contains images of animal and human death and injury, some imagined, some real.
When Evie’s brother gets a shark’s jaw for Christmas, she is fascinated. She finds a book about shark attacks and learns of Rodney Fox’s experience; how his abdomen was opened and all his ribs broken. His diaphragm punctured, lung ripped open, shoulder blade pierced, spleen uncovered�
The rest of this review (complete with pictures) can be found
When Evie’s brother gets a shark’s jaw for Christmas, she is fascinated. She finds a book about shark attacks and learns of Rodney Fox’s experience; how his abdomen was opened and all his ribs broken. His diaphragm punctured, lung ripped open, shoulder blade pierced, spleen uncovered�
The rest of this review (complete with pictures) can be found
June 7, 2016
This graphic memoir is so simple and yet incredibly effective. It tells the story of the author's obsession and fear of sharks as a young girl. The art is not complex, but sets the right mood for capturing the terrors of childhood. If like me you had a problem swimming after watching Jaws, then this is one for you. Beautifully and tenderly told.
November 27, 2015
I have very mixed feelings about this book.
On the one hand, it is beautifully put together. The illustrations are quirky, and the text is simple yet effective. The premise is unique and interesting, and definitely captures your imagination.
However, I wanted a little more from this. I appreciate that it is difficult to achieve in such a short space of time, but I wanted more depth from the characters, and to learn more about them. When I compare it to another non-fiction graphic work, for example 'Fun Home', I didn't come away feeling like I had a grasp of who the character's were.
Although, maybe that was intentional and I'm just picky! Regardless, it was definitely worth a read, even if just to marvel at the pictures!
On the one hand, it is beautifully put together. The illustrations are quirky, and the text is simple yet effective. The premise is unique and interesting, and definitely captures your imagination.
However, I wanted a little more from this. I appreciate that it is difficult to achieve in such a short space of time, but I wanted more depth from the characters, and to learn more about them. When I compare it to another non-fiction graphic work, for example 'Fun Home', I didn't come away feeling like I had a grasp of who the character's were.
Although, maybe that was intentional and I'm just picky! Regardless, it was definitely worth a read, even if just to marvel at the pictures!
January 11, 2018
Review is coming...
March 27, 2016
I really, really was looking forward to this graphic novel as I knew a lot of people who have similar taste to myself that had read and enjoyed this. I knew it was about sharks, and was a memoir of a kind, before going into it...honestly I think that's all you really need to know about this book becuase giving away any more of the story would probably steal some of the mystery from it.
This follows Evie (the author) as a young girl who has family in, and frequently visited (in her childhood) Australia. She has always had a fascination with sharks since she was tiny and this has bled over not just into her holidays in Australia, but also into her life back at home when she's no where near the shark-infested waters... This book follows her adventures with learning about and imagining sharks over her life so far, and it's a very dark but beautiful story.
The artwork within this book is flawless with a very comic/cute pale yellow, white and black tone for the majority of the story with the sharks themselves being beautifully painted in a lifelike way. This juxtaposition of the 2-D comic with 3-D style sharks gives the sharks this otherworldly appearance and makes them seem sinister and intriguing all at once.
I really felt for Evie as a young girl with a big imagination who had a fascination with sharks. It must have been scary and wonderful, creepy and grim all at once, but it was clearly something very special to her and I do think that that comes across very clearly throughout this story.
Overall I would give this a 4*s and say it's a very likeable story and it was short, sweet but beautiful.
This follows Evie (the author) as a young girl who has family in, and frequently visited (in her childhood) Australia. She has always had a fascination with sharks since she was tiny and this has bled over not just into her holidays in Australia, but also into her life back at home when she's no where near the shark-infested waters... This book follows her adventures with learning about and imagining sharks over her life so far, and it's a very dark but beautiful story.
The artwork within this book is flawless with a very comic/cute pale yellow, white and black tone for the majority of the story with the sharks themselves being beautifully painted in a lifelike way. This juxtaposition of the 2-D comic with 3-D style sharks gives the sharks this otherworldly appearance and makes them seem sinister and intriguing all at once.
I really felt for Evie as a young girl with a big imagination who had a fascination with sharks. It must have been scary and wonderful, creepy and grim all at once, but it was clearly something very special to her and I do think that that comes across very clearly throughout this story.
Overall I would give this a 4*s and say it's a very likeable story and it was short, sweet but beautiful.
December 31, 2015
I mightn't've picked this up if it weren't for the fact I'm interested in sharks, and used to love Wyld's bookshop in Peckham when I lived there. (If you're ever in that area, I highly recommend, it's lovely.)
This was a touching graphic memoir. The best word I can think of was "soft", in contrast to the toothy menaces that Wyld was obsessed with as a kid. I learnt a few things about sharks (and a new thing about shrimps!), and enjoyed it immensely, feeling quite emotional at times. The art was simple and suited the story, and it flowed nicely. It had some sobering images of the things done to sharks, too. It also made me long for a childhood in Australia, with sharks and jellyfish and checking-gloves-for-spiders.
This was a touching graphic memoir. The best word I can think of was "soft", in contrast to the toothy menaces that Wyld was obsessed with as a kid. I learnt a few things about sharks (and a new thing about shrimps!), and enjoyed it immensely, feeling quite emotional at times. The art was simple and suited the story, and it flowed nicely. It had some sobering images of the things done to sharks, too. It also made me long for a childhood in Australia, with sharks and jellyfish and checking-gloves-for-spiders.
April 19, 2017
This cover is killer - I wish the inside of the book lived up to the outside.
It's a quick, spare story about the author's Australian childhood, living with particular connections to sharks.
I wonder if part of the problem here is that it's illustrated by a different person than who wrote it. Memoir, particularly graphic novel memoir, is such a personal art. I'm trying to think of a really stellar one where the author didn't also illustrate. Maybe especially when we're dealing with the less extraordinary, more ruminating tales.
The illustrations also blend color and black&white illustration styles, even some images that look close to photographic. And it doesn't quite work for me here.
End papers are great, though. :)
It's a quick, spare story about the author's Australian childhood, living with particular connections to sharks.
I wonder if part of the problem here is that it's illustrated by a different person than who wrote it. Memoir, particularly graphic novel memoir, is such a personal art. I'm trying to think of a really stellar one where the author didn't also illustrate. Maybe especially when we're dealing with the less extraordinary, more ruminating tales.
The illustrations also blend color and black&white illustration styles, even some images that look close to photographic. And it doesn't quite work for me here.
End papers are great, though. :)
November 3, 2020
I was watching the news shortly after I finished this.One of the items was a shark attack killing a swimmer off the Gold Coast of Australia.I read Jaws when it came out,saw the movie,documentaries etc. so I was quite familiar with Rodney Fox.This book was beautifully done,mixing various art media forms.I think this would be a great beach read followed by a lazy float in the ocean.
July 30, 2017
The story goes that when I was about fourish years old, my family went out to California to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin. My cousin was a few years older than me, and my parents got him a tape and book about sharks. Evidently, it was too scary for him, so my aunt and uncle gave it back to my parents, who decided that rather than let it go to waste, I could have it. I then insisted that we listen to the tape over and over and over again in the car. Thus my lifelong love of sharks was born. Even now, almost thirty years later, I am eternally fascinated, and a bit daunted, by these amazing creatures. So EVERYTHING IS TEETH by Evie Wyld is a very, very relatable story to me.
When Evie Wyld was a girl her family would take a trip to Australia each year to visit relatives. WHen she was tiny, she discovered sharks, first through a set of jaws her brother got as a present, and then through books about shark attacks. A childhood obsession was born, one that interested her and terrified her all at once. This memoir explores her love of sharks, and how her fear of them related to other childhood anxieties.
Yeah, this was basically like looking in a mirror in many, many ways. We would take family trips out to California every year, and inevitably end up at the ocean, which both scared the hell out of me and yet pulled me in because SHARKS. I was also very captivated by Rodney Fox, an abalone diver who was attacked by a great white and not only lived to tell about it, but became a shark advocate. And I too was riddled with many irrational anxieties that I couldn't put into words, and instead hyperfocused on improbable fears... like sharks. Wyld's story is a nice gathering of snapshots during her time period of loving sharks as a girl, which also hint at wider things going on in her family. Things that are pretty commonplace, be it a disconnected yet also caring father, an older brother who is coping with bullies, and a mother who fears getting older and suffers from bouts of insomnia. As Evie has horrible fears as a child about her family getting eaten by sharks, as she gets older it seems that these fears were more about loss, as juxtaposed with the loss that we all eventually suffer as time goes on. It's not a loud book, not detailing anything terribly traumatic or life changing. It's just a girl's coming of age story that happens to involve sharks, and it's quiet and sweet and also a little haunting in some ways.
I also really love the illustrations in this book. Joe Sumner does both cartoony and also very realistic drawings for the story. Evie and her family are drawn as caricatures, but then the sharks are very real, as are snippets from JAWS and the pictures from the shark attack books that Evie reads (and I recognized almost all of the pictures that were picked, because again, THIS WAS PRETTY MUCH MY LIFE TOO). I was struck by the drawings as much as I was the writing, as they are both simplistic, and yet very powerful.
I really liked EVERYTHING IS TEETH. It was a mellow and relatable read.
When Evie Wyld was a girl her family would take a trip to Australia each year to visit relatives. WHen she was tiny, she discovered sharks, first through a set of jaws her brother got as a present, and then through books about shark attacks. A childhood obsession was born, one that interested her and terrified her all at once. This memoir explores her love of sharks, and how her fear of them related to other childhood anxieties.
Yeah, this was basically like looking in a mirror in many, many ways. We would take family trips out to California every year, and inevitably end up at the ocean, which both scared the hell out of me and yet pulled me in because SHARKS. I was also very captivated by Rodney Fox, an abalone diver who was attacked by a great white and not only lived to tell about it, but became a shark advocate. And I too was riddled with many irrational anxieties that I couldn't put into words, and instead hyperfocused on improbable fears... like sharks. Wyld's story is a nice gathering of snapshots during her time period of loving sharks as a girl, which also hint at wider things going on in her family. Things that are pretty commonplace, be it a disconnected yet also caring father, an older brother who is coping with bullies, and a mother who fears getting older and suffers from bouts of insomnia. As Evie has horrible fears as a child about her family getting eaten by sharks, as she gets older it seems that these fears were more about loss, as juxtaposed with the loss that we all eventually suffer as time goes on. It's not a loud book, not detailing anything terribly traumatic or life changing. It's just a girl's coming of age story that happens to involve sharks, and it's quiet and sweet and also a little haunting in some ways.
I also really love the illustrations in this book. Joe Sumner does both cartoony and also very realistic drawings for the story. Evie and her family are drawn as caricatures, but then the sharks are very real, as are snippets from JAWS and the pictures from the shark attack books that Evie reads (and I recognized almost all of the pictures that were picked, because again, THIS WAS PRETTY MUCH MY LIFE TOO). I was struck by the drawings as much as I was the writing, as they are both simplistic, and yet very powerful.
I really liked EVERYTHING IS TEETH. It was a mellow and relatable read.
March 25, 2016
3.5 stars
Hmmmmm...I have mixed feelings about this one; the illustrations are amazing, the attention to detail is painstaking and the consistant pastel colour scheme makes the bloody parts really effective and yet...I didn't feel the same connection with the characters as I have done with other graphic novels.
We follow a girl's obsession with sharks right from childhood to adulthood. It is reminiscent of past holidays spent in Australia with her family and of the constant psychological threat of sharks. I think the main cause for this fixation is due to a book she read detailing Rodney Fox's bloody altercation with a shark. From that moment on, she never thought about sharks in the same way again.
It's definitely a story about morality and how humans encroach on the sharks's territory. Her family go surfing and she imagines a bloody outcome for her mother and brother; she is constantly aware of the threat which lurks beneath the water's surface.
For me though, that's all we really find out, we don't explore her character enough for me to identify with her (except when she is saddened at a 17 foot shark suspended in a 17 and a half foot box with wires sticking in it) - she is disgusted by what this shark has been reduced to, a model which people can gawp at. Sharks live and swim in vast oceans, they are supposed to be free, yet this one is cocooned in a tiny glass coffin which goes against nature's designs.
Personally I wanted more from this story especially a deeper insight into our characters, their wants and desires etc. I wanted to feel for them which I'm ashamed to say, I didn't. Although I was saddened and angry by her uncle's dealing with a pregnant shark!!
Overall, a thought-provoking read, but for me the best thing about it were the illustrations.
Hmmmmm...I have mixed feelings about this one; the illustrations are amazing, the attention to detail is painstaking and the consistant pastel colour scheme makes the bloody parts really effective and yet...I didn't feel the same connection with the characters as I have done with other graphic novels.
We follow a girl's obsession with sharks right from childhood to adulthood. It is reminiscent of past holidays spent in Australia with her family and of the constant psychological threat of sharks. I think the main cause for this fixation is due to a book she read detailing Rodney Fox's bloody altercation with a shark. From that moment on, she never thought about sharks in the same way again.
It's definitely a story about morality and how humans encroach on the sharks's territory. Her family go surfing and she imagines a bloody outcome for her mother and brother; she is constantly aware of the threat which lurks beneath the water's surface.
For me though, that's all we really find out, we don't explore her character enough for me to identify with her (except when she is saddened at a 17 foot shark suspended in a 17 and a half foot box with wires sticking in it) - she is disgusted by what this shark has been reduced to, a model which people can gawp at. Sharks live and swim in vast oceans, they are supposed to be free, yet this one is cocooned in a tiny glass coffin which goes against nature's designs.
Personally I wanted more from this story especially a deeper insight into our characters, their wants and desires etc. I wanted to feel for them which I'm ashamed to say, I didn't. Although I was saddened and angry by her uncle's dealing with a pregnant shark!!
Overall, a thought-provoking read, but for me the best thing about it were the illustrations.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2016
Very haunting. As a little girl, Evie grows up fascinated by sharks. Some of the imagery gets quite graphic. Sharks swim in and about and through the panels, a visual metaphor for change and growing up, among other things. This book perfectly captures the magical way children have of looking at the world. Evie is both terrified of and fascinated by sharks. She imagines herself and members of her family being attacked and eaten, not out of malice or anything, but simply because, in her mind, that's what sharks do. There's a wonderful feeling of subdued menace and deep undercurrents to this book. It resists easy summary. It's the sort of book that results in my staring off into space for a good five minutes between that last sentence and this one. It's an excellent, thought-provoking book.
February 23, 2018
1.5 stars
This was supposed to be a memoir? In that case, I wish the author had spent more time fleshing out the characters of her family (honestly, they all just seemed a bit interchangeable with one another), as well as not ending so abruptly before forwarding to the present. I did like Evie explaining life in Australia & would have liked to see her expand on that. While the art is simplistic, there are some horrifying images of shark attacks. The concept for this is interesting, but its execution fell flat. The things that we experience in childhood can have a profound effect on us later in life--- I wish EVERYTHING IS TEETH would have displayed that better.
Quick library read; not worth exploring again.
This was supposed to be a memoir? In that case, I wish the author had spent more time fleshing out the characters of her family (honestly, they all just seemed a bit interchangeable with one another), as well as not ending so abruptly before forwarding to the present. I did like Evie explaining life in Australia & would have liked to see her expand on that. While the art is simplistic, there are some horrifying images of shark attacks. The concept for this is interesting, but its execution fell flat. The things that we experience in childhood can have a profound effect on us later in life--- I wish EVERYTHING IS TEETH would have displayed that better.
Quick library read; not worth exploring again.
October 20, 2016
I am so glad this book came to my attention. The writing is spare, but the images are so evocative that both work well together.
Wyld's memoir is about her summers in Australia and her fascination with sharks. I, too, have a fascination with sharks. Mine began when I saw Jaws as a kid. That movie left quite an impression. And, just like Wyld, I kept my eyes open for any impending shark encounters.
This is a perfect homage to her father also. The way Wyld connects beginning to end is quite touching.
Wyld's memoir is about her summers in Australia and her fascination with sharks. I, too, have a fascination with sharks. Mine began when I saw Jaws as a kid. That movie left quite an impression. And, just like Wyld, I kept my eyes open for any impending shark encounters.
This is a perfect homage to her father also. The way Wyld connects beginning to end is quite touching.
July 6, 2019
A graphic novel by Miles Franklin Award wining author Evie Wyld. Packed with metaphors and interesting graphics.
Celebrates Shark Attack survivors for Shark Conservation.
A good one to peruse.
Celebrates Shark Attack survivors for Shark Conservation.
A good one to peruse.
October 4, 2024
Hace varios años que intento conseguir este comic, pero estaba agotado en todos lados, asà que recién ahora pude leerlo. Lo empecé a leer tan pronto lo adquirÃ, porque se trata sobre una chica obsesionada con los tiburones, y me sentà identificada. El tema es que ella tiene un vÃnculo de amor/odio con estas criaturas: a veces la aterran, representan esos miedos profundos que están escondidos, y que salen a flote en el peor momento. Los ve en todos lados, aun si el entorno no es un ambiente conectado con el agua: puede sentir que un tiburón la acecha hasta en su propio cuarto, asà como también imaginar la manera en la que su propia familia es devorada por tiburones de la forma más despiadada.
Pero, por otro lado, la conectan con el lado B de todo eso: se enamora de un sobreviviente de un ataque de tiburones, al punto de reconocer sus heridas y su cuerpo maltratado en cualquier foto o video. También, cuando empieza a adentrarse más en el mundo de los escualos, se da cuenta de que ellos no son precisamente la mayor amenaza en esta tierra. Descubre el lado más cruel de la humanidad, lo perturbador y lo insensible. Ahà es cuando algo le hace click.
Esa dualidad entre el miedo y la admiración se amalgama perfectamente para crear una novela gráfica que nos ayuda a conocer algunas vivencias e inquietudes de la autora. Si no le doy cinco estrellas es porque al principio me costó un poco conectar con la historia principal, y porque no me convencieron tanto las ilustraciones (sà las de tiburones, por supuesto). A pesar de esto último, quedé pensando en esta novela gráfica varios dÃas después de haberla terminado. Sobre todo con algunas situaciones concretas que me dejaron pensando, y algunos datos que desconocÃa, por ejemplo, sobre el delirante (por ser cuidadosa por acá, y no decir otra cosa), Vic Hislop.
Pero, por otro lado, la conectan con el lado B de todo eso: se enamora de un sobreviviente de un ataque de tiburones, al punto de reconocer sus heridas y su cuerpo maltratado en cualquier foto o video. También, cuando empieza a adentrarse más en el mundo de los escualos, se da cuenta de que ellos no son precisamente la mayor amenaza en esta tierra. Descubre el lado más cruel de la humanidad, lo perturbador y lo insensible. Ahà es cuando algo le hace click.
Esa dualidad entre el miedo y la admiración se amalgama perfectamente para crear una novela gráfica que nos ayuda a conocer algunas vivencias e inquietudes de la autora. Si no le doy cinco estrellas es porque al principio me costó un poco conectar con la historia principal, y porque no me convencieron tanto las ilustraciones (sà las de tiburones, por supuesto). A pesar de esto último, quedé pensando en esta novela gráfica varios dÃas después de haberla terminado. Sobre todo con algunas situaciones concretas que me dejaron pensando, y algunos datos que desconocÃa, por ejemplo, sobre el delirante (por ser cuidadosa por acá, y no decir otra cosa), Vic Hislop.
December 13, 2022
Not sure I can do this justice: excellent, dark and deep like the ocean itself, this compelling and creative memoir thrives and delivers so much below its surface.
July 15, 2018
Trigger warnings: blood, shark attack, gore, mental health, bullying.
This is such an Australian story in so many ways. Between the huntsman on the wall and the sharks in the water, the feeling of oppressive heat and of days spent at the beach. The whole coming-to-Australia-for-Christmas thing is very reminiscent of my own childhood, and it gave me a lot of feelings.
This is basically the story of Wyld's childhood and her infatuation with sharks. Sharks take the place of childhood fears and anxieties in the story, which I absolutely loved. The art is lovely, and largely in a muted colour palette with occasional splashes of colour reserved for shark attacks.
I sped through this, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is such an Australian story in so many ways. Between the huntsman on the wall and the sharks in the water, the feeling of oppressive heat and of days spent at the beach. The whole coming-to-Australia-for-Christmas thing is very reminiscent of my own childhood, and it gave me a lot of feelings.
This is basically the story of Wyld's childhood and her infatuation with sharks. Sharks take the place of childhood fears and anxieties in the story, which I absolutely loved. The art is lovely, and largely in a muted colour palette with occasional splashes of colour reserved for shark attacks.
I sped through this, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
August 13, 2017
Evie Wyld is a fascinating writer to me because her work is always so delicate and dark. I've read her novel All the Birds, Singing, and was eager to read her memoir, especially when I heard that it was about sharks (I have my own weird fascination with these beautiful and terrifying creatures). Like her novel, the memoir is short, never a word out of place. Her writing is straight-forward and intentional. She focuses on her childhood and her family, very often only skimming a topic (like the way her father fits into her mother's family or why her brother comes home with black eyes), and readers are aware that something potentially ominous lurks beneath the surface of what she's describing. This fits well with her shark obsession, but also with the realities of childhood, when you may not understand the subtleties of life. When I finished and realized the level of depth she achieved in comparing mortality and family to the lives of sharks, I immediately went back to reread certain panels with new eyes. On that note, the artwork here is stunning. The mix of realism and line drawings perfectly captures childhood—where things feel starkly real and utterly imagined at the same time. To have her reality drawn as a cartoon and her fear drawn with intense realism was a brilliant choice by Joe Sumner, the illustrator. I wished it was in color more than once, which is perhaps the only negative thing I can say about the book. Similarly, I left this book (as I did with novel) wanting more: more details, more stories, more insight. I'm giving it three stars mostly because while I did enjoy it I don't necessarily see myself longing to pick it up again, nor do I think it was so profound that I'd eagerly pass it along to a fellow reader. That said, if you're at all curious or intrigued by this book, I would recommend it.
Read
May 29, 2018
"The message from Wyld seems not so much ‘LOOK OUT LIFE WANTS TO EAT YOU!� but rather ‘life could eat you, sure, but such occurrences are exceedingly rare and even then you can poke it in the eye and escape to the hands of kind strangers who prod your guts back into your body�"
May 28, 2018
I really loved the art in this - especially the contrast between a 2D, cartoon-y Evie + her family vs. the 3D, colorful sharks + wildlife. I liked the tone and thought this would get more introspective, but it finished without answering my questions. For someone who likes subtlety in what she reads, I thought this was a bit too vague towards the end.
August 22, 2016
My first graphic novel. Beautiful illustrations, a nicely paced story about sharks, childhood anxieties and fear. My favourite line, about heading into the water, "I get in up to my knees and the sun turns my hair to hot bread".
July 10, 2016
Not sure what I expected from this, maybe a bit more?? The drawing is v cool tho and having had grown up in Australia I got some pangs of nostalgia.
August 21, 2016
Sharks are scary is my sole takeaway from this book. Since I already knew that, this book was a waste of my time.
September 29, 2017
What an odd little story. The art style made the moments there were sharks on the page very jarring and unsettling. I enjoyed that.
June 13, 2017
I must be one of the only people of my generation who has still not seen Jaws and for good reason. I know enough about it to understand that is is the stuff that children's (long lasting) nightmares are made of..... and I'm one of these people who wouldn't set foot in open water again after seeing those horrors on screen.
Evie Wyld, growing up, had an obsession and ongoing fear of sharks, only made worse by seeing films about them and visiting a gruesome little shark museum on a visit with her relatives in Australia. This childhood memoir is told beautifully with simple black-and-sepia drawings and some very interesting parenting moments, too.
3.5 stars
Evie Wyld, growing up, had an obsession and ongoing fear of sharks, only made worse by seeing films about them and visiting a gruesome little shark museum on a visit with her relatives in Australia. This childhood memoir is told beautifully with simple black-and-sepia drawings and some very interesting parenting moments, too.
3.5 stars
October 3, 2020
Evie Wyld shares stories of her time as a child in Australia and her fear and awe of the sharks of the Australian waters. A compelling story, well told, with vivid graphics.
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