whitneydaniell

by: Pamela N. Harris
published: September 16, 2025
genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
368 pages, E-Book ARC
GoodReads | Amazon

GoodReads Synopsis

Hope Jackson is dead. Everyone is convinced she took her own life, but Liv, one of Hope’s best friends, isn’t so sure. Hope’s boyfriend, Brendan, was always jealous and possessive, and his alibi doesn’t really check out. But in the town’s eyes, Hope was just some nobody who was going to drag down golden boy Brendan.

So with the help of Hope’s other two best friends, Kizzie and Sherie, Liv is determined to bring Brendan’s actions to light. Together, they vow to make him pay.

But as their plans keep escalating, Liv begins to have second thoughts—especially as she’s realizing that Brendan may not be the only one with the motive or opportunity to kill Hope. Is Liv really getting justice for Hope, or is she just helping one of Hope’s so-called friends cover up their lies?

My Final Thoughts

Whew. That was a lot to take in. To be fair, I should probably give myself some time to sit with this one before writing a review—I literally just finished the book two minutes ago. But I’m eager to get it off my plate so I can move on to my next read, so here it goes.

After the untimely passing of Hope Jackson, Olivia’s best friend, Liv is lost. She’s never had to be alone before. Since she was six years old, she’s only known life as part of a trio: Brendan, Hope, and Olivia. When Brendan and Hope started dating in high school, Liv proudly embraced her role as the third wheel. But now, with Hope gone, everything has unraveled. Brendan may have killed her best friend, and Liv is drifting through her senior year, desperate to figure out where she belongs in a world without her.

Still grappling with her grief, Liv and her friends Kizzy and Sherie devise a plan to force Brendan to finally open up about Hope’s final day—what happened? Why did he hurt her? But their plan quickly backfires when Asher and Dayvon show up, throwing the entire group into a chaotic mess of fight, flight, or freeze.

I don’t typically read YA novels because I struggle to connect with characters born after 9/11, but I’m always down to support a new Black author—especially if the book leans toward mystery. I love a good thriller.

That said, Through Our Teeth didn’t really land for me. The dialogue felt like it was written by a millennial trying to imitate Gen Z. At one point, high-school-aged Hope says, “Rihanna did throw down, though.” I don’t claim to be a Gen Z expert, but I know enough to say… yeah, they wouldn’t phrase it like that.

The plot also felt a bit disjointed. There were a lot of characters—too many, really—and most didn’t add much to the story. Kizzy, Brendan, and Liv had backstories tied to Hope’s final days, but then you had Asher, Dayvon, Coko, Sy’rai, Jace, etc., all thrown into the mix, which made things feel cluttered. The pacing was another issue. It was slow—painfully slow. I kept swiping, waiting for the unraveling to begin, hoping for that aha moment where things would finally click. But it never came.

And to be honest, the book itself wasn’t what I expected. Based on the ‘Bound Galley Letter,’ I went in anticipating a completely different story.

Now, for a few specific gripes:

• The beach party logistics didn’t make sense. Public beaches close at night and are usually heavily secured to prevent drownings. I used to live in the Seven Cities, and a quick check of the Newport News, VA website shows that Huntington Beach is only open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So how exactly did a bunch of high schoolers manage to pull off a full-blown, alcohol-fueled bonfire party on Halloween at night? If you’ve ever lived in VA, you know the cops and State Troopers do not play like that.
• The excessive Wuthering Heights references. I’m not saying Gen Z isn’t into 19th-century English lit, but the way Wuthering Heights was woven into this story felt more like the author’s personal favorite book than something that made sense for these characters. It was a stretch.
• The almighty Swiss Army knife. Unless there’s a futuristic 2025 version that I don’t know about, there is no way that the dull little blade on a standard Swiss Army knife is causing the kind of damage this book suggests. I use one to open Amazon packages, and even that’s a struggle. But in Through Our Teeth, this thing is treated like Excalibur.

By the end, the story still didn’t connect for me. The characters lacked the depth needed to make me feel for them—there was no real emotional pull, nothing that made me want to root for them or mourn with them. The climax had some intrigue, but by the time I got there, I was just ready for the book to be over.

One thing that did feel realistic? These kids were not afraid of jail. That definitely tracks with Gen Z. I enjoyed Harris’ writing style and would pick up others by her, but this one didn’t land for me. I honestly added an extra star because this is an early ARC, considering it doesn’t have a publishing date until September and things could be different by the time it’s ready to go to print.

Acknowledgement

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader copy of Through Our Teeth in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate the opportunity to read and share my thoughts on this book.