Things will become clearer when her other grandmother, arriving shortly from France, emerges on the scene to set everything straight. When the inevitable happens, Eleanor finds herself in the middle of a family that is split.

Grandma admits she is ill and dying, and urges Eleanor to not let any outsiders in their home when she is gone. Eleanor’s grandmother then proceeds to groom her for eventually taking her place-a job whose primary responsibility is keeping the rest of the family from killing humans. She confesses to her grandmother Persephone the bad thing she did while at boarding school, and it demonstrates to the family that Eleanor is not so different from them after all. Afterwards, as she is settling in and reconnecting with her family, her grandfather Miklos is alarmed by the fact that Eleanor still cannot turn into a wolf. When her brother Rhys later holds up a bag of bloodied dead rabbits that he caught for the family dinner, Eleanor is suddenly overwhelmed and abruptly faints. She immediately bonds with her sister and best friend, Luma, who is happy to see her but does not think it is a good idea for Eleanor to stay. The entire extended family is there in a manner of turmoil, and Eleanor will soon play a big part in the tumultuous events that are to come.Įleanor arrives during a hunt, where members of her family are roaming the woods around the home in search of prey to devour. When she gets to the village, she is met by the local pastor, who was asked by Eleanor’s grandmother to escort her to the house.

When Eleanor is forced to flee her boarding school after a big incident she was involved with, she heads to the only other place she knows: her family’s house in the woods. The title of the novel comes directly from the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, but this novel is no children’s story. WHAT BIG TEETH explores not just the werewolf myth but also the family dynamic that occurs within the world of these creatures and directly threatens our protagonist, young Eleanor Zarrin, who has been estranged from her family for years. One of the best debuts of 2021 is from non-binary author Rose Szabo. One of the few good things to come out of the pandemic was a wealth of new fiction releases that includes many debut novels that really have made an impression.

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo