Feathers and Teeth

Chris’s life is over. On top of the usual problems which come with being thirteen -- angst, hormones, attention from the dorky kid next door -- her mother is dead, and her deluded father, Arthur, has a new girlfriend: Carol, her mother’s hospice nurse. Chris is convinced that perfectly-coiffed Carol is pure evil and actually the cause of her mother’s death, but Arthur doesn’t believe her. When Arthur runs over a mysterious creature, and the wandering corpse hatches terrifying, yet adorable, fanged and feathered monsters, Chris believes the creatures have been sent from above to help her destroy her step-mother-to-be. With the help of Hugo, her earnestly smitten German neighbor, Chris feeds the creatures Carol’s refrigerator full of hamburger meat to help them grow, but soon realizes that these little weapons are out of her hands. Who is guilty, who is innocent, who is the real murderous devil -- and in the face of supernatural hunger, does it even matter? Charise Castro Smith’s Feathers and Teeth is hilarious, horrifying, and heartbreaking in equal measure, a fast-paced, incredibly gory dark comedy with a vulnerable, grief-stricken core.