The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Set in a Victorian England where the Violet Veil allows mediums to communicate with the dead, the story follows Silas Bell, a trans boy intent on becoming a surgeon. Because he is neurodivergent and trans, his family deems him afflicted with "veilsickness" and sends him to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanatorium. There, young women are trained to be submissive wives while their spiritual powers are harvested. When Silas discovers his classmates are disappearing and being subjected to brutal surgical experiments, he uses his ability to see ghosts to uncover a conspiracy involving the Royal Speaker and the school’s leadership.

Readers of gothic horror and historical fiction find a stark examination of medical abuse and the forced suppression of identity. The narrative appeals to those interested in the intersections of disability, gender autonomy, and institutional violence. Instead of a comfortable historical fantasy, the audience encounters a visceral depiction of survival against systemic erasure. Readers finish the book with a heavy understanding of how medical institutions have historically pathologized non-conformity and the bloody cost of resisting those who seek to control a person's physical and spiritual body.