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Squid Teeth: A Tor Original
A woman talented in the art of spinning--creating pottery by manipulating clay in her mouth--longs to become the best, but wonders if it is worth the sacrifices she must make…
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
39 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 7, 2025
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Langan
52 books909 followersSarah grew up on Long Island, got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, her MS in environmental toxicology from NYU, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her family, two rabbits, and three chickens.
Her next novel TRAD WIFE is due out from S&S and Tor UK in Summer, 2026.
Her most recent works include A BETTER WORLD, GOOD NEIGHBORS, PAM KOWOLSKI IS A MONSTER, YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST MASK, "Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Squid Teeth," "The Devil's Children," and "I Miss You Too Much."
*I acknowledge that I have massacred the punctuation surrounding the above quotations marks. I will now resume talking about myself in the third person.*
Her books have received favorite of the year distinctions from NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, Publisher's Weekly, and the AARP (best of the last five years).
She is also three-time Bram Stoker award winner for outstanding novel in 2007 - The Missing, outstanding short story in 2008 - The Lost, and outstanding novel in 2009 - Audrey's Door.
Blog:https://sarahlangan.com/blog/
Her next novel TRAD WIFE is due out from S&S and Tor UK in Summer, 2026.
Her most recent works include A BETTER WORLD, GOOD NEIGHBORS, PAM KOWOLSKI IS A MONSTER, YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST MASK, "Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Squid Teeth," "The Devil's Children," and "I Miss You Too Much."
*I acknowledge that I have massacred the punctuation surrounding the above quotations marks. I will now resume talking about myself in the third person.*
Her books have received favorite of the year distinctions from NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, Publisher's Weekly, and the AARP (best of the last five years).
She is also three-time Bram Stoker award winner for outstanding novel in 2007 - The Missing, outstanding short story in 2008 - The Lost, and outstanding novel in 2009 - Audrey's Door.
Blog:https://sarahlangan.com/blog/
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 31, 2025
"A nautilus is always hungry. It makes more progress every day. Someone ought to have told us: They never stop with the tongue."
It's rare that I find a five star short but this one is so close ... I mean look at this:
Humans who've evolved +squid🦑+ink✒️ making plates🍽️ + a fancy competition full of dread and a ton of foreboding. It is cosmic, hallucinogenic and somewhat Lovecraftian if it were on mushrooms experiencing another plane of existence where homo sapiens became bipedal homo cephalopod. It is the best kind of weird scifi-horror.
"I liked my teeth. Their permanence and solidity countered the tenderness of my ink sack and tongue. I liked the messiness of my spinning process, its carnality." - I can't even compare this to anything and I love that.
Teeth,blood, plates, parasitic sea creatures and something alien, something galactic...I need this in novel form 🥺
It's rare that I find a five star short but this one is so close ... I mean look at this:
Humans who've evolved +squid🦑+ink✒️ making plates🍽️ + a fancy competition full of dread and a ton of foreboding. It is cosmic, hallucinogenic and somewhat Lovecraftian if it were on mushrooms experiencing another plane of existence where homo sapiens became bipedal homo cephalopod. It is the best kind of weird scifi-horror.
"I liked my teeth. Their permanence and solidity countered the tenderness of my ink sack and tongue. I liked the messiness of my spinning process, its carnality." - I can't even compare this to anything and I love that.
Teeth,blood, plates, parasitic sea creatures and something alien, something galactic...I need this in novel form 🥺
June 7, 2025
Set in a world where people spin clay plates using their mouths, and produce patterns on the plate using ink pouches in their mouths, one artist has the opportunity to become a famous plate spinner. But to do it, he has to join a competition and become one of the winners. During the competition, he sees the results it has on those who did not make it, and starts to have second thoughts. But the lure of winning may prove to be too much to overcome.
August 12, 2025
I went into this novelette blind. I was browsing original fiction on reactor.mag wanting something short to read, and the title caught my attention, and the premise had the perfect amount of intrigue to reel me in.
I was not expecting a story that I have been gnawing at and thinking about for the last few days. Partly, that is down to the horror element – especially as it leans into body horror, which is absolutely my favourite flavour of horror, especially when you through in a bizarre nautical twist on the idea. But I think the real reason is that the core story, about chasing dreams, about sacrifices and making choices for better… or worse, is something very tangible and familiar.
What would you do to chase a dream? To rise to the top?
I feel like Langlan has written a story that will resonate with anyone feeling as though they are struggling to get somewhere, whether with a job, an art, or both. And I love how it built up, we get to see our POV’s character catch the bug, the seed of the dream, working towards it despite being pushed to give up by family, by society, by the reality of having to earn a living and still cleaving to that dream. The fact that it’s in first person also making it so easy to walk in those shoes, to stare at the four walls wondering … can I make it?
The idea of making pottery with your mouth and decorating it with cephalopod ink sacs that have evolved as part of our biology is both fascinating and uncomfortable, in that way that makes you want to back away, but you can’t keep looking and wanting to understand. And the way society and opportunities have built up around this was really well done; and the idea of sponsorship and patronage and needing to catch the eye of the right people through that heady, imperfect balance of talent and luck and determination with the ever-present possibility of it all being snatched away again gives the story resonance.
As the tension builds, creeping in like haar off the sea… or unshelled nautilus crawling on to land; Langan pushes both elements to their limits. Challenging the idea of what sacrifices are worth making, what prices are too much, and I particularly liked the brief interactions between our POV and Caroline, the two sides of the coin and how its revisited at the end. It was a brush of rationality, a lifeline – that has part of you willing our MC to listen to their doubts, that rationale voice; even as Langlan makes us go… but what if? What if we take that jump? That risk?
I think the only element I struggled with did stem from that, because while I liked that push and pull and that we were offered a glimpse of the other side. The conflict is almost too easily resolved? Our MC turning their back on the doubts, the evidence a little too quickly – and some of that is down to the length, and to be honest I think it does work, I would just have liked to see it gnawed at just a little while longer.
The ending…was unexpected and fantastically horrifying. Like a last cherry on top of the feast, especially the last three lines, which felt a little like you had waded out into the ocean and just found the edge of the shallows and plunged in deep.
Both weirdly fascinating and disturbing in that sense that afterwards you could easily imagine phantom tentacles curling around places they shouldn’t. However, what I really loved about Squid Teeth is that the weird elements, and the body horror were so beautifully balanced with what was a very resonant, human story; with these two very different elements complementing each other. A quick read, that had a far more lasting impact and has left me wanting to check out more of the author’s word – and I would absolutely recommend Squid Teeth
I was not expecting a story that I have been gnawing at and thinking about for the last few days. Partly, that is down to the horror element – especially as it leans into body horror, which is absolutely my favourite flavour of horror, especially when you through in a bizarre nautical twist on the idea. But I think the real reason is that the core story, about chasing dreams, about sacrifices and making choices for better… or worse, is something very tangible and familiar.
What would you do to chase a dream? To rise to the top?
I feel like Langlan has written a story that will resonate with anyone feeling as though they are struggling to get somewhere, whether with a job, an art, or both. And I love how it built up, we get to see our POV’s character catch the bug, the seed of the dream, working towards it despite being pushed to give up by family, by society, by the reality of having to earn a living and still cleaving to that dream. The fact that it’s in first person also making it so easy to walk in those shoes, to stare at the four walls wondering … can I make it?
The idea of making pottery with your mouth and decorating it with cephalopod ink sacs that have evolved as part of our biology is both fascinating and uncomfortable, in that way that makes you want to back away, but you can’t keep looking and wanting to understand. And the way society and opportunities have built up around this was really well done; and the idea of sponsorship and patronage and needing to catch the eye of the right people through that heady, imperfect balance of talent and luck and determination with the ever-present possibility of it all being snatched away again gives the story resonance.
As the tension builds, creeping in like haar off the sea… or unshelled nautilus crawling on to land; Langan pushes both elements to their limits. Challenging the idea of what sacrifices are worth making, what prices are too much, and I particularly liked the brief interactions between our POV and Caroline, the two sides of the coin and how its revisited at the end. It was a brush of rationality, a lifeline – that has part of you willing our MC to listen to their doubts, that rationale voice; even as Langlan makes us go… but what if? What if we take that jump? That risk?
I think the only element I struggled with did stem from that, because while I liked that push and pull and that we were offered a glimpse of the other side. The conflict is almost too easily resolved? Our MC turning their back on the doubts, the evidence a little too quickly – and some of that is down to the length, and to be honest I think it does work, I would just have liked to see it gnawed at just a little while longer.
The ending…was unexpected and fantastically horrifying. Like a last cherry on top of the feast, especially the last three lines, which felt a little like you had waded out into the ocean and just found the edge of the shallows and plunged in deep.
Both weirdly fascinating and disturbing in that sense that afterwards you could easily imagine phantom tentacles curling around places they shouldn’t. However, what I really loved about Squid Teeth is that the weird elements, and the body horror were so beautifully balanced with what was a very resonant, human story; with these two very different elements complementing each other. A quick read, that had a far more lasting impact and has left me wanting to check out more of the author’s word – and I would absolutely recommend Squid Teeth
May 25, 2025
A little too much body horror for my taste, but that's just my personal preference.
July 25, 2025
This is a slow paced horror. I say slow paced because it builds you into the more horrific things, I found the pacing to be brilliant. I wasn't too sure at first what I Was reading but Langan slowly induces you into more horrific elements that made me cringe and shut my eyes, pausing for breath before I continued reading. The story was brilliant, short and sweet- but a blend of horrific elements that had me worried about what I would read next.
There were elements of comedy in it too, as I've quoted. It was nice to see a reflection of modern society in ways, gently laced into the text.
Thank you to Reactor and Sarah Langan for making this book free on Reactor, as well as there being a physical copy available for purchase for those interested.
Link here: https://reactormag.com/squid-teeth-sa...
There were elements of comedy in it too, as I've quoted. It was nice to see a reflection of modern society in ways, gently laced into the text.
Thank you to Reactor and Sarah Langan for making this book free on Reactor, as well as there being a physical copy available for purchase for those interested.
Link here: https://reactormag.com/squid-teeth-sa...
May 9, 2025
This story started out pretty strange and just got weirder and weirder the further I read. I had trouble feeling empathy for the main character, since her instincts told her what not to do, but she didn't listen to them. Her ambitions just over-ruled any common sense she had. And then the story just turned full-on horror and made my head hurt.
December 8, 2025
3*
The artist is writing this to her younger self, maybe hoping to change the past? Some people can spin plates from clay in their mouths. She struggled for many years, then got invited to Gyle for a retreat of some sort. She gets her back teeth removed, then get a nautilus implanted. She can't do the opalescent stuff she used to, and the nautilus is always hungry.
The artist is writing this to her younger self, maybe hoping to change the past? Some people can spin plates from clay in their mouths. She struggled for many years, then got invited to Gyle for a retreat of some sort. She gets her back teeth removed, then get a nautilus implanted. She can't do the opalescent stuff she used to, and the nautilus is always hungry.
July 12, 2025
A cautionary tale that will creep out some and really creep out the rest
December 7, 2025
I adore this author; her long-form piece here is ambitious and carries much of the wit I am used to from her, but it is not my favorite of her work.
January 10, 2026
Weird fiction that's truly weird. The tentacles don't even feel obligatory.
January 15, 2026
probably the strangest premise i've ever read (spinning pottery but in your mouth???)
August 25, 2025
Weird and uncomfortable, like all good short stories.
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January 3, 2026All five stars, all the time!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews