This will put you off having kids for life!
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The Blurb:
Meet Hanna. She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good. Meet Suzette. She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette's husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that there’s something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isn’t the best place for their baby girl after all.
The Review
I really can't tell you if I liked this book or not...I think I might still be in shock! There's something about children being creepy that is, well....really creepy. It's why all the best scary films have really disturbing children in them; kid's should be innocent and lack any intentional malice, so when they start displaying disturbing behaviour it's very unsettling.
The concept for this book is great. A 7 year old mute child, displaying all the classic traits of being on the autistic spectrum, and then some other horrific traits as well. For some reason, Hanna does not like her mummy and wilfully begins to terrorise her. All the while maintaining the facade to her Daddy that she is still his 'sweet little girl'.
We watch as a mother, against all her natural instincts to love her child, begins to resent her and the wedge she drives between them as a family. The dynamic between Suzette, the mother and Hanna is fascinating - the story is told through their alternating narratives and I totally bought into Suzette's story.
However, the problem for me was when it came to Hanna's narrative. Perhaps I felt that Hanna was too young to really have the thought processes to premeditate her actions to such an extent. We do know that Hanna is exceptionally bright...but still, it seemed a bit of a stretch. And be warned, Hanna really does want to harm her mummy. So much so that on a few brief occasions, it was reminiscent of Stewie from 'Family Guy' - with the increasingly far fetched lengths he goes to, in order to murder Lois. Clearly I wasn't meant to make this connection, and it was unfortunate when I did, as I then just started finding it a little bit ridiculous.
This is definitely more of a horror than a thriller and I can see it making quite a pretty decent horror movie. Stage is clearly a great writer and I would read another book of hers tomorrow. For me, had the book been written solely from the mother, Suzette's perspective, I think I would have loved it and been thoroughly terrified. Also a note that I think the book cover is just B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this preview copy in return for an unbiased review.
Baby Teeth is published on 17th July 2018 by St Martin's Press