I found the premise of this book disturbing and, at times, unbelievable. (I can’t conceive of even the brightest five year old tampering with drug capsules.). It kept me reading, analyzing the characters’ actions/reactions along the way. I had difficulty liking any of the main characters in the book. Having a background in education, with several years spent at a residential school for seriously emotionally disturbed children, I have known students who have issues similar to Hanna’s. I found myself hoping that a school/counselor would be able to connect with her- enter Beatrix and Brown Teeth. Hanna’s phone call home would never have been allowed to happen the way it did. The ending seemed to be setting up a sequel.
Given the controversial events in the book it is not for everyone. Many thanks to Zoje Stage, St. Martins Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

Suzette lives a seemingly perfect life. Married to a loving and successful man and is a mother to a little girl. But nothing is as it seems since her daughter, Hanna is out to get her and remove her permanently. Talk about scary! I must say this book was something else!!! Hanna was so diabolical and the way she was able to divide the parents in the story was mind blowing. I felt myself getting so frustrated for Suzette when it came to her husband Alex. I get no one wants to admit their child has issues but living in denial isn’t the answer either. Alex had his head in the clouds at times and i wanted to reach in the book and shake him. Suzette needed to have more of a backbone and should have put her foot down WAY sooner when it came to Alex’s denial over Hanna’s behavior. I do have to say Hanna was all types of creepy in this book! The stuff she did and plotted has me thinking twice before I have kids! This book isn’t my usual genre that I read but I’m so happy I took a chance! I was in an HORRIBLE book slump and this book had me glued to the very end. I can’t believe this is the author’s first book either. It was well written, fast paced and definitely one of my favorite reads of 2018.

I went into this book expecting a riveting thriller. Unfortunately, I did not get that from this. Not at all. I am still trying to figure out what exactly the point to this book was.

I don't usually write negative reviews, very rarely. I definitely don't write reviews for books that I one star. However, I was just so disappointed in this book, I needed to get my frustration out.

What really was the point to this book? Sure, Hanna was severely mentally disturbed. I got that. But where was the climax of the book? Why was she so hell bent on torturing her mother? She gives a couple of "reasons", but they made no mistake.

I couldn't stand any of the characters in this book. Not one of them had a redeeming quality that had me on board with them or their role in the book. And the plot? It was painstakingly slow and uneventful. If I am being honest, I had to force myself to finish it. I wanted to give up on it so many times.

I have sat and really thought about this book, trying to find at least one positive thing to say about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't just come up with any.

This book was amazing! It hooked me from the first chapter and did not let up. The writing is excellent and the characters are compelling. I didn't want the story to end. I finished it within two days because I could not put it down. I look forward to reading more by this author. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

`This is quite literally the first book ever that wholly and truly creeped me out. After I finished reading it (at like 1 A.M.) I had to put it away and just sit down and think about what I've read. Just as it is described, this book is not easy to read and will keep you on edge.

The author makes the characters so realistic and the situation so horrifying that you can actually feel yourself panicking with the characters. Baby Teeth is definitely one of the most stunning debut novels I have ever come across. I was actually terrified of what Hanna would do next and I flipped through the book as soon as I possibly could. I look forward to reading more from Zoje Stage, she's definitely on my auto-buy authors list.

Thanks to netgalley.com for the ARC.
This book was a bit of a wild ride. At first the parents annoyed me to no end... I couldn't understand how you would wait until a child was 7 to get her help for not speaking. It just seemed very far fetched.
The second half of the book was much more believable and realistic.
It was a fast paced book with alternating narrators (mother and child).
Definitely a choice for people who enjoy thrillers.

This story is so difficult to read that it was almost physically painful. It;s well written and clever but the subject matter was borderline unbearable. I was so angry and horrified that I almost stopped reading about half way through. I wasn’t sure I could take any more, or that I wanted to force myself to continue. I did persist until the end and I’m glad that I did because it did get better. It was never a comfortable or optimistic read but it did turn out to be not completely awful.

I was totally aghast at the parent’s behavior. How could they just let this continue and escalate to such an absolute insane degree. I understand that people always want to think the best of their children may have a hard time believing the worst about them but it was so blatantly obvious that this kid was seriously mentally ill and yet they continued to either ignore the problem (the father) or minimize the psychotic behavior (the mother.) If I were in this situation I would have nanny cams throughout the house so there would be a record to show to the husband, the police, the doctors and the mental health professionals that were so badly needed .

I don’t have children because I don’t really like them (I'm not hateful or anything I just like quiet and am a germaphobe!) and I have to say that Baby Teeth is a great illustration of why kids creep me out. Who knows what terrors they are thinking about and planning? What if your kid is a psychopath in the making? There’s a good reason that so many horror movies feature creepy children. If you need a new horror to add to your nightmares meet Hanna. You won't forget her.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

BABY TEETH BY ZOJE STAGE BOOK REVIEW
This was my first venture back into thrillers after trying to branch out into different genres for a little while. What a ride this book was! The characters play wonderfully against each other. Switching perspectives each chapter kept me turning pages late into the night. I enjoyed this book from page one. It was a darker read that kept me guessing the whole way through!

THE VERDICT
I am Really Into This book!

Special thanks to Zoje Stage, St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Baby Teeth tells the story of 7 year old Hanna. Hanna is daddy’s little girl and she wants him all to herself. And she is willing to do whatever is necessary to make that happen, even if it means murdering mommy.

This book did the expected: I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for much of the book and it was a very quick read. However, despite this, it didn't add up to very much...it was just okay. It felt like there was some zip missing to the book, as though it was trying hard to be controversial without being thoughtful about the story. However, I seem to be in the minority because there are a lot of readers who loved it!

For me, the final third of the book was the best part. It was most interesting when Suzette and Alex were finally working together to figure out how they could remain a family and try to help Hanna. This seemed to be a thread that could have been developed into more.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Words, ever unreliable, were no one’s friend."

What a gripping and extremely creepy story!! Reviews seem to be all over the place on this one but I couldn’t put it down. I found this to be a VERY unique and original book.

What would you do if your beautiful child was really very disturbed on almost every level? It's easy to think we would all do the right and most obvious thing but this book shows how difficult and heart-wrenching those choices can be. Suzette and Alex have what seems to be the picture-perfect life: a stunning home, many professional accomplishments and a beautiful child. Except that Hanna is 7 years old and does not speak.

Is it autism? Something more profound? And is it a willful refusal to speak, or an inability to speak? The author paints a fascinating picture of this family told from two POVs: Suzette and Hanna.

"Hanna kept her words to herself because they gave her power. Inside her, they retained their purity. She scrutinized Mommy and other adults, studied them. Their words fell like dead bugs from their mouths. A rare person, like Daddy, spoke in butterflies, whispering colors that made her gasp. Inside, she was a kaleidoscope of racing, popping, bursting exclamations, full of wonder and question marks. Patterns swirled, and within every secret pocket she’d stashed a treasure, some stolen, some found."

Suzette stays at home with Hanna and home schools her. It soon becomes very clear that she is dealing with much than just a child with developmental disabilities. Something is very, very wrong with Hanna. But Suzette's husband is in deep denial over Hanna because all he sees is a bubbly, happy and highly intelligent child who just acts out sometimes because she can't use her words.

“She hates me sometimes."

I read this book in almost one sitting. The author does an amazing job of building tension so that I absolutely could not stop reading this very disturbing story. There is a sense of foreboding on almost every single page. This book is not for everyone but I loved the imagery, the plot and the dynamics between Suzette and Alex as a married couple and between Suzette and her daughter Hanna.

'Baby Teeth' was one of my most anticipated books of the summer. And it did not disappoint. Sometimes I felt sympathy toward Hanna because of the depth of her disabilities but mostly I was on the edge of my seat for the beautiful and selfless Suzette. And kudos to the author for shedding light on the difficulties of living with an autoimmune disease! This added an unexpected depth to this book. Zoje Stage is a new voice in fiction and I cannot wait to see what she dreams up next!

"It was hard to pour endless love into someone who wouldn’t love you back. No one could do it forever."

What an amazing debut! I absolutely loved everything about this book. The plot is unique, the characters are intriguing and the writing accomplished. It’s one of my favourites of the year and is definitely worth 5 stars. I’d strongly recommend this book.

Caution: some scenes may be particularly intense for some readers

Baby Teeth, being told in alternating perspectives, offers a unique look into this kind of story. I've heard of tales before where the motives of a child were questioned, where the sanity of a parent is weakening under the strain of care, but to get both sides of the story at the same time and judge them equally was not something I'd had the chance to read before.

It was tough to read this book at times. Hanna could be sympathetic at times. There were periods when I almost saw my own child in her, such as when she was trying to "sign" please to her mother or when she said something along the lines of how eyes could be just as good as ears if adults would just use them. Then there were the terrifying moments when she was calculating, horrifying even. The worst part was, as the book progressed, you could almost see the somewhat bizarre logic behind Hanna's choices.
Suzette was also a sympathetic character for two reasons: she has a child who she doesn't understand and she has her own background that necessitates understanding. She has Crohn's disease, discovered as a teen, and has to handle the effects of this as well as the consequences of Hanna's behaviors, not to mention the results of her own tumultuous upbringing (dead father, possibly depressed "?"/manipulative mother).

Watching these two interact, Suzette trying to be the best mother she is able and Hanna essentially waging war against her mother (in an effort to keep Daddy all to herself), was engaging but also frightening. The longer the book went on, the more wanted to know how things ended, but the more I found that things dragged on. The narrative started to lag in the last third of the book, so I think it suffered a bit there. I thought the ending was rather more satisfying than I was expecting and could actually lead to more of the story, if Zoje Stage so chose. That in and of itself is both intriguing and terrifying because of what it means for the characters in the book.

A psychological thriller for sure, this one will eat at you as you're reading and make you think about the choices you'd make in Suzette and Alex's position. It may seem black and white, but when is anything ever, especially in parenting?

I love a twisted domestic thriller. Especially one that deals with messed up kids. I absolutely loved this book and this author.

7-year-old Hanna is such a good little girl for her father. But things are much different when she’s with her mother. The little girl loves her father and feels he understands her. She wants her mother out of the way – permanently. Hanna has never spoken and though her parents have had many medical tests done, no reason for her muteness has been discovered. Hanna’s mother, Suzette, has had a hard life. Her mother was not the best to her and Suzette has vowed to do better with Hanna. Suzette has also had a lot of medical issues and the stress due to difficulties with Hanna has brought Suzette to the breaking point.

This book is labeled as a thriller and at times I thought it was spreading into the supernatural genre and/or the horror genre. But my take on the book is that the situation this family found themselves in was all too real, which made it all the more frightening. This is a shocking story and at times it felt like it couldn’t possibly happen. The battle of wits between this fragile mother and her young child was truly cringe inducing. There is a scene towards the end of the book that completely brought me to tears. The author does a fabulous job of keeping readers on an emotional seesaw. One chapter had me thinking, oh, the poor little girl, and the next chapter had me thinking oh, the poor mother. This was quite an emotional rollercoaster of an experience.

This isn’t going to be for everyone and at times I wasn’t sure it was for me but then I'd start enjoying it again. There are times when I felt like the young girl’s ability to manipulate and plan was unbelievable and I didn’t care at all for the foul language the mother used. But it certainly kept up the tension and suspense.
Apparently the book has caused quite a bit of controversy and people are talking about it – a lot – so that’s certainly a plus for it.

Recommended.

This book gave me chills while reading, and that’s exactly the feeling I’m looking for when I decide to pick up a thriller. Baby Teeth was a complete page-turner, with a plot unlike any other I’ve read before.

This book was uncomfortable to read at times, and I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, but I loved every second of it. I found myself easily sympathizing with Suzette’s frustration not only in regards to Hanna’s behavior, but also with Alex’s reluctance to believe her. The story is told through both Suzette’s and Hanna’s points of views, and it was executed perfectly. There were times when I could understand Suzette’s short patience and trepidation towards her daughter, and even a few times when I could also understand how Hanna’s feelings and behaviors might have developed.

There were some parts that totally creeped me out. Some of Hanna’s behaviors reminded me of a particular incident I had at work not too long ago when I had to float to the psychiatric unit and sit with a pediatric patient with psychosis. They were most stressful and frightening four hours of my life, and it allowed me to imagine how terrifying Hanna’s chilling words and actions would have been to Suzette since I have witnessed similar words and behaviors.

Baby Teeth is fast-paced, thrilling, and easy to read. The alternating POVs between Suzette and Hanna had me flying through the pages, and I had trouble putting it down. Highly recommend to those who like a disturbing read that’s sure to stick with you through the years!

Honestly, this book just wasn’t for me. I can’t say that it was poorly written or that the characters lacked development. I truly believe there is an audience for this book...it just isn’t me. Too much evil for me to recommend personally to anyone.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

I went into this story knowing it was creepy! I’m usually not s big fan of that genre but into it I went ! This book was written well and it definitely had me turning the pages through the night !

Thanks to Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for sheer readability.

I'll start with the bottom line here: I found this to be compulsively readable and creepy. There were things that worked really well and I suspect this book will stay with me for a long time. There were some things, too, that seemed to distract from an even higher rating, but those are harder to pin down.

First, what works. I was immediately drawn to the Pittsburgh setting (my hometown city) and liked the familiar milieu. I also enjoyed the honest narrative of a mother who is doubting everything about her role as a mother--not just because of how she feels lost in motherhood, but because of the failures she sees in the mothering of her own child and those that she recalls from her mother. I feel like the author allowed the mom-narrator to put voice to really hard thoughts most people are afraid or ashamed to confront.

The most spellbinding narrative strain, though, was that of the child, Hannah. I've seen other reviewers who felt her character was too contrived or implausible. On the contrary, though, I was engaged by this character precisely because I think that--as terrifying as the prospect is--this is all too plausible. Psychopaths don't typically manifest fully formed as adults. Children as young as 3 and 4 can be said to display psychopathic tendencies and, after a little research of my own, I've discovered that treatment facilities and specialists for such conditions (like those referenced in this novel) are very, very real. "Callous and unemotional" traits are real diagnoses for children so while I read this, I kept thinking, what if? What if you had one of these kids? And that's what kept me reading and what will likely stay with me long after reading this book.

What didn't work is more subtle and harder to explain. I think one thing was that the heavy emphasis on Crohn's Disease was a brave and unique choice--certainly most people don't understand this disease. Educating the public on this is a good thing; however, I guess I was a little overwhelmed with the detail and consistent attention to the mom's battle with this medical condition. I get it--this is another obstacle she's had to face and becomes part of her overall personality. But it was a little much. There was also something that just seemed a little off at times with the story telling. Maybe the pacing? I think it's just a case of what sometimes is felt in a first novel.

I wanted to have a little more meat to hold onto, too, with the mother. I wasn't quite ready to stop hearing her story. There are some fascinating and horrifying bits of exposition in this novel--things the mother recounts from the past and that make the reader wonder what, if any, role the mother had in her daughter's development. While the mother constantly questions her role as a mother, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being on her side while being also shocked by some of her (the mom's) behaviors. I think that was intentional and, frankly, well done. I kept waiting for another shoe to drop--something else the mother had to tell us to cause even further ambiguity on this front.

So all in all, this is not a read for the faint of heart--especially if your don't like to read about kids--but one that I recommend. I think people will be debating this one all summer.

Baby Teeth focuses on Hannah, a seven-year-old, and her parents. The plot focuses on Hannah's lack of communication and her axe to grind with her mother. Very Freudian. I wasn't sure if this book was meant to be a thriller, a horror novel, or something else. I thought seriously about abandoning this book, but I was expecting there to be a big reveal or twist that would explain things. However, that never happened. I know that psychological thrillers are very en vogue now, but this wasn't very psychological or thrilling. Overall, I wouldn't necessary recommend this.

Wow. What a wonderful, yet disturbing read. Are Hanna’s mental problems, nature or nurture? Did her mother love or despise her? I waver between giving it one star and five stars. Hating the story, but loving the suspense. I anticipate a sequel will be in the works.

View my review on goodreads.com.