Suzette is a stay at home mum looking after her 7 year old Hanna. She home schools her, makes sure she has the healthiest life possible and manages her debilitating autoimmune illness.

Hanna is mute (by choice, as she can speak however she chooses not to). She is also smart beyond her years and adores her dad Alex. Her mum however? Not so much. Hanna does not like sharing her daddy with mummy and must think of a way to get rid of mummy forever...without alerting daddy to her plan.

This book will be a marmite book to many; you will either love it or hate it. I however absolutely loved it. 

The chapters alternate between Hanna's and Suzette's point of view, and this is complete genius. 

Baby Teeth is a challenging and at times an uncomfortable read. The subject matter demands that it be so. Stage manages to make you feel for Suzette and Hanna at the same time as you hear the story from both angles. She also makes you feel shocked, appalled and frustrated with every character too. I desperately wanted Hanna to start communicating why she felt the way she felt and wanted to heal her. I wanted Suzette to be more patient and understanding, but yet she was being pushed so dramatically and was experiencing some horrendous things at the hands of her daughter. I wanted to shake Alex for being so blind to the whole situation.

Did she have the perfect parents? No (but who is?), but she had a stable loving home and yet still became so utterly tangled inside that she became someone abhorrent. The whole nature versus nurture thing is very much prevalent here and gave me much food for thought. The most shocking aspect of this is that Hanna is still very young and able to commit such appalling acts against her mother. What will she become as she gets older?

Stage is bold enough to write something so completely controversial and pull it off brilliantly. I read Baby Teeth in a few sittings and when I had to put it down I was thinking about it. 

I will understand that this book won't be for everyone. It is an uncomfortable read. You find yourself thinking about things that you normally wouldn't. For me, it was deliciously dark and compulsive reading.

A mind blowing 5 stars for me.

I would like to thank Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

WHat a truly evil little girl. This book reminded me of The Bad Seed where the girl was truly bad. Charcuterie is very manipulative and the parents have. I idea what is truly going on in her mind.

WOW! What would you do if your 7 year old daughter tries to repeatedly kill you? This book takes you for a thrilling roller coaster ride and drops you fast at the end! I was enthralled with the power struggle between Suzette and Hanna and the power struggle inside of Suzette.
Everytime that Hanna acted out, I was like, ok it can't get worse, but then it did. I am glad of the direction of the book and how it ended. GREAT BOOK!

Wow this book was super creepy. I was always intrigued and nervous by the movie The Bad Seed that I watched when I was young. This brought it all back. Scary for kids to be such little monsters. Thanks Netgalley for the read!

Baby Teeth is the debut novel by Zoje Stage. In Baby Teeth the story is told in alternating voices of Suzette (mother) and Hanna (daughter). This story is fascinating and scary at the same time. Ms Stage does an excellent job of keeping the reader turning the pages. Looking forward to reading more by this author. I was given an early copy to review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. I really wanted to like this book. The storyline of the book was very intriguing. The problem is that the book is written from a dual point of view.. The little girl's and the mother's- and I didn't like either one of them. It is hard to read a book told from the point of view of to people that you really don't like. I couldn't finish it.

Mind bending, compulsively readable and OMG are some of the thoughts that kept spinning through my head as I devoured this novel, and then started re-reading it, because I just wanted to try to understand Hanna a little more, and I loved getting sucked back in to this mother's nightmare of a life.

Hanna is the beautiful, beloved child of Suzette and Alex. But Hanna is different. She doesn't speak. And Suzette feels as though her daughter may hold some malice for her...but that's crazy, right? It's easy to see why Hanna loves her daddy so much...and it's just unthinkable that her daughter could be anything beyond a quiet little girl...

This novel presents both Suzette's thoughts and those of Hanna as the two navigate their relationship with each other and with Alex. As a reader I was utterly immersed, and found my heart pounding as the stakes got higher and higher.

This book is fantastic. I may have to read it...AGAIN.

Hanna is definitely 'Daddy's girl'. In fact, she wishes more than anything that she and her father, Alex, were all by themselves. Without her mother, Suzette, with her constant fussing and worrying and doctors' appointments.....so what if Hanna won't talk? She CAN talk.....or, at least she can sing nonsensical things when the mood strikes her. 
Poor Suzette, plagued by Crohn's disease, isn't thrilled when she gets pregnant and struggles with it throughout. But Alex, ever hopeful, positive and supportive...... Alex, is thrilled. Only Suzette is privy to Hanna's dark behaviors. For Daddy she is well-behaved and his perfect little girl. For Mommy she saves her biggest surprises: like refusing to stop pounding on the bathroom door until Mommy opens it and asks her why she never listens to her. "Because I'm no Hanna", her daughter whispers. Thus follows a game with seemingly no end as Hanna makes every effort to push her mother to the limits of her sanity....perhaps even her life. 
Stage gives us a picture of life with a very disturbed child, intent on wreaking havoc and getting rid of her mother. Alex is shockingly blind to his daughter's behaviors and motives, effectively leaving Suzette alone to survive Hanna's warped motives.

I sorry I could not finish this book. I found it too dark and disturbing. It seems like the author is trying to write a psychological thriller and is lost in trying to make it too violent. There may be an audience for this book...but, it just is not me.
Sorry this is not a book I choose to spend my time reading.

Loved this book. Every parent's worst nightmare realized. And the characters so believable in their relationships. I found the book creepy and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Well done!

This book can only be described as weird, but entertaining. Hanna is a child who won’t speak unless she feels like it and who has her father charmed and thinking that she is a perfect angel. Her mother Suzette has tried vainly to enroll her in preschool, but she keeps getting expelled because of her abhorrent behavior. So mom Suzette has to homeschool the little darling who resents her and wants mommy out of the way so it can just be her and her adoring daddy. What a dysfunctional family! The style was also strange, skipping between the point of view of the various characters and letting the reader truly feel the frustration of the mom, the blindness of the dad and the pure evil of Hanna.. As I stated, the book was weird; I read it for the entertainment, but I am not sure that most people would stick with it since the family is so dysfunctional that there is nothing believable about the book.

I am still absolutely reeling from this book. It is a psychological masterpiece and puts many of the "psychological thrillers" currently on shelves to shame. A great book is one that has you CONSTANTLY wondering, constantly second guessing, and this book does just that. Every other chapter I went from thinking the mom was nuts, to a saint. At one point I even believed that we would find out Hanna was a figment of a delusional mother's imagination. The masterful writing had me jumping to every possible conclusion I could think of..... EXCEPT the actual ending! Bravo Zoje Stage on a MAGNIFICENT thriller!!!

I could only read a portion of this book. I found it difficult to believe and a very disturbing subject. Perhaps just not my genre.

This story could have gone in a different direction, with Suzette as an unreliable narrator, but the first chapter in Hanna's head destroyed all illusions. This despicable little girl goes way beyond just being what I call: a little shit. Something is seriously wrong with her. What child would entertain fantasies of getting rid of their mum, permanently?

If there's one thing that pisses me off, and fills me with dread at the same time it's the  oblivious husband. Our dear Alex Jensen in this book is a prime example, and I just wanted to kick him in the balls so badly! Of course Hanna is all sweetness and smiles when he's around, his 'squirelly girl', but his complete dismissal of his wife's concerns made my blood boil. Throughout her ordeal, Suzette remains a loving mother, and although she's scared shitless, I had to admire her ability to show so much compassion towards her little monstrous Hanna. I honestly don't know what I would have done.

Mental illness is a real thing: ignoring it, or finding excuses for it does not help anyone at all. With her clear prose, and the brilliant character, Beatrix, the psychologist the Jensen family seek out for help, Zoje Stage gets her point across efficiently. If your child had cancer, or even just a sore throat, you would want to help them. Why stick your head in the sand when it comes to mental illness then? Suzette (a.k.a. Mommy) is worried that she will get the blame. As a stay at home mother, at the end of her rope, maybe it's her fault Hanna turned out like this... Beatrix also clears up some confusion about the nature vs. nurture debate, and the differences between sociopaths and psychopaths.

Dark and sinister, Baby Teeth is entirely relatable.

Well, that was a bone chilling, heart stopping read. What do you do when the child you are supposed to love unconditionally is a manipulative, murderous monster? I can't even begin to imagine, because I know that I was ready to give up on this little girl after her first little "episode". I'd have locked her away and thrown away the key - so I guess that takes me out of the running for parent of the year. Sweet little Hanna, apple of her father's eye, is quite a deceptive, manipulative, and pure evil genius. She wants nothing more than to have her mother out of the picture and to have Daddy all to herself. And she'll do everything she can to make that happen, from messing with Mommy's medicine, to playing a horrifying game of Scare Mommy, to even trying to physically kill her. All because Daddy loves Mommy and he shouldn't. Daddy is hers!!! And little Hanna is very good at only letting Mommy see her evil side - never Daddy. I still shudder when I think of the games this little girl played, the torment of a mother who knows she is supposed to love her little girl unconditionally, and the decisions that needed to be made.

The book/ story was interesting enough to keep me wanting to read. It definitely doesn't quite compare to We Need to Talk About Kevin, but it has good moments. It was also interesting to see a mother character who struggles to love her own child. My one wish is that the book had a final chapter which was a flash forward to see where the characters end up.

Big thanks to St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Alright, book two that was completed on the road trip this weekend! BLOCKADE BILLY kicked things off (see my review here), and then I jumped right into Zoje Stage's upcoming novel, BABY TEETH. I read the blurbs on the book and I saw there was a creepy kid in this - I'm sold. There's something about kids in thriller novels that just add a whole other element to amp up the creepy factor.

Hanna is 7 years old and she's a mute, but by choice. Sounds crazy, right? Why would this little girl decide to be silent? Well, she's punishing her mother, Suzette. The level of manipulation this little girl has is terrifying. She is a daddy's girl and in his eyes she can do no wrong. Suzette must homeschool Hanna because she has been kicked out of multiple schools. Despite the stories the schools and Suzette tell Alex, he refuses to believe his little angel is capable of such evil things.

I don't want to give away too much more because this is one you need to go into semi-blind. This doesn't focus on a lot that she physically does, but Stage pulls us into the minds of Hanna and Suzette. Seeing the psychological progression and as little Hanna schemes against her mother, it was very absorbing.

If you're looking for something that is all action similar to the film The Good Son, then you might find it a little slower paced than you want it to be. If you want a book that will pull you into the mind of a truly devious little girl, then this is a must-read this summer.

I give this 4/5 stars!

I've always been intrigued with sociopathic children. I thought the tension beween the mother and the child was well-crafted, and how blind the father was to his daughter's manipulations. What I didn't buy was how adept the child was at finding information on the internet to aid in her cause to terrorize her mother. If she were a bit older I would have believed it. Otherwise, good read. I give it a B+/

This story is told from the alternating perspectives of Hanna and Suzette. This really brought the characters closer and gave them strong voices. When I first started reading this book, I thought that Hanna was just a bratty little girl. Yet, this book was much more than just a story about a bratty little girl.

I had two "I got this story figured out" moments. However, it seems by the end that I did not have this story figured out. The ending was good but at the same time I feel sad saying the ending was good. To understand what I am speaking of, you will have to pick up a copy of this book to check out for yourself.

What a debut novel from new author, Zoje Stage. I can't wait to see what Zoje has up her sleeves for her next book. I was hooked. You could say that I had "sunk my teeth" into this book with pure delight!

A story with incredible creep-factor! I’ve still got the shivers — the alternating POV heightens the both the fear and the pathos. I hope the author’s research was as thorough and accurate as it seems because the characters’ struggles with physical and mental illness are chillingly gripping. Even with my children long out of the house I’m sleeping with one eye open....