I really enjoyed this book. It was so interesting to observe the similarities between the relationship that Suzette and her daughter Hanna have compared to those of Suzette and her uncommunicative mother. I couldn't put it down and highly recommend it. I hope there is a sequel - "The Best Girl Ever"

Sorry, this just wasn't for me. I kept reading because I wanted an interesting ending, but really I wanted to quit twice along the way. It's your basic story of evil child vs. mother and clueless dad. I kept reading because all the great reviews had me thinking there would be more to it, some kind of twist, but there wasn't. There was also the MC's Crohn's disease. The depth and amount of details felt a bit gratuitous - I know it's a horrible disease as I have a friend that died from complications of it - I just felt the extreme details in this book were out of place for the mystery/thriller genre. Additionally the daughter's character felt off to me. I believe she is seven years old but the chapters told from her POV felt like a much younger child, yet her actions were that of a much older psychopathic personality. They didn't mesh for me. On the other hand I did love the character of the father. From my POV he seemed very real in his words and actions, defending his daughter steadfastly as fathers should but clearly being able to understand when lines had been crossed.

See link to goodreads review

I loved the writing style of this author. At times the story was a bit slow and none of the characters were particularly likable but for some reason I just couldn’t put it down. The ending was a bit anticlimactic but overall an enjoyable read.

I gave this book four stars due to its uniqueness. I was all set to give it five stars but it was anticlimactic.

Alex and Suzette Jensen have a seven-year-old daughter named Hanna. Despite her age, Hanna doesn't speak a word, which concerns her parents a great deal. They have had test after test done on Hanna, but there is nothing physically wrong with her. She simply chooses not to speak. Behavioral issues have resulted in Suzette home-schooling her daughter, and being with her 24/7 is extremely difficult because Hanna—who adores her father and is eager to please him—doesn't like her mother at all. In Hanna's mind, life would be perfect if Mommy was gone... permanently. She just had to figure out a way to do it.

Baby Teeth is an addictive, chilling novel that's so good, you can't help but stay up all night reading it. I literally read until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, and became absorbed in reading it again as soon as possible the next day.

Hanna is a seriously creepy little girl. Whether she was terrorizing her mother or manipulating her father, that's the one thought that kept repeating in the back of my mind. Her character is terrifyingly twisted, and reading her thoughts constantly left me in a state of dread about what she was plotting to do to her mother.

I felt an enormous amount of empathy for Suzette. Not only was she having to deal with a debilitating illness (Crohn's Disease), she was faced with the problem of handling a disturbed child by herself, and a husband who couldn't—wouldn't—believe his beloved Hanna was hurting her mother. Suzette felt alone, and had an incredible amount of guilt, wondering what she did wrong with her daughter to cause this. The conflicting feelings she had towards Hanna were believable and appropriate to the situation. I was constantly aware of Suzette's sorrow and feelings of failure as a mother, and it was heartbreaking.

As for Alex? There were times I wanted to jump into the book and shake him for being so (deliberately?) obtuse about what was happening at home. I felt sorry for him at times (especially near the end) but I was frustrated with him a lot.

The ending... WOW. It left me with my jaw on the floor, and desperately wanting more, more, more! Don't get me wrong. I think the ending was perfect, and worked beautifully... but I hated for the story to come to an end.

Zoje Stage has written an impressive debut novel, and I'm very much looking forward to reading more books from her in the future.

I'm giving this book my highest recommendation: this is a book worth reading. You don't want to miss out on this one, folks!

I was able to read Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage for free from Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hanna at six years old become a master manipulator, violent and disruptive. Suzette becomes afraid of her own child. Suzette doesn't understand why her husband cannot see what is wrong with their daughter.
This was a difficult story to read.

kay okay okay... Let me ask you this. Do you have kids? Has your child ever freaked out in a restaurant or in a store? If you don’t have kids I bet you’ve thought “lady, get this kid out of here!” And I do! Because 👏🏼 mama 👏🏼 don’t 👏🏼 play 👏🏼! Now, a little tantrum every now and then is normal (believe me, my 5 year old still speaks whinese 🙄) BUT in Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage you get way more than a little tantrum!! Like, dayuum!!

Dennis asked me how I was feeling this story. My answer = “it’s nuts, weird, strange but I love it”. For real, this was one wild story and I ate it all up! It made me FEEL so many feels. I was pissed, grossed out, felt creeped out and had me looking at my own child like, huh🤔.

So, maybe I should get to the review. Sweet little Hanna is 7 years old and is silent. She loves her daddy, Alex, so much. Mommy, Suzette, is awful and she needs to go. Hanna wants daddy’s attention all to herself. This is told in alternating POV between Hanna and Suzette.

Suzette has to homeschool Hanna because she is mute and has been kicked out of multiple schools. She is starting to notice more and more that sweet little Hanna may not be so sweet after all. Her behavior is disturbing in and outside the home. Hanna’s manipulative enough to never let Daddy see her evil schemes.

Once Suzette starts mentioning to Alex about their daughter’s behavior he doesn’t believe it. How can his sweet little girl do any of the creepy things that are being described. Even when the schools tell the parents about Hanna’s schemes, Alex isn’t willing to consider it.

After reading the final chapter I was smiling. I was like, yassss, Suzette get it! To be honest, if I were Suzette I have no idea what I would do! Your child after you? Creepy AF. I would have set up a camera though and have her set up, but that’s just me and I’m all about that evidence!

All in all, I loved it. I like messed up books. Creepy child? Sign me up! Thank you St. Martin’s for sending me a widget of Baby Teeth for an honest review! I recommend! 4.5 stars! Out in July!

DNF @ 39%.

I wanted to like this book. Really. It’s getting so much hype and sounded like it could be creepy. It isn’t. I found myself bored and annoyed. None of these characters are likable. The mom is a wilted flower, a crying dishrag; the dad is an oblivious fool; the daughter — she who is supposedly so evil — just does strange things that aren’t particularly scary. Just strange kid things, like talking in a strange voice sometimes. Spooky!

This book is a lot of Hanna, the daughter, doing something bad and Suzette, the Mom, saying “Wait until your father hears about this!” but half the time she never tells her husband, and the other half of the time hubby takes the daughter’s side. It feels repetitive and lame. This isn’t the suspenseful thriller it is made out to be.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

In "Baby Teeth," debut novelist Zoje Stage visits territory loosely mapped by "The Bad Seed", "The Babadook", and "We Need to Talk About Kevin." Seven year old Hanna refuses to speak or go to school, creating challenges for her chronically ill mother, Suzette. When Hanna's behavior escalates from odd to threatening, the increasingly isolated Suzette struggles to find help.

Fans of the "creepy child" genre will find much to enjoy here, and Stage's clear writing and ability to build tension are notable strengths.

An original story with thought-provoking characters. I raced through it in a day! Definite 'We Need to talk About Kevin' vibes.

Hated this book. I'm not sure why I sent it to my kindle

I'm two pages away from the end and can't wait to get back to Hanna, Suzette and Alex. Gripping story, well-told, with one caveat: Suzette's gastrointestinal issues tended to slow the momentum for me.

This is for you, if you liked _"We Need to Talk About Kevin"_ and _"The Bad Seed"_.

Did not finish this book. Found I could not engage with this story.

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for this early copy of Baby Teeth. I like horror/thriller stories. I'm not sure I liked this one, except for the fact that I couldn't put it down. I don't think that the story being about the beginning of a sociopathic or maybe a psychopath bothered me, everyone has a beginning. I think it was more how the story unfolded. We are treated to the inner thoughts of Hanna as she plots against her mommy, vying for the absoluteness of her father's love. On one hand knowing in advance what Hanna was plotting was creepy, having such plots coming from the machinations of 6 year old. On the other it was giving up the suspense of it.

Mostly, I think what bothered me was the laxness of the parents. I get denial, but wonder would it really have gotten this far before they went for a mental health evaluation? Was the Crone's disease excuse a mechanism that allowed the author to get Hanna to an age where all the scheming could be more plausible at her age?
I can't imagine noticing a behavior in a young child that needed modifying and ignoring it. Most parents I think would have jumped on it, with action, attention and follow through, especially well educated parents with means. Also the freedom in which Hanna roamed the house, used the computer, and was unsupervised seemed excessive.
I do have a question on Hanna's character development. It seemed in parts of the books that Hanna felt she was engaged with her mom, them both playing their parts knowingly in this battle of wits. Hanna at the beginning of this I thought was trying to "teach" her mom how to be a better mom. That they lost their way and mom had to pass some tests to be a good mom, and prove to Hanna that she could be in Hanna's twisted methodology. Then I thought that shifted into Hanna just wanting mom out of the picture to have dad all to herself. I think the first premise worked better for me.
So did I enjoy this book? Kinda. Definitely a dysfunctional family story who's ending makes you wonder when Hanna will return to mete out her revenge.

I liked this book by Zoje Stage, but it was just ok. I wanted more from the last half of the book, but never got it. I was disappointed in the ending. It left me disliking everyone in the book.

Perhaps not the best reading material for a new mom. Is this something ELSE I should be worrying about, my daughter trying to kill me in just a few short years?

My new-momness might have added to the tension this novel builds. Or maybe children are just creepier than adults. But what do you do when you’re convinced your own child is trying to harm you, how do you flee from the person you are responsible for?

I don’t know if this story would have been more unsettling if you weren’t inside Hanna’s head too; if you wondered not only if Hanna was trying to cause her mother harm, but if maybe Suzette was imaging it all? But I liked it better this way, knowing Suzette wasn’t imagining it and in fact, maybe should have been more scared.

I’m glad too that Suzette wasn’t perfect. She wasn’t a “why is this happening to me!?” victim. Whereas I don’t think she created the monster in Hanna, she certainly had her own defects that were maybe contributing factors. No one here is innocent, parenting is hard and can be messy. Surely most children don’t end up as psychopaths but it’s easy to wonder about what missteps you can take and how they will shape the tiny person you have to help shape into not a psychopath.

My only complaint is that the tension building doesn’t really reach the crescendo that I thought it was building to. I guess the protagonist can’t really have the kind of showdown I’ve come to expect from thrillers like this, not with a child and still be seen as the good guy (relatively speaking). Things kind of plateau and are easily resolved, which is good, if not a little dull. The very end doesn’t really make up for it, since it doesn’t seem like the kind of story where we’d expect a sequel.

4 stars

This story is told from differing points of view: Hanna’s, the seven-year old daughter and Suzette’s, her mother.

Hanna has something seriously wrong with her. She sees everyone’s words, except her father’s, coming out of their mouths like bugs. Her father’s she sees as butterflies. She has been taken for CAT scans and other diagnostic tools to try to ascertain why she does not speak. It is because she sees her own words come out as bugs too, and then she has to wipe them off of herself.

Hanna wants nothing more than to have her father all to herself. So, she sets about trying to get her mother out of their lives; even to the point of wanting her dead – killing her. She plans and schemes to achieve her aim.

Suzette is Hanna’s mother and is frustrated with her daughter. She never acts out in front of Alex, her husband. Her venom is strictly pointed toward her mother. She feels under attack – which she surely is. Alex is unaware of his daughter’s attacks on her mother. Or, at least not able to believe them.

Hanna has been kicked out of numerous schools, including one that specialized in children with behavior problems. When Hanna’s attacks on her mother get worse and more dangerous, Alex can no longer ignore them. A panicked visit to the emergency room makes brings home to Alex just how serious things are. Something must be done. With the assistance and support of a wonderful therapist named Beatrix, they may have a solution to their problems.

I am not sure how I feel about this book. I read it almost straight through. If I bit my fingernails, I would have been doing that. I needed to know how the story ended.

This book is very well written and the plotting is superb. The tension in the story began immediately as soon as the reader became aware of the deviousness and intent in Hanna’s aims. It continued at a high level as Hanna pulled trick after trick on her mother. It is a riveting novel. I was going to say that I enjoyed it, but am also more than a little horrified by Hanna’s behavior and the working of her mind. Wow. Just wow. I really hope there will be another book, for I would like to know what happens to the family. This is a knockout debut book.

I want to that NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for forwarding to me a copy of this most thought-provoking book for me to read and enjoy.

Let me start by saying, there had better be a book 2 on the way. The ending really leaned that way for me. I kept trying to swipe my ebook to another page, and was like "wow, that's the end???" Ok, cool, but girl, you had better be cranking out another book called The Best Girl Ever. Just sayin.
I couldn't stop reading this book! It was so uncomfortable, as a mom, reading about the things that Hanna was capable of. And then at the end, as a mom, reading what Suzette was capable of! I really liked this one! Thank you for the ARC ebook from NetGalley!

May contain mild spoilers…

Suzette, mother to Hanna, deals with illness on a daily basis. She has an autoimmune disease that makes her sick and causes pain. On top of this, she’s trying to be a good wife to Alex, Hanna’s dad, and all she wants is to have a normal family–a normal daughter. The problem is that Hanna is a complete psycho, doesn’t talk, and behaves so badly, she’s continuously kicked out of school and Suzette has no choice but to home school her. At home, there are even more problems. Hanna want’s to kill her mother, but has a deep love for her father and because of that, nobody believes Suzette when she tries to tell them that something is wrong with Hanna.

“Daddy was the most handsome man in the world. He dressed nicely, in crisp shirts and colorful ties, and his favorites were the ones she picked our for him. When she grew up she’d marry him, and then Mommy wouldn’t be competition anymore.”

The main points of view alternate between Suzette and Hanna throughout the book. As I mentioned, Alex, Hanna’s dad, never sees the disturbing behaviors. The person who deals with Hanna on a daily basis is Suzette and this is what made me so uncomfortable throughout the book. Alex refers to Hanna as his ‘squirrely girl’ or ‘lilla gumman’ and it seems like no matter how much he loves Suzette, he just doesn’t believe that his daughter is a psychopath and consistently makes excuses for her. Hanna exhibits aggressive and violent behaviors that almost go too far for me. It made me very uncomfortable and the constant instigating between Hanna and Suzette made me want to scream. This family is extremely dysfunctional and I kept wondering throughout the book what the real reasons for Hanna’s behaviors were. Surely something had to have happened in the past with Suzette or Alex, right?

“Sshh, lilla gumman…Daddy’s squirrely girl…”He cooed so softly Suzette couldn’t hear everything he said. But Hanna quieted. She looked so tiny in his arms, a rag doll.

I thought the book was written really well and it’s certainly a quick and smooth read. People who like thrillers will more than likely be pleased. Personally, I was on edge and completely thrilled all the way to the ‘not so’ surprising end. I was expecting some major twists toward the end which never really came and made me feel like something was missing, however, the book for the most part kept my interest and I found it dark and very disturbing, so for that, I’ll give this book 4****. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.