This was really well
Written but it scared me too much to read! The fact that the young daughter was so evil...it was really upsetting!

This book was compared to We Need to Talk About Kevin, a book I loved. That book has haunted me and is one I often mention when talking about books that linger. Baby Teeth will also be a book lingers with me long after it's been read. 
Hannah is quite a disturbing child. The book is told in alternating chapters, with Hannah and her mom narrating. Like the mother in WNTTAK, Hannah's mom has not truly bonded with her. Hannah is selectively mute and is on a path to get rid of her mother. 
Some of the book was a little far fetched for me, but overall I really enjoyed reading it. I was disappointed that it ended so abruptly. I thought perhaps my copy was defective, but realized it wasn't. The author said she wanted us to draw our own conclusions as to what happens next. I'd much prefer she tied up the story.

I COULDN'T PUT THE FIRST HALF OF THIS BOOK DOWN.  A COMBINATION OF "THE BAD SEED' THROWN IN WITH THE BITE OF "THE EXORCIST".  IT STARTED TO LOSE INTEREST WHEN THE AUTHOR WENT DOWN THE WITCHES PATH, LOOKING AT HER 7 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER AS SOME SORT OF MODERN DAY WITCH.  STILL VERY FASCINATING IN TELLING THE STORY, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER, FROM THE DAUGHTER'S POV AND THEN THE MOTHER'S.  I THINK THE NOVEL WOULD STILL BE AS POWERFUL IT THE AUTHOR HADN'T EXPLAINED IT IN WITCHCRAFT TERMINOLOGY.  THE DAUGHTER WANTED HER FATHER ALL TO HERSELF AND HER MOTHER WAS IN THE WAY AND HAD TO BE ELIMINATED.

I can’t give this book a star rating. It was very well written but intensely disturbing. I don’t know if I loved it or hated it or would recommend it. I guess read at your own peril? Especially if you have little children. Maybe don’t read it if you have little children.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zoje Stage hits a home run with her debut novel, "Baby Teeth", on sale July 17, 2018. A psychological thriller told from alternating perspectives of seven year old Hanna and her mother Suzette.

 FIRST SENTENCE: "Maybe the machine could see the words she never spoke."

THE STORY: Hanna does not talk but she is not stupid. She loves her Daddy, but not her Mommy. Daddy thinks she is perfect. Mommy knows there is something wrong.

WHAT I THOUGHT: When I was a teenager in the 50s, I remember reading and being shocked by The Bad Seed. It was the story of a perfect little girl named Rhoda, who got whatever she wanted one way or another. Her Daddy thought she was perfect but her mother started to suspect things. It became a popular play and then a movie. The other scary book I remember from that time is Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby. It came out in in the 60s and I read it in the middle of the night while I was breast feeding my first child. Some memories haunt you. I've added Baby Teeth to my unforgettable list.

I enjoyed the fact that the book was set in Pittsburgh and recognized locations and allusions. Suzette has Crohn's disease, which complicates her ability to deal with Hanna. She doesn't have the energy and feels guilty for not being perfect.

BOTTOM LINE: Not everyone will appreciate this story. It is disturbing but so well done that the reader keeps turning pages to see what will happen. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (July 17, 2018)
ISBN-10: 12501707
ISBN-13: 978-1250170750

DISCLAIMER: I received a free e-copy of Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage from NetGalley/St. Martin's for my honest review.

ZOJE STAGE is a writer and former filmmaker. She was a 2008 Fellow in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation of the Arts and a 2012 Emerging Storytellers Fellow from the Independent Filmmaker Project. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Baby Teeth is her first novel.(from AMAZON)

I gave this book 3 stars only because I had a difficult time connecting to the characters. The idea was a good one but for me it was a bit slow.

This book was well written, but a little too disturbing for my taste. Was the child in the book simply mentally ill, or genuinely evil? What about the mother? I’m not sure I would recommend it to others without a disclaimer.

i've pretty much never really wanted children, although i have at times entertained the idea of perhaps doing so at some unforeseeable point in the future. i've occasionally thought about what it would be like to have a kid, and feel all the joy that comes with it. 

and then i read this book. 

most of the genius of the novel is in the slow escalation of hanna's behaviour - at first you think, oh, she's non-verbal, okay, whatever. then you think, oh, acting up a bit, guess most kids do that. 

and then - oh! she's an actual goddamn psychopath! 

this was a really suspenseful novel that i read in one sitting on the train and i'd definitely recommend it if you like psychological thriller/horror.

2.5*
Tough call on this one. Enjoyed the author - well written. With that said, the over-the-top subject matter was so shocking to me it was difficult to keep my perspective. For that reason alone, it just wasn’t for me.  Thou I’m definitely in the minority here.

Mothers are daughters....

Hanna is 7 years old and Daddy’s little girl. Her world revolves around her love for dear daddy.
Now her mother...well, that’s another matter. If only mommy wasn’t around...if only she didn’t have to share daddy with her.  

Suzette loves her husband more than anything in this world. They have a daughter, Hanna, who she desperately wants to love too. But she just can’t get there. No connection or bond whatsoever. No, this isn’t just your typical riff between a parent and a teenager. Hanna is only seven. So who’s to blame for this total disconnect? Sweet little Hanna, or emotionally exhausted Suzette? 

As the hurtful acts between mother and daughter escalate, reading this book became more difficult. So hard to imagine a seven year old child plotting and carrying out the despicable acts that she committed. It was really just too dark and depressing for me. (Even though my inner-voice kept trying to remind me…it’s just a book!) Perhaps if the child was portrayed as older, capable of higher level of thought it might have been more palatable for me.  

Many other readers and reviewers really enjoyed this book, so I hope if you do pick it up, it works for you too!!

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Zoje Stage for an ARC to review in exchange for an honest review.

This was dark dark and more dark.  A thriller about a 7 year old girl, Hanna, who does not speak but manages to find ways to communicate.  She loves her Daddy but her and mommy struggle to get along.  Mommy knows that there is something very disturbing about her daughter while daddy does not want to believe it.

Many thanks to netgalley and St Martins Press for this advanced readers copy.

Hmm.... Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an early release of this book for an honest review. 

This is a book about a 7 year old mute girl named Hanna that wants her mom dead so she can have her father all to herself and marry him. Her mother, Suzette has Crohn's disease which we hear a great deal about. Suzette knows her daughters behavior is getting worse and she knows it isn't going to get any better. Dad, Alex is in denial about pretty much everything, he just goes to works and loves his sweet Hanna. There is also a lot of political correctness in this book which was a huge negative for me, if I wanted to watch the news I wouldn't have picked up a book. There is talk about being gluten-free, special fragrance-free & dye-free soaps, the balmy aroma of chamomile tea, Alex, under his company name makes donations every year to support 91.3 & the local PBS TV station, and way too much information about Crohn's disease. 

There is a very serious problem in this family. Hanna is disturbed, she is not mentally stable, she is 7 years old and this behavior has been going on since birth, she doesn't speak, she is trying to kill her mother.  The entire family is dysfunctional in regards to the mental health of their only child.

My real issue with this book is I found it unbelievable that a 7 year old and at many times in the book a 3 and a 5 year old would have the ability to think so logically about ways to kill her mother and act on it in the ways that she did. How physically strong is a 7 year old? Strong enough to hit someone in the head but not strong enough to cut up thick slices of a banana. Maybe if Hanna was 12 this story would have been more believable. I do think it is any interesting concept that a child from birth is a sociopath or a psychopath. The old question - are they born that way, nature vs nurture? I wish there had been much more conversation about that subject. This book just didn't ring true to me, but there is much to think about on the subject of mental illness.

Baby Teeth is unlike any book I've read. It's both mesmerizing and horrifying. The story is told in alternating chapters by Hanna, the daughter, and Suzette, the mother. They both love Alex, the father, husband. They spend a lot of time together as Hanna is homeschooled. Hanna is nonverbal most of the time. She started speaking to her mom for the first time and she says, "I am not Hanna." Her eyes are rolled back so far only the whites are visible. Suzette knows there is something seriously wrong with Hanna and wonders what she did wrong in raising Hanna. Suzette struggles to understand her daughter's behavior and becomes afraid for her own safety when Hanna begins to threaten her. Hanna is clever and never shows her father anything but sweetness and light.. This is a brilliant character study of a dysfunctional family. It is difficult to read at times but once I started reading I had to see how it developed. There is some strong language toward the end of the story. I recommend this writer and book.

HOLY F*&#!!! 

Yep, that's a big, bad curse word up there, but this was a big, bad curse word of a story. IT GAVE ME NIGHTMARES YOU GUYS!!! Books don't give me nightmares, so suffice it to say that this one left me seriously unbalanced. This is not the type of story I usually read, but when the publisher offered me an advance copy I decided to give it a try. This was an amazing debut, one you're not likely to forget. I'm not entirely sure, but the ending left me with the feeling that there could be a follow up. If you like reading about dysfunctional families with uber-creepy kids, then mark your calendars for summer 2018, because this book is meant for you!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book.

Wow - This book will scare you out of having kids. Hanna is only 7-years old, but has the mind of an adult psychopath. Hanna and her mother Suzette don't have the greatest relationship, and as this book is told from the alternating perspectives of both Hanna and Suzette you can feel empathy for both of them, but also completely dislike them at the same time. I felt like both of them come across as manipulative and cunning, so it really is a case of nature versus nurture in raising Hanna. 

Reading this book will definitely give you a different perspective on kids and their parents. It is a very disturbing book, but one I couldn't stop reading. I think anyone would find a book with a creepy child disturbing, so this book is not for everyone. 

One of the things I found difficult with this book was the random Swedish words that were used (at least I think they were Swedish). For me, it's similar to seeing a misspelled word in a book and finding it a struggle to move passed it. I didn't know what the words meant and it was often difficult to tell from the context. I prefer when authors at least spell it out for us folks that are ignorant of foreign languages. 

Overall, I liked the story and thought the author did a great job for her debut novel.

Hanna is 7 years old and lives with her mom, Suzette, and her dad, Alex. Hanna dreams of getting rid of her mom and being with just her dad. Baby Teeth is a slow burning, creepy, disturbing read. The characters are not likeable, but at the same time I identified with them all at certain points in the book. I read each chapter with a growing sense of dread of what was to come. This book is not for everyone and has some very unsettling subject matter. Baby Teeth is sure to get people talking and will probably be controversial! I was given a free ARC by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Although many people say that becoming a parent is <i>the best thing ever!</i>, here's a worst case scenario for you.

So creepy that I felt uncomfortable reading it, yet unable to stop turning the pages to see what fresh horrors lay in wait.

This book will get you sucked in right at the start and won't let go until you've gone through the ringer of emotions! It is such a compelling story told from two very different points of view, mother and child and I loved how the two opposing views gave so much depth to the story. I read the book in a day, I couldn't put it down! I really hope there's a sequel to this book because I can't wait to hear more about crazy little Hanna!

Alex and Suzette are madly in love, the perfect couple, a match made in heaven. What a blessing a baby could be to this union. How lucky a child would be to have such loving and devoted parents. Suzette is especially determined to be a better parent than she had, to be the mother she wished she had instead of the neglectful and uncaring mother who was too wrapped up in herself to even notice that Suzette needed medical care. Sadly, no amount of love and attention seems to please Hanna unless it comes from her father. Suzette's days are spent taking Hanna to appointment after appointment in search of a reason for her lack of speech. Home schooling Hanna as best she can since she can't fit in at school, and being the object of Hanna's hatred. When Alex is home Hanna is all smiles. the perfect little silent angel. But Alex can't always be there, and when he is he prefers to bury his head in the sand. Meanwhile Hanna's hatred for her mother is escalating into something dangerous. Does Hanna have reason to hate her mother or is she just a born psycho? You be the judge.

Visceral.  Staggering in its unabashed honesty, this book was a torrent of emotion.  So much dread, terror, thrilling anticipation, and heartbreaking in so many ways, I couldn't stop reading! Suzette's battle with chronic illness was an added layer, masterfully done, and very relatable to me.  Amazing debut!