This was an interesting book that I really enjoyed. A good change from a typical mystery. I gave it a four instead of a five because the flow of time frames was choppy as well as my finding the ending rather flat. From the last page I turned for the next chapter.....but the book was finished.. A book,however, I would recommend.

I read a free digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow...Creative, fresh, and unique! I have no clue how this idea came to fruition, but it was worth every second! I zipped through in just two days’ time—which was amazing, considering I did not have the luxury to read it from cover to cover in one sitting. This unique novel is unlike anything I have previously read. Vividly described discord in parenting styles set the stage for a perfect storm. I was mesmerized by the development of the climax...I could truly FEEL the mother’s anxiety. Simultaneously, the daughter’s nonchalant attitude and absence of emotion materialized as very plausible and frightening. This book was amazingly realistic. I would like to thank both St. Martin’s Press and Zoje Stage for a fabulous thriller!!

This was a wonderful read, I could not put it down. I was so concerned about the mother and how this was going to end. Great writing. I want to read more about this family.

Are bad children born or made?
This is the real question that gets pulled apart throughout the story, as we come to understand that Hanna is truly a dangerous child, and that her mother Suzette is not without her own issues.

Parents, mothers in particular, are often held up to the kind of standards that require an intense kind of selflessness, that demands that a mother be a mother first and foremost and care for her child above all else. Which is unfair and unrealistic at the most basic level, but what if you were expected to be selfless for another person who truly wanted you dead and no one seemed to see that but you?

With the story told in alternating chapters between Hanna and Suzette’s points of view, you can empathize with both characters, and see the genuine missteps that Suzette makes with her daughter, while also seeing the deft manipulations Hanna carries out to further isolate her mother. It begins to feel like a story of cat and mouse, which feels all the more uncomfortable with the child as the aggressor.

This is one of those books where I kept asking myself “What would I do if it were me?” What would I do if I were being tortured by my daughter and my husband didn’t believe me? Would I just leave out of an act of self preservation? But we learn that Suzette feels crippled without her husband, Alex, to support her, and encourage her- that he was the catalyst that brought her out of the misery of her life with a chronic illness and complicated adolescence.

I felt such strange gratitude for how Suzette’s last chapter came together and an admittedly delicious tingle of fear at the end of Hanna’s. And if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself googling case studies about children like Hanna once you close the pages of this book.

Hanna is seven years old and has yet to speak. She does manage to communicate, though, through malice toward her mother, Suzette. How can Suzette deal with her daughter's psychopathic tendencies when no one believes her?

I got this from Netgalley and the promise of a creepy homicidal kid lured me in. I was a little disappointed.

Like I said in the teaser, Hanna is seven years old, mute, and wishes violence death upon her mother. Suzette is a stay at home mom with Crohn's Disease. Hanna definitely wants mommy out of the way so she can have daddy all to herself. It sounds interesting but I was ultimately bored by most of it.

Alex, the dad, is unbelievably oblivious and I thought Suzette was kind of a doormat. How much shit does one person have to eat before they finally do something? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Hanna was interesting but everything she was planning was told from her point of view before it happened so there were very few surprises. I think it would have worked a lot better if we'd never got a glimpse inside Hanna's head.

It was engaging enough to finish and Zoje Stage's writing was good in a technical sense. The book made me feel very uneasy at times but that was its biggest accomplishment. I didn't find it suspenseful and by the end I was hoping Hanna would somehow kill both of her parents. Two out of five stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, the author and NetGalley for a free electronic ARC of this novel, received in exchange for an honest review.
“Baby Teeth” by Zoje Stage is addicting, creepy and twisted as Hell. A five-star psychological thrill ride that will have you looking twice at every child you meet (possibly even your own), and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
Hanna is a seven year old girl who loves her Daddy. In her silent world of her own choosing, Hanna dreams daily of ways to get rid of her mother. Forever. Suzette is a young mother doing her best to home school her troubled daughter, while battling her own medical issues and (occasionally) her sanity. She continues to try and convince her husband, Alex, that there is something deeply wrong with Hanna, while tampering down the guilt and self-blame she herself feels at the parenting that has obviously gone so very wrong. Hanna and Suzette soon become engaged in a battle of wills- Hanna is fighting for the exclusive love of her father, while Suzette is simply fighting for her life.
“Baby Teeth” was completely creepy and outright terrifying. Hanna is a morally defunct character who will crawl into your subconscious and stay there, needling into your head like a worm. Suzette is a flawed but honest mother who received my respect and empathy right from the get-go. (Her medical condition is one I am all too familiar with, so she was more relatable to me than most) and Alex, although slightly clueless, is also lovable and charming.
The story alternated viewpoints, with Hanna and Suzette as narrators, and this contributed to the chilling storytelling. The creepy plot was unique and so engrossing, if only for the pure fact that all a reader wants to do is deny the plausibility of the truth in this story. That fact alone will keep you up at night (Thank GOD I do not have children. After reading this novel, I would be sleeping with one eye open.)
I do not know Ms. Stage or her writing, and “Baby Teeth” was my first introduction. I can honestly say that this is how first impressions need to be done. I was completely wowed and sucker punched by the pure psychological twists and turns in this novel.
I can see this novel not appealing to everyone, but fans of psychological fiction (and psychopaths in general really, especially tiny wee ones) will be blown away by this powerhouse debut novel. Please, Ms. Stage, continue to produce novels like this one. Your talent is unparalleled.

I cannot begin to describe how much I LOVED this book. It spoke to the dark part of my soul, and being a mom of some challenging kids, I empathized with Suzette!! At first, I thought maybe Hanna was autistic or on the spectrum, but then I realized, she's a f*ing psychopath. I cannot imagine what poor Suzette was going through raising this child, day after day, with no real support nee belief from Alex. It took Hanna attacking her mom and trying to burn her to death for the dad to realize, um, HELLO...THERE"S SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOUR KID!!! I was so happy to read that Hanna was institutionalized.

I will be recommending this to my book club and pray they don't give me the boot LOL.

Thank you to the NetGalley team at St. Martin’s Press for allowing me the privilege to read an egalley of Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. The following review contains thoughts and opinions that are entirely my own, and my rating is not influenced by being given this for free.

Baby Teeth tells us the story of Hanna, who loves her Daddy more than anything else, and her Mommy, Suzette, who struggles with the guilt of wondering why it seems that Hanna is trying to hurt her. At first are moments where Suzette thinks she’s losing her mind, then she has a fright at something Hanna does but dismisses it. But then, it’s becoming evident to Suzette something’s really wrong, but it sounds crazy when she tries to talk about it.

Zoje Stage has written a nice thriller that will keep you turning the pages late into the night. I do wish Hanna’s age was older because at times it’s difficult to believe a 5 year old could think or do what’s going on. However, this aside, the story offers good entertainment in how a family can look perfectly normal from the outside and have a very different dynamic going on inside. A sweet little girl couldn’t really be that bad now could she?

Something is amiss in this family of three. Only Suzette and her daughter Hanna are aware of it. Suzette’s husband just doesn’t see it. The reason? His daughter Hanna acts like an angel when she is with him. Yet when she is with her mother Suzette, she is a very different little girl and her behavior, for a seven year-old is downright disturbing and well at times, terrifying. Suzette is scared and well, she should be.

“Baby Teeth” is a suspense novel by Zoje Stage. For me, there were things about this novel that just didn’t quite add up and on the whole it just wasn’t for me. That said, it was an extremely quick, easy read and I got through it in a day.

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

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 2.3.18.

If you want to read about “possessed” children, try A Head Full of Ghosts. If you are interested in precocious, barking children, watch Six Feet Under. If you are looking for a frustratingly implausible book, read Baby Teeth.

The premise of a child so obsessed with her father that she hatches a plan to get rid of her mother is a strong hook, and I would have bought into it if the execution wasn’t flawed from as far back as the concept. Hanna’s early pranks—going to the bathroom on the floor to make the baby sitter clean it up out of spite, flushing her mother’s diamond earrings down the toilet—seemed feasible, like something a seven-year-old might do, but as the book continued, I quickly decided two things: no matter how brilliant Hanna might be, her actions are far too complex for even the brightest child, and I can’t take any more lengthy exposition about Suzette’s, her mother’s, bathroom habits.

This book has been compared to We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is a far different offering, similar only in that it’s about two parents who have a problem child and only one is willing to admit it. Hanna’s father behaves inappropriately throughout, but where he started to really feel like another in a long line of plot problems is when Hanna, after eavesdropping on her parents having sex (and commenting about how she can’t see her father’s full penis when she creeps into their bedroom post-coitous), takes a naked photograph of her mother, which her father later prints for her with little more than an offhanded comment, something to the effect of, “I’m glad you want to make mommy a present, but does she need to be naked in the photo?” This child, who we’re reminded every time she is in a car is in a car seat, somehow is smart enough to look up death photos and make a collage with her naked, sleeping (aka “dead looking”) mother at its center. I mean, really?!?

I can’t. I just can’t. Then this kid who hasn’t said a word her entire life (let’s think about that for a minute, because what the author is proposing is that this child who doesn’t speak solely to frustrate her mother has harbored such ill will as to have never spoken to her, even when she was a toddler) learns perfect French. You read that right. She assumes the identity of a girl formerly burned at the stake for witchcraft. Did I mention she’s SEVEN? So on this charade goes, this child acting out, and her mother focusing on her own childhood, which is terrible, but serves little purpose. On the one hand, Suzette’s feeling guilty about not being the mother Hanna deserves, better, in fact, than her mother had been to her, and on the other, there’s this woman constantly cussing this seven-year-old out.

Suzette’s character is wholly unlikable, not only because she’s clearly uninterested in parenting and would do whatever she could to get this homeschooled problem child out of her hair so she can focus on reducing her carbon footprint, but because she’s self-centered, and completely preoccupied with her malfunctioning intestines and the possibility of a colostomy bag. I don’t believe for one moment this post-surgical, long-ailing woman would be nearly as sexual with her husband as this book pretends.

There’s a scene where young Suzette is bleeding through her bandages (she’s had intestinal surgery for Crohn’s disease which has caused a fistula, or opening to the skin’s surface, that needs packing) and her mother is disgusted by having to do the dressing for her, but Suzette delights in her mother’s displeasure at having to complete this chore more than she cares about her gut being packed like a stuffed animal. How very Hanna-esque. If I never read another book about poop it’ll be too soon.

I’m in the minority hating this book, but the voices, both Hanna’s and Suzettes, and the characters, including the clueless Swedish eco-friendly husband whose pet names for his family drive me nuts, seem conveniently crafted to support an impossible narrative. I can’t believe people would behave this way, not even for the sake of attempting to enjoy this book, which I didn’t. There’s shock value, for sure, but if you analyze the concept, the age of this child and her actions, the entire plot unravels.

As a postscript, I’m not sure which marketing person decided this novel bears any similarity to The Dinner, which is a Dutch translation and a commentary on privilege, social class, and culpability. That slow burn at least culminated into something resembling a cohesive plot. Baby Teeth never does and feels like a gratuitous train wreck with scene after scene struggling to uphold the idea that this child is evil with none of the introspection of why as is explored in We Need to talk About Kevin.

I received this as a free advance copy from Netgalley. (Thanks!!)

I am giving this a 3 out of 5. I really enjoyed the premise this book was built on as evil children are such a fascinating topic, especially when as this book mentions, the child comes from a <i>"good"</i> wonderful home. But there were a few things that for me, personally, just didn't work.

1.The blurb doesn't make it clear how <b>SMART</b> Hanna is. In the book we get to see how while Hanna is still a child she is also smart and dangerous as hell. For me the level of intelligence in Hanna made a difference because it's made very clear very early that <b>NOTHING</b> she does is an accident or just mischief being managed but is in fact a well thought out usually malicious attack against her mother, all in an attempt to be alone with her father.

2. The father spends like half the book being almost deliberately obtuse. Every time Suzette mentions anything wrong he basically plugged his ears and walked away until it finally got to a point he had to admit defeat. It was so very frustrating.

3.Suzette spent soooo much time wondering and worrying about her husband no longer finding her attractive when really she should've been putting Hanna far far away from her.

4.Maybe it's because I got an advanced copy but I feel like the book could have use a few more chapters. So much happened in like a two week period and I felt like we needed more. I needed a chapter from Dad's POV and the ending seemed so abrupt to me.

But as a Pittburgh-native I really enjoyed the setting of the story because it was so familiar that I could see parts of it in my head. I also enjoyed every time Suzette struck back. Every time she thwarted an attempt to kill her or actually yelled back it showed that underneath it all was woman who was willing to fight even if it was against her own daughter.

In all honesty while it wasn't my favorite book so far of this year it wasn't the worst. I feel like it's definitely not on the same level as <i>We Need to Talk About Kevin</i> but it's not overly horrible.

This is a scary book, not the ending i expected but more scary. Your child is trying to kill you so Daddy can be all hers. And no one believes you. She is only 7 years old after all.
It is screaming sequel, and I don’t know if i can handle a sequel. Did I mention this is scary.
Thank you netgalley for the early copy, I think.

I almost didn't respond to the offer to get an ARC of Baby Teeth. I just have so many other books on my shelves that really need to be read. But, I read the synopsis anyway and decided that YES I WANT TO READ A STORY ABOUT A WILLFULLY MUTE, POSSIBLY PSYCHOTIC CHILD!! And I'm so glad I did.

Baby Teeth kept me on the edge of my seat. It's written from two perspectives - that of Suzette, and her mute, manipulative, highly intelligent seven year old daughter, Hanna. (As if being a parent wasn't hard enough on it's own, haha). Sometimes I think books that are written with multiple perspectives are jumpy and weird, but Zoje Stage nailed it in my opinion. I really looked forward to Hanna's parts of the story. It was interesting to see how she ticked, what her motivations were.

The character development in Baby Teeth was seriously awesome. I feel like I personally know the Jenson's now, like I went on this journey along side them - and that is the best thing ever coming out of a book!

I don't want to give the plot away, because I personally hate when I get too much info going into a Thriller, but if you like creepy kids and some moral-greyness, this will be your jam.

Some may like reading this psychological story of a young child and her abuse to her mother. It was creepy and reminded me of the Chucky Character in the Child's Play movies. Did get it read but took effort and only because I wanted to have closure to the reason for Hannah's mental health disorder. Just felt no light on in this story to redeem itself. "A copy of this book was provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion."

Majorly disturbing book, especially when you consider the little girl is only 7 years old... but it does make you wonder how common this is.

This book grabbed me right away. I loved hearing the story through the eyes of a seven year old.

I could not put this book down and now I can't wait for the sequel! This book is not for everyone, as it is extremely disturbing. It is narrated by Hanna, a charming 7 yo on the outside but on the inside she is seriously nuts and her mother, Suzette, whom Hanna basically wants out of the picture, as in DEAD. Hanna loves her Daddy and wants him all to herself, literally, and she will stop at nothing to make that happen. Witchcraft, violence, extreme crazy behavior, harming others etc.... she plots and carries it all out slowly. Hr mom figured it out pretty quickly. Eventually her slow but well-meaning dad catches on too. I was on the edge of my seat as the plot unfolded. It was seriously scary to read! Gret writing and thee story flowed well. Absolutely terrifying. I had NO idea what was going to happen in the end and that to me, is the sign of a great thriller! Definitely worth reading but also not for the faint of heart. Thank you NetGalley!!!

One of the best books I have read in quite a while. Scary but very believable. I now know why I don't completely trust children.

The description of this novel does not do it justice. I was expecting an easy, average read, but was I wrong. I throughly enjoyed every word of this book!
In this story we get to see both sides of the struggle between a mother and her daughter, who may be a 7 year old psychopath?
Im curious if there will be a second book? Great story!

Baby Teeth was not what I expected at all, it was so much better. The author did a wonderful job of not making this book another run of the mill evil problem child story. There are so many things I want to tell you about this book but I refuse to spoil it for you. Hanna is a little girl that has problems. She wants her daddy to herself and her mother is in the way. Each character is interesting, but Hanna…she keeps the story moving with her creepy plans, words and actions. Is she possessed? Does she have mental issues? How far will she go to get what she wants? I read this book in a day without feeling the need to skim even a single page. Thank you to Zoje Stage, the publisher, St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.