Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester tells the tale of Caroline and her daughter Lila. The story is told from 13-year-old Lila‘s point of view in 2019 and Caroline‘s point of view in 2004.
In 2019, Lila is in middle school and lives with her mom Caroline in a town outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Lila has a best friend, Macie, that is a popular mean girl and Lila struggles to fit in. It seems she is always walking a fine line between being on top of the world and losing it all with her best friend. Recently, girls Lila‘s age and a little bit younger have been going missing and found dead. Nobody knows if they’ve been killed by a wild animal or by a person. Caroline is very strict and will hardly let Lila out of her sight. Lila starts having some issues with anger, losing time, and she is not sure what is happening to her. She sometimes hears dogs barking outside, like a pack of wild animals. She doesn’t understand why her mom Caroline, a brilliant sculptor who teaches art at a college, is so unwilling to let her do anything or go anywhere with her friends unsupervised.
In 2004, Caroline and her fiancé Daniel are struggling artists. They live in New Orleans. Caroline‘s dad is in a hospice and she is struggling to pay his bill there and very devastated about losing him. Caroline has a job teaching a rich young girl who is about 12, how to paint. When Caroline starts having mental issues and hearing wild animals and dogs growling and snarling at a trip to Jazzland, an amusement park in New Orleans, her husband starts to grow wary of her. Caroline find out from her dad that when she was 11 she went missing for a time and was found later, almost catatonic. Caroline really does not remember anything about this and sets out to find out what happened to herself.
This book is definitely a horror story and thriller at the same time. Every chapter the intensity grows and the feeling of dread keeps getting worse. What happened to Caroline when she was a kid? What is going on with Lila now? I really enjoyed both characters, especially Caroline. Little by little details of her past are revealed in the chapters until it comes to a brutal, horrific realization. This book was so amazing. I did not expect it to be the way it was at all. I can’t wait to read more books by the author. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Sadly, Caroline’s past is not something I am able to read about at this time. I read the firs5 few chapters and as much as I would like to continue it, there are a few triggers I am not able to read.

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is a bizarre and terrifying tribute to womanhood. The book blends classic thriller motifs (a serial killer on a decades-long spree, mysterious disappearances and unsolved murders) with a sharp psychological edge and haunting horror imagery to create a suspenseful, strange, and riveting narrative.

The story follows a mother and daughter pair in two separate timelines, one in 2004 and the second in 2019. Their arcs weave in and out of one another as its two central figures face similar challenges and battle with forces both human and supernatural, both external and internal, ultimately crashing together in a gruesome fight for their lives.

There is a lot to love about this book. The horror elements are fantastically atmospheric, and the settings are rich and vibrant. My favorite parts were those dark and unsettling moments where neither reader nor character can tell if the terror in the room is real or make-believe. I adored the amusement park setting for a lot of the heavier beats; the overarching feel of New Orleans absolutely seeps into each page, but the choice to center the primary action around a place that's meant to be joyful and light, but is in fact much more sinister than meets the eye, is brilliant.

My issues with the book are on. more of a technical level. Getting from strong beat to strong beat was a bit of a struggle, with a lot of telling and little showing in the bridges between key scenes. I felt like the book was talking at me instead of bringing me along for the ride. I wish that more of those hard punches had been used to showcase and build-up those background, because I think that the climax would've hit just a bit harder if I had been invited to fully immerse myself in every aspect of the story. The ending also felt a bit rushed to me, and I almost wish it had been left a bit more open and ambiguous to allow the audience to draw their conclusions about what exactly had been plaguing the women and girls in the story.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'm excited to continue to follow DeeMeester's work. She has an incredible talent for horror and I'm excited to see what she does next!

TW for mentions of sexual assault and emotional abuse.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Wow! This story kept me turning the pages wanting...no, needing to know what the heck was happening. Well written, characters you feel you know and just so intense, I didn't want to put it down till the story was told. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC and letting me leave my opinion.

This book was enjoyable in a very dark way. Caroline thinks/hopes she is hearing voices of people who are not there, growling of dogs not there. Little does she know they are in fact there and they want her, they even want her daughter. If you enjoy some family drama with a dash of horror this is for you!

A riveting novel and I am so glad I read this. The Cur was a terrifying character and kept me on my toes wondering what would happen next.. Don't miss this one...you could be next.

Such a Pretty Smile had me completely engaged. I could not finish it fast enough. Then it ended and I was utterly disappointed. Yes, I loved this book and hated the ending. 😩

I had so much fun reading horror in September and October I’m making more of an effort to read it year round. So I scooped this one up when I saw it as “read now” on Netgalley. This story is told in dual time lines,
and alternates between a mother and her daughter view points.

This story is for women who fight against being silenced. This story is one that you will want to discuss once it’s done. I’m not quite sure I understood everything, but I felt it was really unique. Would love to have a conversation with the author and have her explain everything to me. This is one of those books you want to talk about when you are done.

I’ve seen some complaints on the daughters view point, but I actually preferred her story/view points for the most part to the mothers.

Will have to read more from this author for sure!

Thanks to @stmartinspress for my copy! This one releases today!

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is, uh, absolutely wild. I have no words for how dark and twisty and insane this book is. Basically what's happening is a bunch of prepubescent girls are going missing, and their bodies are turning up completely mutilated. No one has any idea what's going on and who this serial killer could possibly be. Eerily enough, they exactly match a string of cold case murders from 15 years ago. Everyone said it was The Cur, but no one actually knows what that means. The one thing we do know is that 12 year old Lila Sawyer is having some really dark and oppressing thoughts. Even worse, the reader knows that her mother, Caroline, had those same thoughts 15 years ago too... As we go through this book we are alternating between three perspectives: Lila 2019, Caroline 2004, and Caroline 2019. We slowly start to uncover what is going on in these girls heads, and why there are so many young girls disappearing.

Overall, I gave this book a 4/5 stars. Here's why:
I personally love dark and twisty books, so this was right up my alley! I loved the unique story line, the mysterious aspect, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, and the generational dilemma. My biggest issue with the book was the pacing in terms of alternating timelines. Sometimes we would go several chapters of one timeline before switching, and I wish they switched a little more often, leaving me with cliffhangers as I'm going through the book. The other issue I had is that in really high stakes fast paced scenes, I feel like the author missed some things and was unable to fully flesh out her thoughts. It felt skippy and that certain things would come out of nowhere. It just wasn't explained the best.

Content warning: this book is DARK. If you are bothered by any of the following, this may not be the book for you... body mutilation, sexual assault, paranoid schizophrenia, anxiety attacks, gaslighting, animal abuse, gore, violence, murder, child death, pedophilia

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t read horror, ever. I have a whole bookshelf of feminist literature. I have just finished a feminist horror novel and I can’t be more impressed or more terrified by Such a Pretty Smile. I don’t expect to ever read another horror novel ever again and that’s fine. This is the powerful realistic fantasy, correction, the reality of the way women and girls are silenced. And those that fight back kick and scream to be recognized. It’s graphic and gorgeous, disturbing and loving. I need to read it again. Once I stop screaming and sweating.

Such a thrilling and powerful story. The symbolism between women and how society believes they should behave, and our current society is what makes this all the more terrifying. This is a fantastic dark feminist story, that stays riveting from beginning to end. Very well written, this is a stunning debut.

Thank you to the publisher, Kristi DeMeester, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It's been a day since I finished Such a Pretty Smile and I'm still digesting it. It's a really unique book and I can see how it may be polarizing for readers- it definitely inspires a visceral reaction. There were times that I thought about stopping it, but the writing style kept me there. Did I like it? I'm not really sure. Did it make me think? Definitely. Am I glad I read it? Yes.

There were times where I felt totally lost and like I was missing a major piece of the puzzle. This was slightly resolved at the end but I wanted more from the backstory, especially around "The Cur." I still not totally sure if I "got" everything!

I don't read a lot of supernatural books so those elements took some adjustment for me, but someone who reads it regularly would feel right at home.

This book pushed me out of my comfort zone which as a reader is something I love and I am ultimately glad I stuck with it. Really curious to hear what other readers think!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the complimentary e-copy for an honest review.

Wow, wow, wow. Part thriller part horror. This book is very difficult to review without giving any spoilers. If you are looking for a dual timeline ( kind of) with mother/daughter. Buy this book.

And to think I was going to DNF this book. At first it felt a bit too dark and gritty for me to handle and I just couldn't understand the point of some of the scenes. I took a break and came back and I'm so glad I did! I connected with this book in a pretty deep and emotional way that I feel not everyone is going to be able to, but if you "get it", you just "get it". The raw reality and truths told in this book about being a female in our world are powerful and the way it was told was almost grotesque, but in a beautiful "this hits close to home" kind of way. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

#FirstLine ~ There was blood in the water - a dull pink bloom - the morning Lila Sawyer heard about the first missing girl.

I think it is safe to say this will be a book you either love or it was too much for you. I don't think there is an in-between since the topics and themes are hard to reconcile. I enjoyed this book because I appreciated the themes and the way the author used them in the story. It was a tough read and I had lots of feeling when reading. It was original and dark and also hard to put down!!!

Don’t be fooled by the title, #suchaprettysmile is not a young adult rom-com or a funny contemporary frolic, but rather a disturbing, burrow-into-your-brain exploration of societal expectations of girls and women wrapped around a story of mother’s love. I could not stop reading this despite the graphic imagery and this one will continue to play with my head while I move on to other books. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for this book to read and review.

I didn't know too much about Such a Pretty Smile before I started reading it. I like going in blind sometimes. And I like dark and disturbing thrillers. But this one just didn't do it for me. Maybe because it's more of a horror story, and I really don't read much horror at all. It totally grabbed me at first, though! I was hooked, and I had to finish it no matter what. But then the ending wasn't something I expected at all. I think i had it in my mind that it would be something totally different. I'm sure many will love this!

I’m starting to question whether I actually like the horror genre. More often than not, I’ve been disappointed lately. The synopsis of this book sounded right my alley. Unfortunately, it was a miss for me.

I have two main complaints about this book. The first is the ending. The pacing and reveal didn’t match the rest of the book. My other problem with the book is the messaging. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be feminist. I love dark books about women doing bad things to bad men, but this one seemed very heavy handed and over the top. Every single male character was the worst.

Yet another thriller about an unknown perpetrator who preys on young women, I found this book to be somewhat underwhelming. Granted, if two thousand other books about the exact same subject matter weren't published every year, maybe this one would have stood out more. The writing was okay, the plot development was okay, the characters were okay.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is a novel about women and the forces (and men) that try to tame them. We have two main characters and POVs: Lila Sawyer, a young teen grappling with her crush on her toxic best friend, and her mother, Caroline Sawyer, a famous artist who creates dark and twisted sculptures and has a blurry past. Lila's POV is set in 2019 and Caroline's POV switches between 2004, when she was in her twenties, and 2019. The premise is that there are young girls on the verge of womanhood who are disappearing and being brutally killed, supposedly by a serial killer called The Cur, who they believe has been murdering these girls on and off since the 1980s. There is also a lot of commentary on "hysterical" women, misogyny, mental health, etc.

I was drawn to this book because of the unique and intriguing synopsis. I love dark, thriller/horror books with social commentary. And I did like the feminist overtones and the look into how women's mental health issues, in particular, are often glazed over and swept away. I think this author has a very vivid writing style and will write something that I can get behind and absolutely love in the future.

However, there was just something missing for me in this book that I can't quite put my finger on. I sometimes felt like the graphic and violent imagery was unnecessarily egregious. I got the point of the novel early on and also guessed the "plot twist" early on, so I felt like it didn't need to be hammered in so much. I found it hard to read the one-dimensional male characters, even though I know that was part of the point of the book. And I am someone who usually likes an unreliable narrator, but with this book, I just felt like I really had no idea what was going on in the thoughts of the two main characters. I don't know how I feel about the mental health rep. I'm still processing that. And I wasn't really a fan of the supernatural element.

One thing I want to note was that I really liked how the book touched on the historical story of hundreds of black Voodoo practicioners having been murdered for practicing witchcraft. I feel like we hear stories so often about white witches in Salem, etc. being burned at the stake or murdered for practicing witchcraft or being "hysterical," but we hardly hear the stories of the hundreds/thousands of black witches who were murdered. So it was nice to get that little touch of New Orleans history, whether it was true or not (I plan on researching this later) but at the same time, it felt like it was just plopped into the overall storyline, was briefly mentioned, and then never spoken about again. I was hoping that would be explored more in the novel, but it never came up again, so that was disappointing to me.

This one was just not for me. Maybe it will be for you though. Just make sure to look up content warnings before diving in, as always with thriller/horror/dark books.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for inviting me to read this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.