I really enjoyed this book! A chilling psychological thrilled that spans several generations, it kept me guessing right until the end. Even when you're finished, you might still wonder who/what the real monsters are. With overarching themes of feminism and men being threatened by powerful women, it's very relatable to the world we live in. A great spooky season read!

This book is absolutely chilling. It leaves the story of a mother and daughter told through two specific periods seamlessly. I absolutely loved it.

Interesting title and blurb but this book needs a more vicious cover… first read by this author.

What did I like? One word summation for this book would be …strange. I know not what to think of it. It’s a conundrum novel. I can’t explain it. The reality of this book was torn between what to believe and what the realty is.

Would I recommend or buy? If you like puzzles then this may appeal to you. It’s slightly horrifying and disturbing. I’d read more by this author. Three and a half stars.

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review!

Having grown up during the rise of feminism, my first thought about a book where adolescent girls who refuse to conform to "good girl" ideals meet horrific endings was that it was that it should be a story set in the past, not one set in 2004 and 2019. Then, I started thinking of all the little digs I've gotten in my life, tearing down my plans and dreams and goals. Girls and women are still expected to act the way the masses demand.

Even if it's not a grisly death, it's a death of the spirit when people constantly tear down others and try to rebuild them into something more to their liking.

In Such a Pretty Smile, a husband can't support his wife's art because her art is better and more imaginative than his. A mother home schools her daughter because was kicked out of school for defending herself when a boy touches her inappropriately. More insidious than the boys and men, there is something feral and canine killing girls who don't conform. The moral to the story is if you don't want to conform, fight back.

Thanks to Netgalley for making Such a Pretty Smile available to me in return for an honest review.

This book was definitely one of the most unique books I’ve read. I didn’t give a full 5 stars, because it didn’t grab me at first and I had to try a couple times before being able to get into it. Now, once I got into it, I loved the riveting, scary story! I thought it was very well written, with amazing character development, especially the relationship between the mother & daughter characters! After my initial turn off, I found it to be quite absorbing, fast paced, and chilling! It was not only haunting, but very emotional, even though it was a horror story! I think it was intense and eventually unputdownable! I also think it truly had some scary things involved! I would definitely recommend to those whom enjoy realistic mixed with supernatural horror, which has some very emotionally turmoil topics within!

Will make sure to buzz around platforms and use top Amazon reviewer number on release date!

This book was super unique and had so many twists and turns along the way. I didn't really know what I was getting into when I first started reading. But, it didn't disappoint!

Caroline has struggled with mental health issues all of her life, not quite understanding what's real and what's fake. She also knows that she has repressed memories that she hopes will not transmit to her daughter. But little does she know, Lila has started to hear and see the same things that Caroline has tried to conceal from Lila to keep her safe.

I enjoyed the mother-daughter relationship in this book. Being a parent, I understood why Caroline wanted to shelter Lila from her past, but I also felt like Lila would have benefited from know her mom's past.

All of the male characters on this book sucked. They were extremely egotistical and I was just mad reading when they were mentioned any where in the book.

There were times when the book seems a little choppy and disjointed, but I think that was intended by the author to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. It worked!

4.5 out of 5 stars. A fast-paced page-turner. I could not put the book down. I loved the characters, Lila the daughter and Caroline her mother, as they reveal the Atlanta/New Orleans supernatural murder-mystery plot that says a lot more about women, girls, and victimization at the mouths of beasts.

After receiving the email about this book, I was stoked to get to read it. I’ve been into all things creepy and horror since Fall officially started last week, and Such a Pretty Smile gave me those dark, eerie vibes right away.

Something about evil children really gives me the creeps, and Beth truly freaked me out at times during this story. I loved her character and am sure she’ll be visiting me in future nightmares at some point!

I really loved this story more and more as it went on. It had perfect amounts of horror, suspense, and mystery spread from beginning to end!

Also, as a woman dealing with lifelong mental illness, I found the characters to be extremely relatable, and the horrors of their situations to be all too real. Nothing is scarier than the thought of someone dismissing and devaluing your very real fears!

This book was incredibly captivating! So much so that I had to take breaks because the suspense was giving me heart palpitations. The immense double entendres had my mind reeling through political grandstanding, misogyny, rape culture, and the perpetuation of “the good girl” was scary and intriguing. Scary because these old rhetorics are literally and figuratively taking the lives of women, girls, and every other person that identifies as feminine, but intriguing because so much can change when we teach new values.

Great story. Loved the build up and drama to the twist. Interesting characters and a decent thriller but I enjoyed it and would recommend. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC copy!

Loved this one. It’s the perfect read heading into the soooky season and was definitely thrilling. The more I read the more into the story I got! Well done!

Girls are disappearing in her town just as hey did when she lived in New Orleans. Caroline must try tomorotect her daughter Llla from the same fate she ad as a child. A page turner I really enjoyed

This book was creepy, unsettling but feministic. I read this in a day and although some of the details were cringy i understand the authors purpose. I enjoyed it.

I really struggled with this book. It's well-written, but I stopped reading fairly early because I'm not interested in reading books with descriptions of sexual violence on tweens and young teens.

This was a good and creepy book. Some of the descriptions were very unsettling but it made sense for the story. I didn’t like the ending but what can you do?

Thanks to netgalley for this book.

When I first heard of this release and read the synopsis it sounded very intriguing and the writing was very well done and I really felt for Caroline and Lila Sawyer because they were very fleshed out.

I have never read a horror novel with feminist elements but it was definitely something new. The first 30% had me hooked but then it got slower and very confusing but if you enjoy paranormal reads I recommend this one thoroughly!

The story of two women - Lila, the daughter and Caroline, the mother. Caroline's story takes place primarily in 2004 when she lives with with Daniel, Caroline's father. Caroline's art is taking off in all it's scary splendor while Daniel's art isn't going anywhere. He discourages her and sabotages her movement forward. Lila has been raised to be good and obedient but hears the growling voices that have haunted her mother all her life. Where are these voices coming from and who is the man with the fangs and dog face? A fast moving story that you won't want to put down. How many of us hear those voices inside?
#SuchAPrettySmile#NetGalley

Wow! (Silence) wow! ( more gulping) wow! ( hyperventilating , drinking up entire cold carafe filled with ice water) Wo..( Brain freezing- couldn’t pronounce the words)

( silence for 45 minutes: my my mouth agape, eyes popped out, looking at the wall as if I’m watching the final scene of Seven and Wicker Man at the same time)

Finally I gathered my wits to form reliable words and write a review about WTH I just read kind of jaw dropping, sinister, dark, complex story I’ve just finished. A little Outsiders meets Candyman vibes with centered on ill fated mother- daughter story connected with disturbing amusement park and a creepy, haunted creature controlling the naughty girls of the town by pulling their strings like a horrible puppet master.

Two unreliable narrators- dreamy states- illusional minds of mother and daughter who are resilient, peculiar, reserved, introvert, observant with their unique kind of way to perceive things at the outside world.

The story moves between 2004 where Caroline: young and talented artist who recently engaged, living with her painter fiancée in NOLA, suffering from terrible nightmares and taking care of her father who is living in an expensive hospice she barely affords to pay for.

She starts seeing a dog faced man with sharp fangs, hiding in the shadows, watching her every move like a hawk and in the meantime the little girls are taken away by a serial killer who massacres them brutally and leaves them at the places that public can see them. They called him the Cur.

She gives private art lessons to Beth to provide extra money to pay her father’s facilities’ bills but as she spends more time with Beth and observes her disturbing manners and secrets she keeps, she realizes she’s not the only one connected with the mysterious man who takes lives.
As the delusions take over her mind control, Caroline leaves her life behind in Nola which brings us to 2019 and read things from Caroline’s daughter Lila’s perspective. Lila is outsider, quiet, trying to adjust in school life.

But she also keeps suffering from nightmares, hearing nonstop dog barks. Something truly changes in her. But she cannot share this information with mother who is so occupied with her bizarre sculptures, insisting to keep secrets from her past in Nola. And her dear father had second family, having a baby with severe health conditions already acts like she’s invisible.

But something changes in her. Something is growing inside of her and she has to go to Nola- Jazzland- the amusement park where her mother’s past is connected with a soul shaking traumatic experience.

Both mother and daughter has to confront with the inner devils as the Cur strikes back and takes the new innocent young girls’ lives brutally!

This is raw, graphic, dark, irritating, addictive, challenging and extremely well crafted horror story about the darkness growing inside of the people which is fueled with fear, anger and resentment.

As you may see, how it truly rocked my world and affected me deeply from leaving me speechless. I’m giving my gory, raw, bloody, haunting, terrifying, barking five stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Such a Pretty Smile is such a spectacular novel. Kristi DeMeester pulls no punches in her virtuosic evisceration of the patriarchal structures that teach girls and women to hide our pain, fear, and emotions behind the veneer of biddable prettiness we're expected to maintain for the comfort and pleasure of boys and men--or else risk being diagnosed, dosed, and discarded. This is is not a comfortable or obedient book, and I expect many of its readers will know the rage it evokes all too well.

I would say that Such a Pretty Smile is not an easy read, except that DeMeester's prose is so gripping the pages simply evaporate. The pacing, dialogue, and timing of each crucial revelation constitute a bravura performance that showcases the potential of contemporary horror realized to its fullest extent. I read very few books that I can honestly say possess no flaws; this is one of the few. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does so in a truly unforgettable manner.

I'd recommend this book for every "good girl" in the world who has spent her life being angry on the inside while doing her best to appear calm and content on the outside for the sake of safety and getting by. DeMeester's storytelling reminds us that there's more to aspire to in life than being good, and that reminder is truly cathartic.

I received a free e-ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my review.

It’s a tragic truth that the secrets that most desperately need to be shared are the very secrets that are hardest to part with. Author Kristi DeMeester delves unapologetically into the psyches of two remarkable women; one terrified by the uncertainty of her future, the other haunted by the trauma of her past. “Such a Pretty Smile” is a powerful exploration of two voices that refuse to be silenced.

Lila Sawyer never saw herself as exceptional; she wasn’t a natural beauty or artistic genius like her mother, Caroline, nor was she a rebellious social butterfly like her best friend, Macie. She was just plain Lila and she had grown adept at flying under the radar. Caroline recognizes Macie’s questionable influence over Lila as her once sheltered daughter begins acting counter to her personality, especially against a backdrop of a serial killer hunting young women. Caroline quickly notices striking similarities between the current string of vicious murders and an equally macabre rash if killings from her past. Desperate to protect her daughter and keep her deadly secrets hidden, Caroline rails against the uncanny connection to her past. Unfortunately, Lila’s burgeoning rebellious streak makes safeguarding her nearly impossible as she becomes a woman who will not be controlled or marginalized.

Author Kristi DeMeester couples evocative language and imagery with uniquely smooth flowing prose to deliver an unnerving and provocative exploration into the battlefield that is adolescence and the universal quest to determine where a person fits within their own social framework. Factors such as societal pressures, economic structures, and sexual identity are carefully weighed and examined within the context of a coming-of-age meets horror story. Told from the third person from the perspectives of Caroline and Lila, DeMeester utilizes a dual timeline structure to simultaneously explore Lila’s struggle to come to terms with her burgeoning sexual identity as a closeted gay 13-year-old young woman in 2019 as well as Caroline’s struggle to accept a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia as a 25-year-old engaged woman in 2004. Bridging the gap between both timelines is a serial killer, known only as The Cur, who appears to be actively stalking and brutalizing young girls in both time periods.

Characterization ran hot and cold. The character development for Lila and Caroline was brilliantly undertaken. Methodical and effectively rendered, both characters are dynamic and realistically conveyed women. The textured and nuanced characterization is especially effective as Lila begins experiencing personality changes that can either be attributed to her reaching puberty or through some unseen malevolent tormentor that serves as the source of the supernatural suspense. However, secondary characters (Lila’s friend Macie and Caroline’s fiancé Daniel) were tragically underdeveloped. Largely serving as one-dimensional plot devices, they come across more as generic foils for the protagonists than any sort of fleshed out characters, Macie as the obnoxious bad influence and David as the overbearing symbol of the patriarchy.

Dialogue was natural and authentic sounding, especially within the generational separations seen through the spectrum of class and gender distinctions. The juxtaposition between Lila’s strained relationship with her mother, manifesting as a result of closely guarded secrets by both Lila and Caroline, and her relationship with Macie, manifesting through an unrequited attraction Lila feels toward her, comes to life brilliantly through the characterization and dialogue.

Heavily thematic subtext is repeated throughout the narrative. The strength of women despite an overwhelmingly oppressive patriarchy is a theme repeated through symbolism, allegory, and metaphors. The story centers around two extraordinarily strong women that often doubt their strength in the face of overbearing and dispassionate male influences. The symbolism, allegorical and metaphoric language reinforces the idea that women have to struggle against great odds to have their voices heard. However, DeMeester takes a very narrow view within the story vilifying men, in general, as steamrolling, mansplaining bears that do not believe women should have a voice. Fortunately, the narrow view of men taken within the confines of this novel, are not representative of all men, as I believe there are male feminists that believe women should be heard and should have a seat at the table. I did not relate to a single man in this story, but rather viewed them all as metaphoric representations of toxic masculinity required to make the point at the heart of DeMeester’s story.

Kristi DeMeester successfully crafts a distinctly mysterious and threatening tone throughout and crafts her narrative in a way that shifts suspicion to one and all as we constantly struggle to determine if Lila and Caroline were victims or somehow complicit in the murders surrounding them. Engaging and unnerving, “Such a Pretty Smile” perfectly blends coming-of-age with suspenseful horror and the results are wonderful. An inspired novel that will keep you guessing and stay with you long after you’ve finished. Bravo!