I think this was a good book with an important message, but it just wasn't completely right for me. I would say it definitely falls more into the horror category, along the lines of social horror, making commentary on society. I typically enjoy social horror, but this one was a bit too focused on the supernatural for I think this was a good book with an important message, but it just wasn't completely right for me. I would say it definitely falls more into the horror category, along the lines of social horror, making commentary on society. I typically enjoy social horror, but this one was a bit too focused on the supernatural for me, as a prefer a more reality based horror. I also felt like there was less character building for Lila and Caroline than I would have liked. me, as a prefer a more reality based horror. I also felt like there was less character building for Lila and Caroline than I would have liked.

This one definitely hits the buttons for “dark”. However, I wanted more. The characters and plot just didn’t grab me and keep me pulled in. If you are wanting creepy and calculating, this could be for you.

This is a very unique book. Girls who don't conform, who are known as troublemakers, are killed with no trace and no clues left behind. Girls have secrets that they can't tell anyone about, absolutely no one. This is an interesting book about being a woman and what that means in society.

I enjoyed this book a lot as it brought a touch of realism to a horror book, which is something not a lot of authors can do. This book looks at "powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them." See, the great evil in this book only goes after girls who are on the verge of being women labeled as a problem. Those who are too loud or speak too often, those who don't conform and cause trouble - those who don't just sit still and look pretty. Too often in real life women and girls find themselves the victims for no reason other than because they wouldn't just shut up and take what life offered them, and to see this come to life in a horror novel made it feel all the more scary.

This was a hard review for me to get started on. The description grabbed me right away. The majority of the book was riveting and suspensful. The ending kind of left me shaking me head. It was a bit too hocus pocus for me. It went from suspense to supernatural and the illogicalness didn't work for me.
The story involves a mother and her daughter. The book would switch back and forth between their two stories. The male characters were all portrayed as sexist, selfish and worthless. It kept my attention, but was too illogical for me to recommend it.
I received an ebook from Netgalley. com in echange for a review.

This story sounded like it would be right up my alley; however, it just wasn't for me. The author uses dual timelines, which I typically LOVE, but I don't think it enhanced the storytelling at all. Fans of Joe Hill and Stephen King will probably like this a lot.

Uhm I Don't Remember Reading This But It Was Meh Not My Fave
I Am Not A Big Fan Of This Book
I Was Not Intrested In This

Literally the creepiest book ive read this year, i slept with the lights on and still had nightmares!

PERFECT FOR HALLOWEEN!


The book begins with Lila. age 13 going through all the normal hormonal issues of a typical preteen. She has a major crush on Macie, her best friend, she has an extremely overbearing mother and a dad that seems to have forgotten that she exists. In dealing with all of this there is something out there murdering girls and no one knows who is next. These murders resemble the same exact ones that her mother Caroline experienced in New Orleans as a young adult. There is a lot of uncertainty and mystery surrounding the murders in both of the timelines. One thing that is certain is that the killings are disturbing and you cant help but worry that Lila may be the next victim.
Also you begin to wonder how Caroline is involved, is she the monster? is she the serial killer? why is she overprotective?

Read on to find out and dont get too scared !

This was almost a did not finish for me, but I made it through and it was ok.
Lots of gore, lots of murdered girls with no details spared. I thought it would be more of a mystery, but it fell in line with more of a horror genre. The writing was very detailed and it did keep me in suspense.
Just not my style 100%.
Thankful for the ARC

I tried very hard to enjoy this book, but I couldn’t get into it. I love female driven horror, so I was excited to get this book. But I couldn’t connect with the characters at all.

I really wanted to love this book. I live near Acworth and would have loved more details about her surroundings. I thought the idea of the story was a great one. The story was a bit hard to understand at times.

Wow. This was a dark, creepy horror story. It is like a train wreck , you can’t look away. You have just got to keep reading to see what happens. Well written.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Beautifully visceral writing with a great reveal of who is behind the violence, but some of the plot was confusing to me. The characters don't understand what's happening to them, so neither does the reader, but then when everything was revealed at the end the infodump didn't answer all my questions.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Y’all what did I even just read?? This book is big cray cray… 😳😳

🔹Several timelines
🔹Missing girls
🔹Unreliable narrators
🔹Is something “other” hunting the girls of Atlanta?

These are all the threads that DeMeester weaves through this wild tale of a family and their struggles that ends with a twist that you won’t expect.

That’s really all I can even say because this is truly a book you have to experience for yourself 🤐🤐

Chicken Rating! 🐔
((chicken rating is one to five, with five being “I will never sleep again, someone please hold me” terror 😂😂))

Snag a copy from Amazon or B&N

Such a Pretty Smile is a creepy, mind-bending, paranormal style horror with elements of body horror and some fairly graphic gore. This is not for the faint of heart in terms of atmospheric description. DeMeester's writing is calmly calculating, with a plot that reveals in slow, peeling moments delivered by unreliable narrators.

The book is dark and disturbing and delves into ideas of sexism and sexual oppression. The descriptions of misogyny were realistic in a way that had me both cringing and irritated and the repetitive description of female characters as some form of hysterical made me want to scream. These emotional responses were cleverly elicited in the writing and I think there is a lot of latent talent in the narrative.

However, I wasn't wowed by the plot or the characters. The "bad" girls seemed to blend together for me, which muddied the dual timeline approach and made that angle of writing less intriguing and effective. There were moments I did find intriguing and tense, but overall I just found myself sadly bored. There was a lot of repetition in both events and vocabulary usage. While some of this was undoubtedly intentional to drive home underlying points, it just grew irritating for me. I don't like when authors write in a way that look like they assume their readers are slow to pick up the hints.

There will absolutely be an audience for this strongly feminist and unique horror, but I was just left wanting a bit more. I'm a fan of weird, dark books, but this just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

3.5 stars from me. It was rather creepy and atmospheric. Throw in a old school theme park and you've got yourself a definite makings of a good scarefest. Horror probably isn't my favorite genre - but this had enough thriller/mystery to it to keep my well invested.

Such a Pretty Smile tells about two young girls in different decades. They are mother and daughter. It starts off as a routine YA novel, then switches to horror.
It took me more than two months to read this book because of the genre switch and the switches between viewpoints.
Thanks to Netgalley!

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very well written. The characters were well-developed, and the plot seemed like a good idea, but it fell flat for me. The book alternates between Caroline in the past and present, and her daughter Lila in the present. There have been girls going missing locally, and found ripped apart. Caroline is very protective of Lila and doesn’t allow her to do many things because of these murders. But Caroline has a reason to worry because these murders are very familiar.

The book sucks you in from the beginning, but honestly, I did not understand the plot. I think it may have gone over better if the reader knew from the beginning what was going on, who the killer is. But as is written, it was just too confusing for me and left me with too many questions.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author, and I do like her writing style. While this book wasn’t for me, I look forward to reading more from her.

This book was intense and kept you guessing. I disliked all the characters, which is always a struggle.

Such a Pretty Smile tells a haunting story about a mother and daughter and all they have been through separately. This story has many elements of feminism that many readers can probably relate to. I enjoyed reading the perspectives of each character and it was a fairly quick read. I don't think it is a true horror novel, but it definitely leans into a little supernatural mystery.