An enjoyable psychological thriller, Dear Hanna (2024) by Zoje Stage features an adult character from a previous novel (Baby Teeth). Narrated by adult Hanna and interspersed with letters between her and her brother Goose, who is a source of comfort for Hanna. Hanna is now twenty-four years of age and happily married to an older man. Her childhood behaviours are now under control, as she works as a phlebotomist (an allied health professional who takes blood). The seemingly content family life becomes unravelled when Hanna’s sixteen-year-old step-daughter, Joelle reveals she’s pregnant. Hanna’s dark thoughts and evil tendencies begin to surface, as the family dynamics change and Hanna’s life begins to crumble. A sequel to Zoje’s debut novel, with the grown-up Hanna, this tale lacks the same maleficent atmospherics and intensity, making it a four stars read rating. With thanks to Thomas & Mercer and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

DEAR HANNA is a sequel to BABY TEETH, a book about a child obsessed with killing her mother. In DEAR HANNA, Hanna is twenty-four and married to an older man with a teenaged step-daughter. Hanna, a talented artist, works as a phlebotomist and has her own, sometimes diabolical, ways of coping with her unseemly urges. She’s had extensive therapy, but she’s still a psychopath.

Stage does a phenomenal job of delving deep into Hanna’s psyche and making her a fully fleshed out character. This book is a sequel, however, I enjoyed DEAR HANNA immensely even though I haven’t yet read BABY TEETH. The Pittsburgh setting really came alive for me.

The pacing is great as the reader is quickly introduced to Hanna and her world. Enough information about her backstory is included so that her motivations are understood without giving everything away. I fully intend to read BABY TEETH to get a second helping of Hanna.

I’d recommend the book to readers who enjoy true crime, psychology, morally gray protagonists, and/or shows like HANNIBAL, DEXTER, OZARK, or BREAKING BAD.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

gorgeous, creepy horror book by Zoje Stage and a great follow up to Baby Teeth, which i quite liked. thanks so much for the arc, it's appreciated.

Big fan of this author's prior work. Dear Hanna is a new direction with some of the same characters. I appreciated this, as the author keeps us guessing and that is exactly what I want from a psychological suspense book and author. Some fans of straight gore may think this book is muted. To each their own. I loved it and will recommend this and her prior novels to anyone!

Dear Hanna started off interesting but didn’t hit right for me. I read Baby Teeth and loved it. This one not so much.

I jumped at the chance to read the sequel to Baby Teeth. Dear Hanna tells the journey of Hanna into adulthood, marriage and employment. As she struggles with her inner child and the turmoil of the ups and down of domestic bliss you start to see the spiral. An inner look at mental health and the many faces we wear, and the families who deal with the processes. A great solid read but it still left me wanting more out of the story. Maybe another book?

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

Dear Hanna was my first Zoje Stage novel and I found it to be weirdly brilliant. I love this kind of shock horror, what humans are capable of thrillers. The author made every character unlikable but the novel was still unputdownable. This book will divide many people, but I loved it

Dear Hanna,

Thank you for letting us back into your world. You went from the epitome of a creepy kid, to a misunderstood human, who knew not what to do to keep a grasp on her most beloved.

Your relationship with Goose was exquisite in providing the insight we all needed. Your relationship with Jacob and Joelle pushed you to the edge. I cannot imagine a better follow up!

Yours 🖤

Zoje crafted a fitting progression to fill the gap of where we last saw Hanna. This is a must read if you enjoyed Baby Teeth and the intrigue of a domesticated menace. I am aghast at the possibility of the Hanna’s around us!

Dear Hanna is the follow up book to Baby Teeth (about a young sociopath named Hanna). Zoje wrote the books to be stand alone or read in either order. The book is about Hanna who has grown up and is married with a step daughter. Hanna appears to have her life together, but as events happened with her step daughter that she cannot control, she falls back in her manipulate ways. Hanna is such a flawed character, but you can't help loving her a little and rooting for her. I love a book that I'm not really sure how it's going to end and this one keep me on my toes.

Stars: 4/5

Thank you to the Thomas and Mercer, Zoje Stage, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an
honest review.

As usual, she did not disappoint! I loved this book! It took me a while to remember what happened in the 1st book but she does a good job at reminding you how messed up it was!

i loved the first book and was so excited to get back into hanna's head!
she is SO TWISTED. it is fun being in someones head who does such despicable things tbh

Dear Readers, She’s Back!

Our favorite child psychopath is back and she’s all grown up!

What another wild ride to venture into the mind of Hanna once again. I found child Hanna to be disturbingly creepy and while adult Hanna is just as psychotic, the story is different in a way that almost makes you want to feel for Hanna…almost.

While Hanna still deals with her disturbing thoughts, she’s found a way to keep them at bay. And now she’s found a family, a new husband and a step daughter who she grows quite fond of. That is until something happens to upend Hanna’s new existence.

This book was just as disturbing as Baby Teeth and just as suspenseful. Honestly I was rooting for Hanna by the end. There’s also a twist at the end that took me for a loop and just goes to show you how unwell Dear Hanna really is. Fully recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Amazon Publishing for this copy of "Dear Hanna."

It's the sequel to "Baby Teeth" where Hanna is now 24 and she's a phlebotomist and amateur artist.

Although not necessary, I was able to read "Baby Teeth" and "Dear Hanna" back-to-back so I was pretty immersed in Hanna's world.

Both books were so good and I wish there was a third that covers the time period between the two. Keeping my fingers crossed!

When I first heard that Zoje Stage was writing a sequel to BABY TEETH, I was thrilled. DEAR HANNA did not disappoint.
I adored this book. This continuation was a beautiful second chapter to the life of Hanna. I actually teared up at the end - anyone who has a “complex” relationship with their parents will probably have a similar reaction. Bravo, Ms Stage. Can’t wait for what’s next!

Hannah is back and she is still the same demon that we all know and love!! I loved this sequel- I will read anything by this author as she is one of my all time favorites

First off I want to say this was an alright read. It was kind of fun seeing what Hanna is up to and how she is living her life. How she is managing in the real world and just how things are going. I loved Baby Teeth when I read it, so when I saw there was a follow-up with Hanna I had to read it. I was reading this one and enjoying it enough, but not absolutely loving it so about halfway through I thought maybe I should go back and re-read Baby Teeth. I didn't remember the details of that story and well I wanted to see if I still loved it. And I did. The writing, the story, everything is so much better. More enthralling, couldn't put it down, couldn't wait to see what happened next. But Dear Hanna? It was missing that. The writing is missing something for me and I am not quite sure what. It's not as compelling. Still an alright read, but not top of my list as Baby Teeth was.

One of the issues I had was the way hot-topic issues were seemingly ham-fisted into the story. Now I don't even disagree with the thoughts of the characters about them it was more the way it was written felt off. It didn't seem to fit the characters for me. It seemed like they were just added to add these talking points into the story and it didn't work. Every time one of them came up the way it was written took me right out of the story. When I first got back to this book after my re-read I thought maybe I was wrong. Maybe I just needed to be in the same headspace and after reading young Hanna this is going to be amazing! But then more things came up and I was so confused by the reactions from some of the characters. And maybe I am just out of touch, but it didn't work for me.

Now outside of these issues? The story was fun. I enjoyed seeing a slightly older Hanna and what she is doing and how things started to unravel. I enjoyed seeing her be an adult and how she got around in the real world. Her job. Everything was really interesting to read. I guessed the big reveal early on, but the way it happened was not at all probable. There is like no way the characters would have done what they did to enable it to happen. No way.

I didn't hate this book, I got enjoyment out of it, but I didn't love it either. It was interesting enough seeing what happened to Hanna and I did really enjoy her overall. If you loved Baby Teeth this is worth a read if you are interested in seeing where Hanna's story goes.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Hanna has curbed her dark thoughts and violent impulses.. mostly. Now she is a wife and stepmother with a steady career. When her teenager stepdaughter starts to change, Hanna goes back to old tendencies.

I was about halfway through this one before I realized it is a sequel to Baby Teeth. It’s been four years since I read it but a few parts clicked. This book can 100% be read as a standalone. You won’t be missing anything and a lot of the major points from Baby Teeth are explained. I loved this one because it was slightly creepy, without being overdone. It was realistic but gives the reader an off-putting feel throughout the read. It’s also unusual because you find yourself rooting for someone you maybe wouldn’t typically.

“The curtain would rise soon - and this was the role she’d chosen for herself. Good wife. Good stepmother.”

Dear Hanna comes our 8/13.

I didn't love this, I didn't hate it. It was an easy read and it kept me intrigued the whole time, but similar to Baby Teeth, I wanted more from this. I didn't want to DNF at any point but I just kept hoping Hanna would do more, be worse, go even further. I liked the idea of it a lot (as I did with Baby Teeth) and I liked parts of this and getting to be in Hanna's head. Overall it was fine. Like I said, I would have like it a lot more if it was pushed a bit further.

Zoje Stage can do no wrong. I can never guess the plot twist and her books keep me at the edge of my seat. I love everything she writes.

What a pleasure it was to get back into Hanna’s head and hang out with her as an adult. I laughed at how ballsy she was but also shook my head at her actions. She has everything she needs in life, why ruin it? I will say I was pleasantly shocked at the little turn of events but wish there was more to it. It felt like it ended on a cliff hanger. I kind of hope it did.

Thank you NetGalley and Zoje Stage for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.