Thank you NetGalley and the Viking books for providing the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This psychological thriller is a solid debut with a compelling story. I went in blind and had a great time. It left a lasting emotional impact on me. The plot is engaging and keeps you guessing what actually happened. It's medium-paced and takes you through their everyday life while making it exciting. The book explores different stages of motherhood, the physiological changes, and the willingness to go to any extent to protect one's child. I'm rarely attached to thriller books, but this one was unexpectedly beautiful. If you enjoy mother-daughter relationship thrillers, don't miss this.

I really wanted to like this book, but for the most part, I thought it was kind of creepy...and it only got creepier as the story went on. With that being said, I would be open to trying more books by Helena Echlin in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really loved this book! I loved the way it was told with dual timelines and how unreliable the characters were. This book was a journey. It was all about motherhood and the difficulties that arise from pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.

It gave me The Push vibes, which I really loved, but it also veered off into something very different. I didn’t know where it was headed, although one part was a bit too predictable, and I was just along for the ride. The pacing was very good, and the mystery was well done. I highly recommend this, but beware of certain triggers dealing with motherhood and loss.

You can't help but feel bad for Stella and Luna in this book. For two children to have such terrible parents and also be involved in this story seems particularly unfair. Despite the possible possession and pregnancy full of vomiting, this book didn't quite reach the emotional depth I expected. Charlotte's decisions were incomprehensible to me, she didn't seem to make a single logical choice and I feel Pete was right in one thing-she really needs therapy. I was really disappointed that a criminal got away with his crimes in the end.

Helena Echlin’s Clever Little Thing is a psychological thriller that dives deep into the fears and instincts of motherhood. Told from Charlotte's perspective with alternating timelines of "then" and "now," the story immediately pulls you in with its eerie and unsettling premise.

Charlotte’s journey as she tries to understand the sudden, strange changes in her daughter, Stella, is both emotional and suspenseful. Her determination to protect her child was extremely relatable, and I truly felt for her as a mother.

I'm not usually a fan of supernatural elements... but, it was well done and added an extra layer of mystery. As with every good psychological thriller, nothing is as it seems... and the final revelations will make you rethink everything.

Clever Little Thing was a mix of a few genres to me, it had dark literary elements to it, a tad of supernatural horror, psychological thriller, there was a lot going on and I absolutely loved it. Creepy children are always fun to read about for me so I was pretty excited about this from the beginning. At times it really felt like our main character was possibly losing her mind, at other times I thought she was completely sane, I just couldn’t quite decide what I thought was going on, which made for a fun ride. The end twist had my blood boiling I was so mad, but thankfully my blood cooled down to its normal temperature once the story wrapped up 😅 If you enjoyed Push, you’ll like this one too. I cannot wait to read more from the author! Thanks to @pameladormanbooks for my eARC.

I love reading about creepy children and begged for this one! I absolutely devoured this. It was so interesting and unlike anything I’ve read and I needed to know what was happening! I could not guess the ending at all and when it all wrapped up, I was so happy with how everything played out! This book sucked me in and had me feeling everything alongside this mother as she navigates the changes in her daughter and how to handle her. It seems she is all alone, but she knows her kid! I was thoroughly creeped out in parts, and I love that! While it wasn’t your typical scary kid book, it was so much more than that for me! I loved this different take and think a lot of readers will appreciate this one, especially mothers, as I was constantly putting myself in her shoes wondering how I would react and what I would do!

This was quite a slow burn, but hard to put down around the halfway mark. There was such a dark and disturbing feel to it. Do we have a very unreliable narrator, is this little girl completely disturbed, is there something else going on that we haven't even thought about yet? Very dark and twisty read! I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the eARC.

This book made me feel really uncomfy. And unfortunately it was not the kind that I could rebound from and enjoy the book. Was okay, but not for me.

WOW. I’m pretty sure this book made my blood pressure high. It was so tense, I couldn’t put it down. It’s been awhile since I’ve been so frightened for a character, while reading about the psychological torture Charlotte was under. I couldn’t decide for the longest time if she just needed to chill out, or if there was something supernatural afoot. So good. When the answers begin to unravel, they reallllllly unravel. You’ll think you have some of it figured out, but you won’t be disappointed in how all the pieces actually

What did I just read?! It started off feeling reminiscent of The Push by Ashely Audrain, but by 2/3 of the way through it became increasingly unbelievable, and not in a good way. This was weird, disturbing, and kind of ridiculous. Plus, LOTS of content warnings. (A good portion of the last 1/2 made me very uncomfortable, and that doesn't often happen to me with books.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin in return for my honest review. To be honest, I finished this one a while ago and wasn't sure what to think about it. It's one I had to sit with for a while to come to conclusions about. The main issue I had came at the end when an epilogue potentially upended every conclusion that the characters eventually reached. Without spoiling anything, it was something along the lines of, "but what if the end of this story was completely wrong and the reason for Stella's behavior were caused by this other thing." It seemed very tacked on and spoiled what was a satisfying end of the story.

This was my first exposure to Echlin's writings, and I was engrossed enough to seek out future works despite my issue with the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley & Pamela Dorman Books for the chance to read this book!

OMFG I LOVED IT I LOVED IT I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT- CAN YOU TELL !?


& A Clever little thing she was ! I CANNOT rate this book high enough, I wish i could give it 10 stars! I loved it all the way through, every second of it I was scrolling through the pages as fast as I could to get more of Stella & Charlotte's Story!! As someone who knows what it's like to have a "different" kind of daughter this kept me hooked the whole way through sympathizing with Charlotte's struggles as Stella's mom, her not fitting in with others, not being able to give her the love and affection so she desperately wants to give as a mother. ugggh It was all so real in my mind! I'm not usually one to read the type of books this one turned into But I AM SO GLAD i took the chance on this one!!! This has got to be the best book of 2025 For me! The cover is also so beautiful the different shades of paint, the way it's so simple yet so beautiful and eye catching at the same time!

So glad I took a chance on NetGalley I'm finding so many great new authors!! If you have NetGalley go get this one right away, and if you don't get a chance get it as soon as it comes out on January 14, 2025 I Promise you it'll be worth every penny!!

An obsessive mother and a very difficult young daughter. Is the mother going off the rails or is there really a problem that only she can see? What about the perfect husband and father? Is he really so great? And the young babysitter who mysteriously quits and then dies. A very unlikely unraveling to what seems like a normal family. Enjoyed the twist and the ending. Thanks to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for an advance read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.
Charlotte’s daughter, Stella, is a brilliant young child who starts to suddenly change after the death of her babysitter, Blanka. Multiple oddities concern Charlotte but not so much Stella’s dad Pete , who uses this an opportunity to get Charlotte out of the picture. Through more twists and turns than I can count, this was the thriller I’ve been waiting to read.

SYNOPSIS
- Charlotte and Pete have a happy marriage, an academically gifted yet socially awkward 8-year-old daughter, Stella, and another baby on the way.
- When Stella’s beloved babysitter, Blanka, dies unexpectedly, Stella begins to change.
- As Stella’s personality begins to change, Charlotte questions everything she thought she knew about her daughter...

MY THOUGHTS
- Helen Echlin’s Clever Little Thing is a gripping read with frenetic, fast pacing.
- Similar reads: The Push by Ashley Audrain, My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon, Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, and The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry.
- It’s a blend of paranormal suspense and psychological thriller.
- The first-person POV is particularly effective, pulling readers deep into Charlotte’s unraveling psyche as her fears and desperation take center stage. Echlin’s writing is sharp and atmospheric, capturing both the warmth of maternal love and the dread of something lurking beneath the surface.
- What sets this novel apart is its open-ended twists, leaving much up to the reader’s interpretation. This ambiguity is the reason I gave this book 4 stars.
- The story is unsettling, haunting, and perfectly suited to fans of stories with unreliable narrators, “creepy kid” tropes, gaslighting, family secrets, parental advocacy, and motherhood noir.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐⭐️⭐️ A fast-paced, suspenseful dive into family secrets, motherhood, and creeping dread. Perfect for fans of The Push and Baby Teeth, with open-ended twists.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking | Pamela Dorman Books & Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchanges for an honest review. This book will be published on January 14, 2025.

This psychological thriller will give you goosebumps and food for thought. When it was compared to The Push, I hoped I would be all in, but I'm still thinking about it. This book hits on the uncomfortable highlights of pregnancy and the worry that comes with being a parent. Sometimes it was overwhelming and slow as Charlotte, the mother, spiraled out of control with her thoughts and obsession. Her daughter, Stella, only 8 years old, exhibits odd behaviors mirroring her deceased babysitter. Her eating habits, speech, behavior and oddities were like a possession of her body by Blanka, the sitter. The husband thought Charlotte was losing her mind and seeing what couldn't possibly be happening. He was thrilled that his daughter went from extreme behavior problems to decent behavior and speech.
I made up my mind halfway through the book and even put it aside not wanting to finish. I plowed through and glad I did for the page-turning and epic ending. I think it will be a huge hit for many readers and maybe I should go forth with the audio to see a different side. This writer no doubt is full of talent when the premise was creative and bizarre.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking/ Pamela Dorman Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

A slow burn mystery thriller. At first while this story was unfolding, I kept being reminded of The Push thanks to Stella's general creepy aura; after a while the slow pacing made me wish that I was rereading that book, which left such a lasting impression on me. However, there ultimately ended up being enough here to set it apart from that one, even if it wasn't anywhere as exciting or satisfying by direct comparison. Although many of the plot developments were interesting, none of them felt completely surprising or unexpected, some telegraphed in advance. Echlin plays a bit with making Charlotte an unreliable narrator, and I often found myself frustrated with the choices that she made. While this was an intriguing tale, it never grabbed me enough to become a page-turner that I couldn't put down.

I love a mother/daughter story. In this one we are following after the death of a babysitter, Stella can be quite sensitive, but she is also brilliant and her mom is growing more and more concerned with her behaviors.

That is all that you should know before going into this book, as I think it will be more enjoyable if you don't know. However, it very much gives the push and baby teeth vibes, so if you do not like those books, I would skip this one. However, if you did like those books, this is a must read!!

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc.

CLEVER LITTLE THING
BY: HELENA ECHLIN

"CLEVER LITTLE THING," by Helena Echlin was a slow going story that overall turned out to be a compelling story that shows how gifted her imagination is. The idea for this novel is highly unique and original among psychological thrillers and the mystery genre that is haunting and one that I don't think I'll forget for a very long time. However brilliant and talented I think the author is at crafting a memorable and extraordinary premise, hence my four star rating, the pacing was slow and took finishing this to realize how much ingenuity it took to write this. This is going to sound contradictory to what I have said above, it took me longer to appreciate this because it suffered from what I thought was too much of Charlotte, the narrator's, obsessive inner musings for at least the first 40%. I don't have a problem with slower pacing if the story telling pulls me into what I'm reading. This narrative was mostly a slog since it failed to stimulate my mind since I got the message of what the author was trying to convey a lot sooner, and I remember how I felt while reading this that I got the point right away. Let's hope that I'm an outlier, and I did notice mostly five star ratings with a couple of three stars when I came to this website to post my review. I don't check how other reviewers felt about books only a couple of instances out of all my experience being on Net Galley. Since I have mixed feelings about this one which I predict this to be a Best Seller to lovers of this genre once it's published.

Maybe it was the author's intent by making the reader believe that Charlotte suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, or psychosis, and if it was I got the message much sooner, and didn't enjoy reading about how unbalanced she seemed for so long. As ingenious as I thought the premise was, I think that this isn't a novel that I plan to reread in the future or revisit again. It wasn't eerie or chilling as I expected it to be. I also knew what lengths a mother will go to protect her child since I'm a mother myself. I could tell how special and how powerful that your feelings are towards the overwhelming connection you have with giving birth for the first time. How perfect and intense that bond is and the overwhelming worry it is to witness that child having to experience what actually causes the parent more distress than than the child who doesn't seem to be bothered by it. My first born developed Type I Diabetes, when he was six years old. How I worried about his health at seeing my son had already had a love for things like candy, and Coca Cola before he developed this autoimmune disease. I was worried throughout his young life until he was an adult. That is no comparison for Charlotte's legitimate worry about witnessing the transformation of her eight year- old daughter Stella, take on more and more of her deceased babysitter, Blanka's, characteristics. But it took that long at the revelation of her thinking that Stella might be possessed by Blanka, for me to become invested in wanting to keep reading. That's why I deducted a star.

Charlotte is suffering from having 24/7 morning sickness from her second pregnancy, and she slowly sees her once disruptive, antisocial daughter Stella, have a drastic change to her personality. She once had sensory issues where things like hearing the sound of water running for her bath bothered her so much she needed the bathroom door shut or the sound of water running would cause her to act out. Things like the sounds of the waves at the beach would cause what Charlotte called "Freak out Mode." Stella is reading at an adult level and exhibited a high intellect. She had trouble at school where at least twice a week required a parental conference. She hardly ate and when she did she would be permitted to eat her dinner in her bedroom. She was socially awkward to the point of being antisocial. She did a multitude of other things that would have most parents deeply concerned that worried them. Yet, as much as Charlotte had been disturbed by her daughters over the top tantrums, she alienates her friend Cherie when Cherie mentions that Stella could benefit from being evaluated like her son Zach, was which she found helpful. Charlotte's love and loyalty towards her daughter is understandable, but her reaction was questionable. Charlotte is actually a nice and thoughtful person who really means well. I felt at times she was too overprotective, and in denial at some point when it came to Stella's behavior. I understood her wanting to be a more loving mother than how her mother treated her. The reason I say that is because I happened to be lucky to have two well behaved, and polite easy going sons, who I treated them with the utmost sensitivity towards their feelings, I only remember raising my voice twice their whole life. I think most parents do the best they can, but I thought that Stella could have been held accountable for certain particular behavior that wasn't acceptable like her "Freak out Mode."

I thought that both Charlotte and her daughter Stella's behavior was inappropriate at times, and they both seemed disturbed at times, as well. I have no doubt that's what this talented author's intent was. But it went on a lot longer than was necessary for me in terms of character development. I caught on and understood them earlier on, and thought I took longer to read this than normal since I got the point much sooner, and in my opinion I felt that the first 40% had too much repetitive content. The content at times felt it made the same point with a different example.

After quite some time further along in the novel, after Blanka died Stella starts acting a lot like Blanka by becoming complacent, talking like Blanka by answering. "Oh Yes," to everything. Her mother notices that Stella's preference for reading scientific books changes to reading simple age appropriate books, or younger than her age level books. Stella started overeating Meat when she was raised as a vegetarian. Stella's speech patterns change to mirror Blanka's Armenian accent. Charlotte thinks that she is the only one to save Stella, and her husband thinks her ideas are an over-reaction. Then Charlotte does something that seriously would make most people question her judgement at best, in order to try to coax Stella's interests and behavior back.

I feel as if I've said too much already and I'm thinking of prefacing this review with a Spoiler Alert. I don't think my opinion of feeling clobbered over the head with the message of what the author meant for the reader to intuit that I felt it became tedious is spoiler territory. Perhaps I will leave it as is since due to the over detailed content for example: the way to many references to everything Charlotte smelled that made her musings about it exhaustive. I think most women who've had children didn't need to read that sort of detail so much to relate. Since this premise was so promising as I mentioned above I applaud this author for writing such a unique novel. This isn't Literary fiction which I prefer, and expect character driven content. Seeing how this is labelled and marketed as the mystery & thriller genre that is going to affect some readers expectations. I thought it took too long before it entered the suspenseful thriller territory. Either some readers will love it due to the whopper of a twist. Or some will feel like I do that they had to finish it to feel that they're glad that they hung in there, and that overall, they are happy they did. For sure, this is going to be a huge hit and be a hot book that will be successful since the synopsis is so appealing to lovers of the genre. It just took patience for me to appreciate the immense creativity and how talented Helena Echlin is as a writer with not only a fertile imagination, but also I believe will achieve to gain as wide of an audience as this novel deserves. I wish her my sincere best wishes.

Publication Date: January 14, 2025

Thank you to Net Galley, Helena Echlin and PENGUIN GROUP Viking/Pamela Dorman Books for generously providing me with my ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

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