I don't know if I read a different book than the glowing professional reviewers or what, however, this was like pulling my adult teeth, one by one without anesthetic, slowly. It reminded me of a horrible copy of The Bad Seed which was also made into a spooky movie that's worth a gander.

Baby Teeth though, was painful and that is the best I can say.

The premise for the story is great. I made it 25% into it and couldn't finish it. This book is not for everyone.

The character development in my opinion is very well done, because that child is creepy as all get out. The constant internal dialogue was not for me. I also find that Daddy never saw any signs of Hanna's behavior unbelievable with the drastic difference in the ways she treated her parents.

Baby Teeth was not at all what I expected. It is a book that shows how far parents are willing to go to help their children. What happens when you are convinced your child is trying to hurt you?

Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven-years-old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother’s rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she’s with her father.

You have to remind yourself that Hanna is only a child at times. I really enjoyed this book but I wish the ending was not quite so abrupt. I would like to know what happens next to the family.

I did not care for this book. I am an elementary teacher as well as a mom and the child in this book made me sick to read. It was very well written as I literally was ill reading the main character. If you are a thriller fan this is definitely the book for you. I just have a very hard time reading about children.

I loved this book while I was reading it. It kept me engaged and excited to pick it up. The ending left me wanting more. I needed it to be more complicated than it was. After finishing it, I’m a little disappointed.

If you want to make a book truly scary, an evil child will send chills up the readers’ spines. In Baby Teeth, Zoje Stage has created a little girl that will give you nightmares.

Being a parent is a wonderful experience. Most parents believe they have the perfect child. But children can be scary. Children can be terrifying. Children can be malicious and deceptive. And children are quite capable of being killers.

I have heard parents jokingly call their toddler “demon child” when their child is in no way demonic or evil. That is not a cool nickname although it would be appropriate for Hanna, the little girl in Baby Teeth. Before calling a child “demon child,” ask yourself: does this child want to kill me? Does this child want to kill her mother? Is this child possessed?

If Hanna were my daughter, I don’t know that I could have put up with her shenanigans as long as Suzette, her mother, did. Of course, around her dad, Hanna is a perfect little angel.

Hanna is old enough to start kindergarten, but she still isn’t speaking. Of course, her parents worry that something is wrong with her. There is something wrong with her, but it is anything they think it is. Hanna is a healthy child physically; it’s her mind that is sick and dangerous.

This book will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. You’ll need to be careful not to bite your fingernails down so far they start bleeding. I know I wanted to climb in the book, grab hold of this child, and shake some sense into her.

The ending? A sequel is definitely in order, and I want to read it.

I had trouble with this book. I wish it had been advertised more as psychological than horror/mystery/thriller. Hanna is fully suffering from a behavioral disorder that probably could’ve been handled better way earlier on so as not to end up in the situation the whole family is in by the end of the book. I could kind of understand why Suzette ended up saying and doing things to Hanna that would be incomprehensible to any other parent, but at the same time could never figure out why she putting any cameras in the house to capture the horror of the things her daughter was doing to her? That just didn’t make sense to me. Alex is also an absolutely ridiculous excuse for a man/husband/father. If you’re taking the side and work of your 5 year old over your wife for no reason other than it’s your kid, you need help too. And if he really wanted to prove Suzette wrong, he also could’ve put cameras in the house. Everything about this was completely unrealistic. Except for Hanna. I’ve seen a lot of reviews saying that no 5-year-old could ever be like this, but yea, a 5-year-old can be like this. Behavioral or personality disorders can present themselves very early on in life and without proper help, will become the mental and emotional norm for that child, making it harder and harder to help that person find another way to cope with the things in their life that are provoking these kinds of violent actions.

The last 20% of the book was doing a lot better for me, until the very end. Alex and Suzette were finally acting like real people. Maybe not nice people, but realistic people nonetheless.

***SPOILER***

and then I find out the person that is with Hanna at the institution tells her that once she’s a good girl and is doing what she’s told she will be able to leave. You cannot tell someone with those kinds of issues those things. They are very good and pretending to be the person they believe they are supposed to be without actually having learned anything. So, when Hanna gets out and inevitably ends up killing Suzette, I’m going to blame that worker for being an effing moron.

***SPOILER***

All-in-all the book was written well and I do think that Zoje Stage is a talented author who wrote a creepy story about a child with psychological issues. But the lack of reality with regards to the mental health professionals and the parents up to the end kind of ruined the whole of the book for me. Therefore I’m splitting the difference and giving this 3-stars.

Received via Netgalley, and reviewed of my own accord.

Fantastic. Bad Seed for present day. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found this to be incredibly stressful to read in a can’t stop reading sort of way. Crazy, evil kid, mother coming unglued, willfully oblivious father. Who is going to win?!? I flew through this title during a road trip and enjoyed every minute. My only issue is that I felt the ending didn’t have as much of a bang as I was expecting. I was waiting for a giant moment of evil glory but instead was left with the threat of someday. Regardless, I will pass this off quickly to patrons looking for something thrilling that will suck them in immediately.

Daddy’s little girl-to the nth degree. At 7 years old Hannah doesn’t speak at all unless of course it’s in her alter-ego’s voice. She has been sent to several schools and always ends up back home being home schooled by her mother (who herself has medical issues). Her father goes very easy on Hannah and refuses to believe that she is capable of violent behavior until he is forced to. It’s hard to tell if Hannah is being diabolical or oppositionally defiant towards her mother or is psychotic as she routinely does physical harm to her mother in the hopes that she will have her father all to herself. Ultimately she is sent away to a residential program for aberrant children and no spoilers here as to how things evolve from there.I guess the hallmark of a good book is that even when you don’t think you want to read another word it draws you back so you can find out the ending. Good first effort by Zoje Stage.

The description of this book lead me to believe that it was going to be your run-of-the-mill thriller. Suzette, a young stay-at-at-home-mother, who also happens to suffer from Crohn’s disease, spends all of her time with her daughter, Hanna. She knows what Hanna is truly like, unlike her husband, Alex, who believes their child is an angel. Clearly something is going on with this family, but what? I had to keep reading to find out.

That is, until I found out that the issue isn’t a drinking problem, a mental illness, or an affair (my initial guesses, based on tropes in other thrillers). No, what we have here is a seriously deranged child. Hanna is a weird kid. She refuses to speak, but she understands everything that is happening around her. More than most children her age do. And Hanna doesn’t like everything that goes on. In fact, she goes to extreme lengths to try and get exactly what she wants.

I don’t want to give too much away, but this story is violent, creepy, and downright uncomfortable. I made myself read until the very end, because I am stubborn and don’t like giving up on books. However, the only thing this book did for me was keep me up all night because I was spooked. I can’t say I’ve read anything quite like Baby Teeth before, and I’m not sure if I want to again.

If you’re a fan of creepy stories, uncomfortable mother-daughter relationships, and don’t mind some violence, then check out Baby Teeth. However, if you’re looking for a fun, care-free read, maybe skip this title.

Very creepy, disturbing and hard to put down.
Really enjoyed it!
Beware! After reading this, you might not want to have any kids :)

Hm I feel bad now. I heard a lot of good things about this book and.... I just don’t understand why. It wasn’t completely awful, but it was weird, and still... What scared me the most is that Hanna’s situation is so plausible and could happen to any child. Having 2 kids myself, I just couldn’t imagine what Suzette felt when everything happened...

Thanks to the publisher for my e-copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to St Martins Press and Netgalley for a free digital copy of this book for an honest review. This book is creepy. Very creepy. Suzette is a stay at home mom and she has one child. Her daughter Hanna doesn’t go to school because no school will keep her because of her behaviour difficulties. Hanna loves her father but hates her mother. She hates her so much she actually tries to kill her. This is the basis of the story. To complicate things Hanna doesn’t speak so no one really knows what she’s thinking. Let’s just say - it’s nothing good. The book keeps you on edge waiting to see what Hanna will do next. It was very fitting that I read this book on Friday the 13th.

Baby Teeth completely creeped me out (in a good way!). Author, Zoje Stage, knows how to weave sadistic and psychopathic characters that stick in the reader’s mind. This was a fast and great ride!

When we’re pitched advanced copies of books, it can be hard to know which ones will be hits and which will be overlooked. Baby Teeth was not one I expected to be promoted, based on the description, but after finishing it, I can see why it’s on so many Must Read lists for the month of July.

7-year-old Hanna loves her father. Her father loves her mother. And for this reason, Hanna vows to get rid of her mother, once and for all.

Baby Teeth opens with Hanna in a CT scan, Suzette hopeful but not optimistic that there’s a physical reason her daughter doesn’t speak. When the doctor suggests it’s not that Hanna can’t talk, but rather she won’t, Suzette agrees it’s time to seek help from a therapist. Her husband Alex has been in denial that there’s anything wrong with Hanna beyond not talking – he doesn’t see her outbursts at home, and he blames the schools she’s kicked out of for her behavior. But Suzette has reached the end of her rope, desperate for Hanna to not only get the help she needs, but also get her relationship with her husband back the way it was.

Baby Teeth is part horror, part family drama, and part cautionary tale. The reason for Hanna’s refusal to speak isn’t really made clear, other than she realizes early on the power it gives her over people. But her inability – or refusal – to communicate with her parents causes the chasm between Suzette and her to grow ever wider. And the more Alex sides with Suzette, the angrier Hanna gets.

The chapters alternate between Suzette and Hanna’s point of view, and as Hanna’s plans to get rid of her mother grow increasingly dangerous, the tension grows. The book has an open ending that leads me to wonder if there will be a sequel, and if so, I’ll be reading it.

This is one of those books that keeps running in the back of your mind.

I took breaks randomly to give myself time to process, and to step away from the creepiness that is the whole storyline. The characters are so vividly developed that reading this feels like watching a scary movie. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see this turned into a feature film.

Hanna, that innocent mask, the seven-year-old daddy’s little girl, who felt all the time within with her terrible plans and behaviour, felt of mommy as, “Bad, bad Mommy.”
She would try to create another self, a character that she would envision that would cast spells that would make Mommy’s heart explode.
Maybe there was some badness in mummy not wanting the presence of her daughter in her life, the handful she became, but as soon as she was able to, daughter Hanna would be playing with mummy and daddy, in all sorts of ways, manipulation to the max into an oblivion.
The hook in the tale is what does daddy’s girl achieve, does she rid mummy from her life?
Parenting, wonderful, that stuff of dreams, turned upside down in this narrative.
It’s all creepy and twisted succumbing the reader in its eeriness and uncomfortable captivating formation of events.

Such a crazy read. It was really good and kept my attention as the story flipped between the points of view of Suzette and her daughter Hanna and their every day lives. However, their lives are far from ordinary as Hanna appears sweet but does not speak. Things aren't quite as they seem though with Hanna. Hanna only talks to Suzette and when she does it's the most awful things. You see Hanna loves her daddy and wants to get rid of Mommy. The things Hanna does in this novel are disturbing as much as they are fascinating. An unusual and unique depiction of children with sociopathic tendencies. The book kept my attention with an ending that left me curious for what happens next. I'd be interested if there was a sequel

A beautiful home but what is behind the closed doors. A daddy, a mommy and a little girl. But no one knows that the little girl Hanna is evil and wants to eliminate her mother so she will have daddy all to herself.
This book makes you think about children and what are they thinking about? I flew through this book to find out how it ended. A great read.