I'm still not sure whether I enjoyed this book. Certain scenes have stuck with me, even after several months. Some parts were highly disturbing, but mostly enjoyable.

I should warn you. This book will get in your head. Sometimes, when I’m reading a book, I will get completely involved in a story. When I set the book down I have to remind myself that I’m back in real life. Sometimes when I read a book, I have to tell myself, “No, Stephanie, magical witches are not time traveling right now.” This time, I kept having to say “Stephanie, you don’t have a psychopath for a kid.” I know that’s totally weird, but books have a way with me. I love it, and I hate it.

This was one of those where I could just put myself right in the head of that mom thinking I had a crazy psychotic child. I hate admitting that. It makes me feel like I’m crazy.

This is the story about Suzette, a mom who suffers from Crohn’s Disease who is realizing that her daughter, Hanna, might just be a psychopath who wants to hurt or even kill her. Hanna is 7 years old, and it appears she is mute. Her mother senses that something is just off with her. They go to specialist after specialist for tests to see why she doesn’t talk. And then, Hanna only lasts just a few weeks or days in every expensive school her parents try.

Her mother sees her odd and often bad behavior like when Hanna barks viciously at administrators at schools they visit. Or, she hits other children when she’s pretending to be nice, like with a toddler in a grocery store.

However, her father sees none of it and just can’t believe his sweet precious girl is behaving these ways. He doesn’t believe it when Suzette tells him. He doesn’t believe it when the teachers and administrators tell him.

Why would you not trust your own wife? She doesn’t seem to have a history of lying, so why would he so easily discount her stories about their child? She is the one who is home with her every single day. Plus, at one point Hanna does something to her mother’s appearance that is unmistakable, yet the father just laughs it off.

I felt parts were a bit too unreal in this book, like the husband in denial. Also while Hanna is precocious, there are things clearly a 7 year old can’t do well that she does, like dump out mommy’s medicine capsules and replace the medicine with flour. I had to undo some capsules today to hide the medicine in some food for my daughter, and I squished every last one of those capsules.


Hanna acts like the perfect daughter when her dad’s around. But then, her anger towards her mother gets the best of her, and things finally escalate. The father finally believes his wife after she sadly has real injuries to prove it.

I read a lot of reviews about this book before I started reading it. What seems strange to me is that people were all talking about Hanna and how she’s a crazy psychopathic little girl, but I never really saw anyone mention the mother.

Throughout the story, it seems like the author is leaving little hints and clues that Suzette is not that dissimilar to her own daughter. She remembers laying next to her mom and not wanting to be touched or cuddled. There are other tidbits like that, that made me think that maybe the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Most of all, Suzette seems completely annoyed that she’s even a mother. Maybe she feels this way because her daughter is not the sweet little girl she imagined she’d have. I could understand a secret regret you might harbor if your child is not turning out how you expected, especially if they are violent, and you are just at your wit’s end. But, it seems more than that. Suzette constantly whines to herself about her Crohn’s disease and how her own mother didn’t care about her and her disease. And, she’s always thinking about the loss of her relationship with her husband before Hanna came.

There aren’t really any twists or unexpected things to this story. It’s no spoiler that they eventually place Hanna in a mental facility for children like her. But, they both seem so relieved to go back to their relationship from before they became parents — that bothered me a bit. At one point, they go to her bedroom door, look around, and shut it as if to say “we tried this parenting thing. It didn’t work out. Now let’s move on.” I’m not sure I could ever get to that point.

This was a dark read and though there were no unexpected twists, I didn’t want to put it down. The ending seemed to set up a second book, so I’m curious to see if that will happen.

Whoa, what a book! I went into this novel expecting a typical thriller (although the title should have given me a clue), but there were some fascinating, disturbing horror elements throughout the story. This was a chilling tale that kept me guessing all the way until the end.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

*SSSIIIIIIGGGGHHHH*

I wanted to love this. After all, it really is a sociopath's beginning. With my obsession with Criminal Minds, I kind of just assumed I'd like this better than I did.

Maybe I'm not as villain pro as I thought. Or maybe its the fact that I have seen children like this. No feelings, no emotion, lack of empathy, and disregard for what's right and wrong.

Honestly, that's all I have to say.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, it just isn't for me. I didn't like any of the characters, which is hard for me to get past. I know this is a popular book, so I won't be writing a Goodreads review. Thanks again!

This is the story of a battle between an mother and her daughter, It's a scary battle of wills and maybe evil. Who will win the battle, the mom or the daughter, and will the dad be destroyed in the process?

Have you ever thought, "I'm just too comfortable around children. I want to feel a healthy dose of fear when a six-year-old grabs my hand or a toddler smiles at me. What if my instinct was instead to lock them outside and call the police?" Buddy, have I got a book for you.

If the effect of the twins in The Shining is just starting to wear off, you need to read Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. Hanna is of great concern to her mother, Suzette. Hanna does not talk. She occasionally growls...or barks...or causes problems so major she gets expelled from school. But actual conversation, not so much. Don't worry, Hanna has no problem getting her point across.

Suzette, who has suffered with health problems all her life, wants nothing more than for her daughter to grow up healthy and happy. But as Hanna's frightening and uncontrollable behavior escalates, Suzette realizes she wants those things less for Hanna's good than for her own sanity. The gulf between mother and daughter widens as Hanna displays a new facet to her personality--possibly a new personality altogether.

And where is daddy dearest during all this distress? He's often at work and only sees Hanna at her cheeriest, which is clearly intentional on her part. She's a daddy's girl and as we find out during Hanna's chapters, her fondest wish is for it to be just the two of them with no pesky mommy to get in the way. But how can she achieve this end?

I had absolutely no idea where this story would take me as Suzette's life spiraled out of control and Hanna's wicked little plans took shape but it was quite a ride. The ending? Simultaneously satisfying and anxiety-inducing.

I got a free advance ebook of Baby Teeth from NetGalley for review purposes.

I was torn with this one--yes, it had me creeped out, but it was also easy to put down. I think as I went into it, I was looking for more depth--more insight? More plot?

The characterization of Hanna was ok--I wanted more. If this is supposed to be horror, give me more. As a mother, I really tried to connect with Suzette as well, and maybe I wanted more internal monologue? I'm not sure--I'll chalk it up to simply wanting "more."

Some reviewers have written that this book is definitely not for everyone, and I respect that, and I respectfully attest that I must be on of those who this book wasn't written for. However, as a mother, this was hard to read, so I'm going to just attribute my own hesitations (or fears?) to that. I like domestic thrillers, but this one hit a little too close to home -- just because of my status as a mother.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. The word building was phenomenal in this book. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

4.5 *

What a book! This one has been on my TBR list for a very long time and I can't believe it's taken me this long to read it.

This story is dark and at times hard to read but I was fully engaged from beginning to end. The writing is easy and flows nicely together throughout all the chapters.

Hanna is seven years old and lives with her mom, Suzette and father, Alex. She has never spoken a word until one day she tells her mom she is a witch. The story takes a crazy turn. All throughout this book I was left wondering what was really happening with this child. Perhaps my only complaint is that I think Hanna was a little too young for some of the things she was doing. I think it would have been a bit more believable had she been a little older.

As a parent this book has left me stunned. It makes you think. Really think. All psychopaths and sociopaths were once children. Can this type of mental illness really be reversed if caught early enough? The writing was so good that I felt every emotion these parents felt. I hear this one will be made into a movie. I really can't wait.

I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to this Advanced Reader Copy. I'm so glad I finally got around to reading this one!

4 stars!

Highly disturbing yet undeniably addictive.

Hanna is seven-years-old and has never spoken a word. Doctors cannot find a medical explanation for Hanna’s lack of verbal communication. Hanna’s mother, Suzette, spends her days looking after Hanna and home schooling her while her husband, Alex, works long hours. Suzette dotes on Hanna’s every need, yet has never truly felt the mother-daughter bond she expected. In fact, Suzette has always felt pushed away and despised by Hanna. Suzette’s concerns become intensified when Hanna begins little acts of rebellion and harm on Suzette. Alex sees nothing but a loving, vulnerable daughter while Hanna saves her evil tendencies for her mother in secretive ways.

This book is extremely shocking and uncomfortable. I was on edge and in disbelief for much of this story. Can a child be born with evil inside? Or is the mother exaggerating her experiences? I was horrified while reading many scenes, yet glued to the pages to see how things would turn out. I thought about giving up on the book more than a few times because I wasn’t “enjoying” the storyline, but I honestly couldn’t stop reading. The writing completely sucked me in. I was invested and engrossed and could not put the book down regardless of the horrific subject matter.

The author does an excellent job portraying parents struggling to understand their child’s abnormal behaviour. I felt for Suzette and Alex. My thoughts and beliefs were challenged while reading this.

It is a book that has been on my NetGalley shelf for far too long. Some readers compare this book to the recent release, The Push, which I loved and is what enticed me to pick this up now. I can certainly understand the comparison. I am glad I finally got around to reading this as I think it was well done and is extremely thought-provoking. It’s a difficult book to recommend because it’s very disturbing and would be problematic for many readers. It’s one you need to be prepared for.

This was a great book--thanks for the chance to review it! I really enjoyed it. It alternately made me freaked out and also excited. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next, and it kept me on the edge of my seat for sure.

I have been putting this book off for a while because I have seen mixed reviews. I do have to admit that I basically read spoilers for this book so going in I knew what to except. So unfortunately I went into this with low exceptions. I was hoping that I'd be wrong and enjoy this book but that sadly didn't happen. I really didn't enjoy any of the characters at all. I mean the Mom was okay but she obviously had her flaws. I did feel bad for her majority of this book. Her daughter torments her and her husband doesn't believe her. I did feel at times she did say things that probably weren't best to say to a child. Clearly this kid picks up on everything and uses that to her advantage. When it comes to her daughter I felt she did not act like a 7 year old at all. I get there is more to it than that but I just couldn't believe that this girl was supposed to be 7. She just felt a bit older by the way she acted and thought. Then there is the husband. He doesn't believe his wife whenever she complains about the daughter is oblivious to what is going on around him. It just ended up pissing me off to no end. I could understand maybe the first time but when there has been multiple things happen I would have gotten worried.

I think another thing I didn't enjoy about the story is that it felt super repetitive. I just felt most of the things that happened just kept getting repeated until almost the end of the book. I was happy when things were finally moving along. I listened through audiobook and had to speed up the audio because I wanted to get through the book faster.

However even though I didn't like it, it still might interest you. I know there are a good amount of people who ended up giving this book really high ratings. This one just wasn't for me.

*I do want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in an exchange for my honest opinions.*

The Short of It:

Impossible to put down.

The Rest of It:

Hanna is seven-years old and has not said a word to anyone. Ever. Concerned, her parents take her for testing but there is no physical reason for her lack of speech. When it’s suggested to Hanna’s mother Suzette that perhaps it’s a behavioral issue, Alex, Hanna’s father doesn’t want to believe it. Suddenly, out of the blue, Hanna says something to Suzette but instead of excitement, Suzette feels dread because the words that come out of Hanna’s mouth are quite disturbing.

Oh! There is so much going on in this one. Hanna is fiercely attached to her father which makes it all the more difficult when Suzette realizes that her daughter needs help. Alex only sees the good. He’s at work all day but Suzette is the one who home schools Hanna. Suzette is the one who sees her act out in unimaginable ways. Suzette is the one Hanna targets when her jealousy rears its head. No school will take her. Suzette begins to feel like she’s trapped with this kid who does horrible things but she’s still her mother, so what can she do? What can be done?

That is the question. That and trying to figure out what is wrong with this kid! The entire time I was reading this book my mind jumped all over the place. Is this kid possessed? Is she playing games? Is there something really wrong with her? A brain tumor? Something? This is the type of book that will drive you crazy but is also incredibly fun to read. Suzette is weaker than I would have liked her to be but as a mother myself, I’m not sure how I would handle a similar situation.

Baby Teeth is listed as a must-read by many for good reason. It’s thoroughly entertaining and impossible to put down. It made me second-guess myself a few times and had me questioning what the “right” decision would be for a parent in the same situation. I really enjoyed it.

I kept going back and forth about how I felt about this book and whether I would have liked it more or less if it was approached differently. In the end I’m going with 3 stars. Decent, maybe could have been better, maybe could have been worse.

It’s interesting and also disturbing to read about child psychopathy. More unsettling than adult psychopathy. There’s some allusions to witches and spells which seemed like something Hanna just made up to scare her mom although later on I wondered if she really started believing it herself and so I found that a little confusing. She also came off as very precocious in some of her chapters but in others she seemed more childlike than her age of 7. Intentional or just a sign of the difficulty of writing from the POV of a psychopathic kid?

So I guess I should explain that the chapters alternate between the child Hanna and the mother Suzette. Suzette’s chapters have a more wistful sad feel to them. They do come off as well written. I also sometimes wondered if it would have been better if the book was written entirely from her point of view because I think then the question of whether Hanna was actually being purposefully terrible to her or whether Suzette herself was crazy (since Hanna never acted out in front of father Alex although she did at school) would have been more suspenseful and intriguing. There was a LOT of Suzette dealing with her Crohn’s and how that impacted her life and still was. I started getting tired of hearing about it all the time. I think it was meant to explain some of Suzette’s behavior with Hanna but I don’t think it did a particularly good job. Honestly sometimes I thought Suzette was a better mother than you’d think with Hanna and her antics and sometimes I thought Hanna might be right and she was not a good mother after all and that it really did spark some of her behavior. Maybe we’re meant to see it all as kind of gray.

I was torn about Alex too. How could he be so oblivious to what was happening or not take more action to get to the bottom of things and try to fix stuff? He left Suzette to do all the heavy lifting but I couldn’t even hate him bc Suzette herself did not reach out to him for help and every time she did ask him for something he was nothing but supportive so I would then get frustrated with Suzette all over again. Suzette, if you’re upset Alex doesn’t think Hanna’s behavior is out of the norm or doesn’t believe something happened, why not just install cameras all over the house?

Ending felt ambiguous and also a little unsatisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Zoje Stage for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. :o)

This book creeped me out from the start. I enjoyed it, although I kept thinking there would be some unreliable narrator type of twist but there wasn't. Being an elementary school teacher, mom, and expecting another baby, it just creeped me out how easily this could happen. One thing that bothered me was that they kept leaving their bedroom door unlocked to go to sleep. LOCK THE DOOR! No way I could have slept with her able to walk around the house.

To me, there is nothing more unsettling than creepy kids. The juxtaposition between innocence and evil is very fertile ground. I still shudder to think of Children of the Corn, which is unfortunate, as I am bordered on 2 sides by cornfields. Baby Teeth didn't give me that sense of building dread, although it was still an entertaining book. Hanna is more spoiled brat than daughter of the devil, in my opinion. One thing that consistently bothered me is the clueless father. I don't care how little you are plugged in to your family's life, if your daughter is plotting matricide, you should have seen the signs. So, overall not very scary for me, but not a bad way to pass the time, either.
3 stars

*I was provided a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley.*

I love a good thriller - and this book sounded like it was going to be an amazing one....it wasn't exactly that. It sounded like a horror movie setup - oblivious dad, worrying mom, and a little girl who wants to kill mom. It just felt like more of a bad horror film instead of one that would give me chills and keep me up at night. Hannah's voice is just too mature to really believe it's coming from a young girl. Had a lot of potential, but hard to get into when the younger narrator sounds so much like the older one (mom).

I know there are lots of people out there that enjoyed (and loved) Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage but man, this one just did not work for me. I listened to the audio and Gabra Zackman was AMAZING for setting the vibe and doing Hanna's voice, but unfortunately she was the only thing I really liked about this book. It felt very repetitive and monotonous to me, and while Hanna is a little devil child, I didn't particularly care for her viewpoint or hearing about what she was doing. And I know I always say its fiction so it doesn't have to be realistic, but there is just no way this would ever happen, and it was really frustrating to see how both Suzette and her husband acted. I definitely recommend people trying out Baby Teeth for themselves since I am in the minority, but I highly suggest doing the audiobook and I will still be checking out Stage's next book hoping for better luck! DNF at 39%.

Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via NetGalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own.