This was a fierce and feminist horror story that had as much heart as it did bite. Kristi DeMeester knows how to weave together a compelling story where we are connected and horrified eith the characters.

First, I have to mention that this cover does nothing for me. But, I have learned that I should never judge a book by it's cover so I continued on! Unfortunately, this book didn't hit the mark for me. The characters felt a bit flat and the plot felt a bit forced - too unrealistic for me.

I don't even know where to start. I will say if you are a fan of House of Hollow, or similar books than this is for you. It had the same vibe a eeriness. I'm still not sure if that's my thing or not but this book was intriguing nontheless. This book follows two diff timelines. We follow Caroline as a woman in her 20s ( I think) and then years later her daughter as a 12 year old ( I think I have bad memory for those type of details). Its history repeating itself and you get to see how both of them try to understand what is happening around them. Young girls are going missing and being found brutally murdered as thought it were an animal. Caroline is a very strict and protective mother and is super fearful something will happen to Lila. Lila is a preteen trying to figure herself out and struggles with her mothers strictness.
You know the saying "you should smile more, you look prettier" -_- well this book has that in its own way. It discusses how girls/woman "should" behave. That plays a huge part in this book.

Would I read more by this author, yes.

I absolutely loved this book. I read a ton of YA mystery/thriller and this one leans hard into the horror genre but still has all of the "wait, what's happening?" of a good mystery.

The book is told in alternating timelines, that of mother Caroline in 2004 and daughter Lila in 2019. Both are haunted by things they cannot explain: Caroline by terrifying and overwhelming delusions (or are they?) and Lila by a hunger she is unable to acknowledge or explain. As the story goes back and forth, the creep factor gets more and more - you think you know what is going on, but seriously, you are not ready for what happens.

In addition to the scary factor, this story is a really interesting exploration of the mother/daughter relationship, with the interplay between Caroline and Lila - Caroline trying to keep her daughter safe and Lila trying to stretch her wings. It also deals with burgeoning sexuality/sexual identity, which I think is an important element to include in YA books in general.

If you are squeamish about horror, in particularly body horror, I'd tread carefully. There are also trigger warnings for sexual assault and sexual violence.

The premise of Such a Pretty Smile sounded like something I would really enjoy. It had dual timelines and a serial killer, two of my favorite tropes in this genre. What I wasn't expecting, was the supernatural element. I really wanted to get into this one, but I struggled to do so. The supernatural element just wasn't for me.

I would still be interested in checking out this author's future work, but this one just wasn't for me.

3.5 stars rounded up. Set on dual timelines, Such a Pretty Smile is the story of 13-year-old Lila in 2019, who is struggling with her burgeoning sexuality, an overprotective mother, and a typical array of middle school issues; and her mother Caroline in 2004, an up-and-coming artist in New Orleans with a lot on her plate...including disturbing delusions that no one believes are real. In the world of both Lila and Caroline, young girls are disappearing, turning up gruesomely mutilated and murdered -- believed to be the victims of a serial killer known as The Cur. He leaves no trace, and he targets the "bad girls": the ones who don't conform, who are loud and brash and refuse to just sit back and smile. When Lila herself gives in to her darker urges, Caroline is forced to confront the events of her past and the secrets she has long buried in order to save her daughter's life.

Such a Pretty Smile is a MOOD, and it's not going to be for everyone. DeMeester's writing is haunting and visceral and disturbing, with a willingness to plunder the most depraved parts of the human psyche. It's an intentionally brutal, uncomfortable, intense narrative filled with a looming sense of dread, that forces the reader to acknowledge, in the most graphic and horrifying of ways, the plight of women in the patriarchy. It reminded me in some ways of Bunny by Mona Awad, with its unsettling imagery and the dark energy coursing underneath each furious word. It's a fever-dreaming, screaming sort of book.

Exploring themes of sexuality, feminism, motherhood, and mental illness, Such a Pretty Smile is a pitch-black metaphor for modern girlhood/womanhood and is unlike anything I've ever read before. It is at once a character study, a creepy horror novel, and a thoughtful exploration of societal expectations for women. It tries to do a lot, and is mostly successful, although some of the messaging is a bit muddled. I was left wanting so much more exploration of some of the more fantastical, horrific elements DeMeester introduces late in the book, but given the way this one ended, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a sequel -- and I would welcome it. I see you, Kristi DeMeester, and I love what you have to say.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book -- thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my digital copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. This one will stick with me. A definite five star read that is so dark and twisty. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thrillers and/or horror. I love the strong feminism undertones mixed in as well. I can't wait to read more from Kristi DeMeester.

This one left me speechless. So much to think about in the end, I just wish the journey was a bit faster.

This horror story didn't scare me, just has the elements of horror, such as fantastical beast, mutilated bodies, talk of rape, murder, etc. But in other sense, it is not scary. It just leaves you thinking about what is horrific to a person. This touches on themes of mental health and losing your own self, control over your decisions, and how scary that can be. How others start to perceive you, how their choices and acts start to affect you. How it can manifest into something bigger than it is.

It was fantastical in some places, and hard to follow what is real, what is imaginary, and what is just the element of story telling. And it was pretty slow for my liking.

I still enjoyed it, more than I thought I would in the beginning.

Well, here it is, friends: my first DNF of the year. It was bound to happen sooner or later😅 Although I'm pretty bummed it happened with a book I was really excited to read. Oh well🤷‍♀️

I typically read very quickly, but after slogging through this one for three weeks I *just* hit the 150 page mark. That's saying something: I was not enjoying it.

I don't really know how to explain this book to be honest ... it's so strange. The closest comparison I can think of is NIGHTBITCH, which I read and reviewed last year. Both of these books, I think, are ones that people will either love or hate.

In SUCH A PRETTY SMILE there's a lot of violence, dead girls, a dead dog, bloody descriptions of visions and events, and no one believes the women that something is wrong. The gaslighting is everywhere, folks!

I typically love a good unreliable narrator but in this one, I truly didn't know what was happening and everything was horrible and it was a LOT to handle.

Now, I don't think this is a bad book, I just think it's not for me. There are a ton of great reviews for it on #GoodReads so be sure to check those out if you're interested!

Thank you @raincoastbooks and @stmartinspress for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Such A Pretty Smile was creepy from beginning to end. I couldn’t stop thinking about this one when I wasn’t reading it. Lila is a teenager living with her single, kind of famous, mother. Her mother, Caroline, is incredibly controlling and doesn’t want Lila to do anything fun. Or at least that’s how Lila sees it. Young girls are going missing and showing up later mutilated and dead. The thing responsible for these disappearances and murders has done this before. The story is told in dual timelines, Lila in the present, and Caroline in the past. The key to understanding the events happening in Lila’s present may be locked in Caroline’s memories of her past. Lila knows that there is a time before, but she doesn’t know what her mother endured as a child. Lila’s quest to uncover her mothers past leads her down a dark path. Can Caroline get to Lila in time to save her? What is attacking young girls and leaving them mutilated?

I found myself frustrated with Lila because she was so busy rebelling against her mother that she seemed oblivious to the dangers around her. I get that most teenagers behave in such a manner but reading it was incredibly frustrating. I found myself thinking “what the hell” multiple times while reading this book. I just had to know how it was all going to come together at the end. It was very creepy. The ending was a little lackluster for me but it was good none the less.

I received an advanced readers copy of Such A Pretty Smile via the publisher on Netgalley. This is my honest feedback.

3.5 rounded up…

This book had a bit of an identity crisis. At various times I had different thoughts and questions on where this was going. I also wasn’t sure what genre it was trying to be or if it might even be YA? Overall, it’s a good read though. I liked the premise. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

Lily is SUCH a believable character. Her insecurities, her struggle to find her place, to deal with her burgeoning sexuality and attraction to her best friend Macie, are just spot on. One of the best parts of this book is the relationship between Lily and her mother, Caroline. In an earlier timeline we also see Caroline as a much younger woman and her own struggles to stand up on her own, to be heard, and to try as best as she can to help that odd little girl who is the same age as Lily in 2019…

DeMeester’s play with feminism and strength, and how the world sometimes is for people who are not men, is so well done. It’s both subtle and not; it’s both terrifying and captivating. The play between the consequences of standing out and refusing to “fall in line” with good girl expectations, and the necessity of being your own person and being strong is part of the heart of this story.

Have you ever picked up a book and expected it to be a certain way, but then after a good chunk into it you have to look at the cover, read the synopsis, and figure out if it was the book you thought it was? Well, this is one of those books. It is not at all what I expected and quite honestly, I still don’t know that I completely understand what I just read.

The story follows Caroline and Lila, mother and daughter, and is told in 2004 and 2019. Strange things happen to both of them many years apart, and they are told something is wrong with them. Meanwhile, young girls are disappearing and many are found dead. Who is causing this chaos every so many years?

Seriously, idk what I just read and I don’t quite understand what it was. It just seemed like the whole book was this big lead in/build up to what was behind it all, yet I still don’t quite get it. This was one of the strangest books I’ve ever read!

Such a Pretty Smile was published on 1/18/22. Thank you to @stmartinspress & @netgalley for my review copy in exchange for an honest review. The synopsis sounded unique, interesting, and creative. I started off incredibly interested in the narrative; however, the story lost it’s traction. I had a challenging time staying engaged and felt underwhelmed. It took me a long time to finish this one and it just didn’t work out for me. While the book was occassionally really fascinating, at other times, it devolved into a meandering bizarreness, picking up and then aimlessly wondering at a slow pace. I think of myself as someone that can handle a lot of “strange“---I’m not certain I understand what the plot was and if it was ever located or resolved? On a positive note, many readers enjoyed this slow burn.

Well this was......interesting, odd, intriguing, different....all the above. It's hard to rate this one. While it was engrossing it also was also not a thriller (to me), maybe paranormal. I did like the ending a lot. I would have liked more of an inbetween of Caroline's life from 2004-2019.

Thanks to Netgalley, Kristi, and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of Such A Pretty Smile in exchange for an honest review.

A little heavy handed at times, but Such a Pretty Smile was riveting and terrifying at times. I worry it was a bit too graphic for shock value, but it was certainly effective.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester tells the tale of Caroline and her daughter Lila. The story is told from 13-year-old Lila‘s point of view in 2019 and Caroline‘s point of view in 2004.
In 2019, Lila is in middle school and lives with her mom Caroline in a town outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Lila has a best friend, Macie, that is a popular mean girl and Lila struggles to fit in. It seems she is always walking a fine line between being on top of the world and losing it all with her best friend. Recently, girls Lila‘s age and a little bit younger have been going missing and found dead. Nobody knows if they’ve been killed by a wild animal or by a person. Caroline is very strict and will hardly let Lila out of her sight. Lila starts having some issues with anger, losing time, and she is not sure what is happening to her. She sometimes hears dogs barking outside, like a pack of wild animals. She doesn’t understand why her mom Caroline, a brilliant sculptor who teaches art at a college, is so unwilling to let her do anything or go anywhere with her friends unsupervised.
In 2004, Caroline and her fiancé Daniel are struggling artists. They live in New Orleans. Caroline‘s dad is in a hospice and she is struggling to pay his bill there and very devastated about losing him. Caroline has a job teaching a rich young girl who is about 12, how to paint. When Caroline starts having mental issues and hearing wild animals and dogs growling and snarling at a trip to Jazzland, an amusement park in New Orleans, her husband starts to grow wary of her. Caroline find out from her dad that when she was 11 she went missing for a time and was found later, almost catatonic. Caroline really does not remember anything about this and sets out to find out what happened to herself.
This book is definitely a horror story and thriller at the same time. Every chapter the intensity grows and the feeling of dread keeps getting worse. What happened to Caroline when she was a kid? What is going on with Lila now? I really enjoyed both characters, especially Caroline. Little by little details of her past are revealed in the chapters until it comes to a brutal, horrific realization. This book was so amazing. I did not expect it to be the way it was at all. I can’t wait to read more books by the author. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Sadly, Caroline’s past is not something I am able to read about at this time. I read the firs5 few chapters and as much as I would like to continue it, there are a few triggers I am not able to read.

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is a bizarre and terrifying tribute to womanhood. The book blends classic thriller motifs (a serial killer on a decades-long spree, mysterious disappearances and unsolved murders) with a sharp psychological edge and haunting horror imagery to create a suspenseful, strange, and riveting narrative.

The story follows a mother and daughter pair in two separate timelines, one in 2004 and the second in 2019. Their arcs weave in and out of one another as its two central figures face similar challenges and battle with forces both human and supernatural, both external and internal, ultimately crashing together in a gruesome fight for their lives.

There is a lot to love about this book. The horror elements are fantastically atmospheric, and the settings are rich and vibrant. My favorite parts were those dark and unsettling moments where neither reader nor character can tell if the terror in the room is real or make-believe. I adored the amusement park setting for a lot of the heavier beats; the overarching feel of New Orleans absolutely seeps into each page, but the choice to center the primary action around a place that's meant to be joyful and light, but is in fact much more sinister than meets the eye, is brilliant.

My issues with the book are on. more of a technical level. Getting from strong beat to strong beat was a bit of a struggle, with a lot of telling and little showing in the bridges between key scenes. I felt like the book was talking at me instead of bringing me along for the ride. I wish that more of those hard punches had been used to showcase and build-up those background, because I think that the climax would've hit just a bit harder if I had been invited to fully immerse myself in every aspect of the story. The ending also felt a bit rushed to me, and I almost wish it had been left a bit more open and ambiguous to allow the audience to draw their conclusions about what exactly had been plaguing the women and girls in the story.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this book, and I'm excited to continue to follow DeeMeester's work. She has an incredible talent for horror and I'm excited to see what she does next!

TW for mentions of sexual assault and emotional abuse.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Wow! This story kept me turning the pages wanting...no, needing to know what the heck was happening. Well written, characters you feel you know and just so intense, I didn't want to put it down till the story was told. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC and letting me leave my opinion.