“There’s something out there that’s killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as troublemakers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.”

Such a Pretty Smile is a novel about Caroline and Lila, a mother and daughter. We follow two storylines across time lines. Caroline is a famous artist who has a dark past and is dealing with some internal demons. Lila is a thirteen-year-old girl who is going through the usual teenage things like having a crush and figuring out her sexuality. She is a good girl until one day she starts to feel something dark and angry inside. In both timelines there is a serial killer that kills young girls and Lila thinks that her mother knows more about it than she’s letting on.

Topics covered – Feminism, sexism, gender roles/norms, independence, schizophrenia, mental health, kidnapping, murder, and more! Also, TW for disturbing imagery.
The book is available today! Go out and pick it up. And don’t tell women to smile.


ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is a book that's can't be pegged into a single genre. It's part family drama, part psychological horror, part modern fairytale, and part crime thriller.

This is a layered, multi-faceted story, and likewise, we alternate between 3 main storylines:

- Over a decade ago, a serial killer aptly named the Cur was on the loose—known for tearing apart girls and leaving them with mysterious bite wounds. Now they appear to have returned and they’re on the kill again.

- Meanwhile, thirteen-year-old Lila begins to feel violent impulses and keeps seeing dogs following her. She believes it may be tied to whatever dark secrets her mother has been keeping from her, and she’s determined to get to the bottom of it.

- Her mother, Caroline, is an eccentric artist who crafts bizarre sculptures out of leaves and twigs. However, she’s haunted by her past, and upon hearing of The Cur’s return, her repressed memories have begun to resurface.

I may be biased here, but I absolutely loved the sheer amount of surreal, dream-like sequences in this book. There were some delightfully grotesque scenes that legitimately reminded me of the Nightmare Stag from Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, so if you love trippy psychological horror, I think you’ll be content reading this one.

However, one aspect of the story did stick out like a sore thumb, and that is the theme park setting for The Cur’s home. It didn’t mesh well with the rest of the story’s folk horror and fairytale elements, and thematically it would have made more sense to me for The Big Bad Wolf to have lived in the woods.

Qualms aside though, Such a Pretty Smile is overall a wonderfully nightmarish allegory about growing up, family, and trauma.

It’s pretty rare that a book leaves me speechless. I read and watch a lot of horror so I feel that I’ve seen it all but this book was something entirely unexpected and new. At the beginning I thought this was going to be another adolescent girls turning into werewolves as an allegory for female puberty. I have enjoyed that trope in the past so I settled in and prepared myself for some feminist rage. What I got made my jaw drop. Although very clearly feminist and with plenty of rage this went in a completely unique direction. It shocked and surprised me at every turn. My head was spinning from the banana-pants craziness!

I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll keep this review short. This is a gruesome and dark story not for the faint of heart. It includes some animal death and very young, prepubescent girls in non-consensual sexual activities. It isn’t easy to swallow but if you can stomach it you might find that little girls grow into adult women and they will eat the patriarchy whole. Is it wrong that I felt a little inspired by this book?--Inspired to be even louder, more non-compliant, and definitely under no circumstances be a “good girl?” This one is a rancid mouthful and it has very sharp teeth.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is an unusually good book. Although it starts out with a lot of teenage angst, it doesn't fit the mold of most stories of that ilk. It builds gradually into a full-blown tale of horror as experienced by 13-year-old Lila and her mother Caroline. The scene shifts back and forth between Atlanta, in 2019, and New Orleans, in 2004. The locations are not incidental. Atlanta conjures southern belles, subservient women, and domineering men. New Orleans has always been a city unto itself in both fact and fiction. Why do you think it is home to vampires, werewolves, and ghostly tales in so many novels and stories?

A young girl, barely in her teens at odds with a controlling mother is the sort of ho hum plot that has been done to death. Now throw in a possible serial killer who strikes in different places with unaccounted spans of time between sprees and now the yawn gets some spice.

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE deserves a review with no spoilers. It is a novel where discovery is key to your enjoyment.

🎉 P U B • D A Y • R E V I E W 🎉
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Title: Such A Pretty Smile
Author: Kristi DeMeester
Rating: 4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Happy pub day to one wild ride of a read. I’m not going to lie, I saw a few reviews of this book and got a little weary about reading it because of a trigger warning for animal abuse. However, while there was some animal abuse, it wasn’t prominent in the majority of the storyline (only two spots really), and I didn’t find it difficult to navigate through.
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From the beginning of this story I was hooked. A little bit family drama, a little bit mystery, a little bit serial killer, a whole lot of questions and a little bit of beasts. It was a gripping and horrifying read. This multiple POV and multiple time period novel regards Caroline, the mother, and Lila, her daughter, and their struggles with not only with each other but with Caroline’s past.
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I really enjoyed the pacing of this story. Within each chapter, you were given a bit more information, whether it was about Caroline’s past, or the current murders, or the feelings the two main characters were facing. I loved the aspect of mental health brought into this book, it gave the entire book a different aspect in and of itself. This had the perfect amount of girl power, giving a big screw you to whose ever told a woman to “just sit there and look pretty”. The strength in these characters is impeccable. The ending for me was perfect, it gave me the chills while also giving closure to the story but also in my opinion maybe leaving it open for a sequel.
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This was a don’t read home alone in the dark and make sure all of the lights are on read for me and I am here for it. This one shook me. I loved it.I am looking forward to reading more by @kristi. Luckily for you Such A Pretty Smile released today!
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Thank you to @netgalle, @stmartinspress and @kristi for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!
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#horroratitsfinest #horrorreads #littlebitfamilydrama #littlebitmystery #awholelotofquestions #andalittlebitofbeasts #happypubday #fourstarbookreview #suchaprettysmile #kristidemeester

Such A Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester was a huge surprise for me and I was hooked from the first chapter. While DeMeester has quite an impressive line of books written before Such A Pretty Smile, this was the first book I read by her. She definitely has me wanting more!
Lila is a typical teenager that notices strange things starting to happen. She is hearing voices and the dogs she hears barking, she can't explain any of it. Meanwhile, Her mom, Caroline, is also dealing with the monsters in her past who keep trying to fight their way back. Local girls keep disappearing, only to be found mutilated. Is all of this connected? It will take Caroline facing her past to solve the mystery of her daughter's future.
Such A Pretty Smile had me staying up late, waking up in the middle of the night and grabbing my book again, and thinking about this book after I had finished it. I will be recommending this book to others and will be looking for other works by DeMeester. Special thanks to NetGalley, Kristi DeMeester, and St. Martin's Press for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 5 stars
#suchaprettysmile #NetGalley

When I was invited to read this one, I was already really looking forward to reading it! But, I wasn't expecting this horror novel to come along with a rather heavy-handed overlying message... it detracted a bit from the thrill of it all. In 2019, Lila narraters her sections as a young 8th grader with some surprisingly (to me at least) worldly friends and an infatuation with one friend in particular. When other young girls go missing and turn up mutilated, Lila begins to suspect that her mother knows more than she is sharing. Her mother, Caroline, narrates sections from 2004 in New Orleans where similar murders are taking place and putting a severe strain on her mental health.

Along the way, the male characters are all grotesque, sexist and selfish characters. The overlaying message of encouraging women and girls to speak up lies at odds with the horror and violence of the suspected killer, dubbed "The Cur". While grisly, the message along with the action just gets garbled at times. The supernatural elements don't really follow logic - and while I am sure that this one will spark plenty of lively discussion, I fear that it may all start out as trying to clear up confusion.

It's a unique premise - but I never found goosebumps on my arms. It hovers too much between trying to be believable and realistic and then stepping wildly outside of those confines at other moments. It doesn't make enough sense to be scary, and while I found it entertaining enough as I read it, the more I reflect on it, the more I think I didn't really like it at all... The horror genre is classically defined by male writing which all too often does to their female characters what DeMeester does to her male characters here... I just want something more from the genre and let all of the characters, regardless of gender be properly developed. I think that DeMeester was aiming for this as part of her message, but I think it came as a detriment to the story. I wanted to find this to be a chilling read, but it's really just a grisly and gory one...

In this paranormal novel, Such a Pretty Smile, things go bump in the night. DeMeester has taken creepiness to shed light on mental illness and its haunts. There is so much more deeper meaning to the yellow eye staring back at you in the night, the howls of the dogs and sense that something is trying to crawl its way out you.

Such a Pretty Smile is powerful example of how women are judged and stereotyped when seeking treatment, and especially by those they love. The story is truly a bizarre mix of horror and the sickness plaguing ones mind. It is raw, gory and terrifying.

Honestly this novel might NOT be for everyone.

This is a hard one for me to review as I don’t typically read horror. It was too weird for me, but the writing was good. While this wasn’t my cup of tea, I can see others enjoying it!

When I requested a copy of this book from Netgalley I wasn't sure what to expect. It was labeled as General Adult Fiction/Horror/Mystery Thriller. So, which is it? You will have to decide. I am still not sure. It starts with young girls on the verge of puberty going missing and turning up dead, their bodies mutilated. The same thing happened 15 years ago and the press gave the killer, who was never found, the name The Cur. Okay, it's a serial killer mystery thriller. The book is told from the viewpoint of mother aspiring artist Caroline in 2004 in New Orleans and her daughter Lila in 2019 Atlanta. Lila is a loner with only one real friend. She is having strange feelings and seeing things. It turns out that her mom did too, the same things. Is this a book about mental health and how it is often overlooked and patronized away in women? Just take your medicine and be a good girl. But then it really gets strange, really strange. Definitely horror! The blurb on Amazon calls it "a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty." I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I'm giving it 3.5 stars for now. It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea. It is graphic and gory and creepy. But I think I liked it. It left me sitting in my chair staring into space with my mouth open. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for introducing me to this amazingly creepy horror story! This genre is not my comfort zone, but I was so intrigued in the story, that inspire of being scared, I finished reading this book!

This was an absolute page turner narrated in two different timelines, about a serial killer, this novel revolves around psychological thriller and super natural powers! I highly recommend this horror novel to everyone, that releases on Jan 18, 2022

Such a Pretty Smile is a fast paced, terror filled ride.
The story is about Caroline and her daughter Lila, who is struggling with staying a good girl while a serial killer is on the loose. A serial killer focused on young girls who refuse to be good.
This book is dark, graphic and very disturbing. And it was worth every page. I devoured this book in a day. There are multiple trigger warnings in this book but If you can get past them I highly recommend it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this excellent read.

This novel was engaging, thrilling and I could not put it down. The plot is unique and the writing is interesting. There were many ways this could have gone and the twists and reveals were unexpected and exciting. A must read for sure!

The plot of this book was a little confusing for me. Eventually I figured out it was a statement on society trying to silence women and getting us to shut up and behave. The second half of the book was better then the first. It's also told over 15 years with the POV switching between mother and daughter.

This one is a must read for horror fans. I haven’t read a book this scary in a while. The mystery of the monster is the most terrifying part and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. I don’t want to say much else because there are lots of secrets to uncover in this one 😏

Well written novel but I'm an old retired guy and not part of the target audience. Even though it's a horror novel it focuses on the relationship between a mother and her young teenage daughter.

Well, this was a creepy book! I’ve been disappointed by some recent horror genre books recently, as I feel they aren’t quite scary and/or macabre enough. But “Such a Pretty Smile” met the mark for me for sure. Loved the author’s writing. Such vivid descriptions, At times, I felt like I was actually there, seeing and even feeling what Lila was. I also enjoy different timelines and perspectives in books, which this one has as well.

This book won’t be for everyone, but if you enjoy true horror, then take a look at this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher/author for offering this book as a “read now” option!

This title has been lauded as a feministic take on a serial killer story. The setting alternates between Atlanta and New Orleans, changing narratives between mother and daughter. The Cur has been abducting preteens girls for years, mutilating their bodies, robbing their lives. In 2004, Caroline survived hell not only through strange premonitions and horrific experiences at Jazzland, but also in dealing with the men in her life. A renowned artist, Caroline doesn’t remember making the sculpture of the beast. In 2019, her daughter Lila starts having violent thoughts, just as girls are being taken again, rumors swirling of the return of The Cur. After Katrina, Jazzland was long-abandoned, but Lila is determined to find answers her mother never did there. I understood what the book was trying to accomplish in the struggle for women to continue to be silent and “good” or speak up for what’s right, but this theme fell a little short for me. At times, it was confusing to discern psychological terror from reality, which led to perhaps having unreliable narrators. But maybe that was the point? Do we believe women in the face of something that is real to them? I still very much enjoyed the book. Parts of this can call for trigger warning for gore and sexual violence.

*3.5 stars rounded up.

Fierce! A horror story wrapped in feminist issues. Little prepubescent girls are being taken and brutally murdered in an animalistic way. These are the outspoken girls, girls who don't follow the rules, who don't smile prettily, or follow the rules and remain invisible.

There are two timelines: 2019 and 2004. In 2019, 13-year-old Lila is struggling to be 'cool' enough to please her new best friend, Macey, on whom she has a major crush. But Macey wants to do some wild and crazy things that make Lila uncomfortable. Doesn't she realize there's a child murderer out there terrorizing Atlanta? One day a fierceness grows in Lila's belly which compels her to speak her mind and tell Macey just what she thinks....

Then the timeline goes back to 2004 where we meet a younger version of Caroline, Lila's mother, who is living in New Orleans where another child murderer is at work. She's a very talented artist but has had to put her college courses on hold to work and earn enough to keep her dying father in a nice hospice center. Her fiancé Daniel is also an artist who jokes about being in her shadow but is really struggling to deal with his jealousy. He becomes concerned when Caroline begins to have what he believes are auditory and visual hallucinations which involve both snarling dogs and men with fangs. As she struggles with all this, she begins to sense there are parts of her past that she has blanked out. If only her dying father was lucid enough to finally reveal a past that's been kept from her 'for her own good.'

The horror part of the story is very different, very creepy. Feminist issues are woven throughout the story as women are silenced, patronized, declared too emotional, or have their thoughts rejected, problems dismissed. Do we still try to teach our daughters how to act and behave 'properly' in the world, follow the rules, be pleasant and smiling? Shouldn't we be raising girls to be fearsome and out-spoken instead? Something to think about.

I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks for the introduction to a new voice in the literary world.

I gave this book to 47% and then just couldn’t read any more. For what I read, I’m giving it 2 📚

I am not the right person or audience for this book. It’s marketed as being in the horror genre, but I think more light horror? I have no idea as I’m not familiar with this genre as I never read these books. I was graciously gifted this e-arc from @netgalley and the publisher @stmartinspress in exchange for an honest review. This one publishes tomorrow, Jan 18!

I was initially interested after reading the synopsis. A bunch of girls go missing and then are found dead? I’ve read many thrillers just like that and love them! But apparently I can’t do them when it’s horror 😅 I just found what was happening to be very weird, not explained in the best way, and too many things that were happening were beyond crazy to me.

I think fans of horror would enjoy this book more than me. I have seen some great reviews for this book, sadly this book just isn’t for me.