How to best describe this book? Ongoing trauma with supernatural elements and feminist undertones? That works. Our protagonist is learning to deal with something that happened in her childhood- what it is, she cannot exactly remember- while her daughter is also being awakened to the dangers of the world. Some elements have a supernatural element, while others are very much rooted in reality. Overall, an insightful, thrilling, fun, and horrific read.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is a horror novel that will appeal to fans of Netflix's Fear Street. The story revolves around Lila, a teenager who spends her days with Macie, her best friend who doesn't seem to really care about Lila. One day, Lila has had enough and unleashes the beast inside her, saying all of the evil things that she has thought but never said. What are the repercussions? Who is the evil man out there killing and tearing apart girls? And will Lila be his next victim?

Here is a chilling excerpt from Chapter 1:

"There was blood in the water—a dull pink bloom—the morning Lila Sawyer heard about the first missing girl. Macie had sent her a screenshot, and the picture showed a girl only slightly younger than they were—twelve, or a mature eleven—with lank, dark hair and deep-set eyes the color of pond water. Lila glanced at her phone as she balanced one slippery leg on the edge of the tub, her mother’s forbidden razor in her hand. The cut on her ankle stung as she splashed water over it.
...
Lila set the razor down and wiped her hands on the towel hanging from the rack before grabbing her phone to pull up the picture. She recognized the girl, the plain angles of her face, how she’d hidden behind a veil of hair as she hurried through the hallways of East Pritchard Middle. Invisible as Lila had been before Macie lifted her into something that resembled popularity."

Overall, Such a Pretty Smile is a horror novel that chilled me to the bone. I was reading this alone in a dark room, and I needed to stop because it was getting too scary. If I had to complain about one thing, I would say that the first half of this book was pretty slow-moving. I'm not a huge fan of slow, atmospheric horror, but others may be interested in just that. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're in the mood for a horror novel, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in January!

First thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC ebook of Such a Pretty Smile. This book was something. For a bit of it, I was unsure what I was reading and wasn’t sure where it would end up.
Lila is a struggling teenager with a pretty nonexistent father and a semi unavailable mother. While her mom tries her hardest, her own mental health can cause a bit of hardship within their relationship.
Young girls around Lila’s age are being abducted and murdered, and they are being found with the same injuries as girls that were abducted and murdered when Lila’s mother was a teenager.
Even though I spent the first half of the book confused, I pressed on and was impressed with the second half, including the ending. The writing was phenomenal, and I look forward to more books by this author.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is a horror/mystery-thriller novel that takes places over two timelines.  You get the perspective of a mother and her daughter as they deal with some pretty gruesome events.  It is set to be published on January 18th, 2022.  I rated it five stars on GoodReads.


Here's the summary from GoodReads:

A biting novel from an electrifying new voice, Such a Pretty Smile is a heart-stopping tour-de-force about powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them.
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 trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.
2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.
2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.
As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is 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.

This book was completely unexpected for me.  The summary, as you can see, is pretty thorough and so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the book was going to be about.  And the book was about that, but there was so much more in this book that completely caught me off guard.  

I found both of our main characters really interesting and compelling in different ways. 

It was really interesting to read about Lila at thirteen and how she struggled with school and friendships and all those things that are so complicated at thirteen.  Her story was absolutely heartbreaking and really well developed.

I also really enjoyed reading about Caroline and what happened to her when she was younger.  It was interesting reading about her relationship with Lila's father and how wrong it was for her.  I kept getting so mad at Lila's father as a character because he just wasn't supportive and it was hard to read.

The story was gritty and real, though it definitely had these fantastical elements.  I found myself compelled to keep turning pages because I just really wanted to know what was going on with the cur and how it was possible for a serial killer to keep coming back.  I definitely enjoyed the way it played out, and though I was heartbroken for the characters, it was definitely the ending that made the most sense.

If you are at all intrigued by the premise of the book, I really suggest that you check it out.

This was a really unusual book. Poorly behaved young women, unnatural beasts, well-behaved young women and fear. At the heart of the terror, lies a dilapidated old theme park: Jazzland. I have never read anything like this before. A very interesting read!

Such a Pretty Smile is a beautifully written horror story. On one level, it tells the story of a suspected serial killer known only as The Cur; however, this book is so much more than a simple tale about a killer. It is also the complicated story of a mother daughter relationship and a female coming of age tale. It is a book that had some genuinely creepy scenes and was also thought provoking. Such a Pretty Smile might be my favorite book of the year.

A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly compulsive read with a twist that blew my mind! I thought I knew where this was going but then I was thrown a curveball.

This was a wild ride that took me to places I didn't know I wanted to go. The palpable rage of growing uo as a girl and the crushing weight of being silenced was enough to cement this book as a favorite but the ending elevated it into a modern horror classic.

Commentary on the patriarchy and feminism, all wrapped up in an entertaining, compulsive horror novel. I read this novel in less than 24 hours - could not stop reading, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and the WHY of what was happening. "Be good, be quiet and nice." How many times have girls heard these phrases in their lifetime? What if that attitude is NOT what kept you safe? What if that behavior made you a target? What if those choices were going to haunt you forever?

"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 trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.

2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.

2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.

As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is 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."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a struggle for me. I recognize that the author is very talented. Her descriptions in particular were breathtaking. But it failed to catch my interest, and it was unusual for me to feel that reading is a chore.

Well, what to say about this novel. It's a tour de force of a psychological thriller mash up with a bit horror, intertwined with themes of sexism and feminism. Told in a non linear style between alternating point of views, neither protagonist being a reliable narrator, keeps the reader interested and on pins and needles trying to navigate the twisty story. Kristi DeMeester tells a well written story that is mysterious, creepy, bordering gory but also delivers a solid throat punch to the patriarchy. This book is razor sharp and cuts to the bone.

Thank you so much to the author, Kristi DeMeester, the publishing company, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an Early read for my honest review.

What did I just read? What type of horror did I just get myself into? If you are of the faint of heart, I would not recommend starting this one at night.

There is 2 different plots going on in the book, and it's hard to read and truly understand exactly what's going on and with what/whom, but in the end, the book was good and scary.

If you are into horror and thrillers, this is the one for you.

3.5 stars
overall, i enjoyed this! the creepy elements are deeefinitely creepy and i really enjoyed what the author was trying to say. i do think i would have enjoyed this more and it would have almost been more effective if it was a novella - while i loved the scary parts the parts in between ended up being really slow for me. i also really did not like the ending - we basically get 2 long monologues explaining everything that happened which is one of my least favorite things. i wish we just got to slowly find out things along the way.

After I finished this book I had to sit and think about it for a bit. First of, the writing is amazing. This is the first Kristi DeMeester book I've read and she's definitely on my radar now. And the story line was an interesting one but at times I just didn't seem to understand what I was going on. I think it took too long to explain what was actually happening. And when it did, it seemed too rushed. I was afraid I had missed something. The writing is what kept me most interested and the suspense of knowing the conclusion, although it was the ending that was a let down.

Horror lovers beware, you're in for a scare! Gorey and graphic, but beautifully written. This is the novel I wish I had on Halloween's eve.

I would label this as a dark coming of age story teen thriller. You won't regret picking this one up if you love horror and mind games.

Normally a book like this is right up my alley. I most couldn’t get into this book. It began on a promising note, but my interest quickly faded. I couldn’t bring myself to invest in the characters. It’s a miss for me.

I really enjoyed the creepy atmosphere of this book but I found that it took too long to explain what was actually happening. I like how the story was told from the dual perspectives of mother and daughter. I feel disappointed after reading this book.

The prose in this novel is excellent and compelling, with the appropriate amount of suspense to keep you guessing and turning pages. I also loved the mother/daughter relationship at the heart of the story. However, the plot resolution is extremely rushed and confusing and the character arcs aren't believable.

I was addicted to reading this book. I was utterly captivated by the depth given to the characters, the rich history, the complex relationships...but the ending was a massive disappointment.

I was not impressed with this book at all unfortunately. I was excited to read it, and I did get the entire way through it, but it was a struggle. Just too out there for me.