Extremely dark and horrifying tale of girls who disappear, only to be found murdered later. The girls who go missing all have one thing in common, they are strong and opinionated. When 13 year old Lila starts having visions and exhibits strange violent behavior her mother knows she needs help, especially since she herself has fought with the same problem over the years. Creepy, graphic, and down right scary.

The story was interesting and there were some great scary, tense moments, but some of the graphic sex and violence made me a bit uncomfortable.

“Smile and the Whole World Smiles With You.” *

Not in this book.

Because a serial killer is on the loose. Or something...

A freakish and edgy entry to the psychological thriller genre, this eccentric novel bends to the supernatural and horror spheres. Definitely unnerving which had me hyper alert while wondering where it was headed. Keep your anti-anxiety remedies close at hand.

Two unstable narrators were the height of unreliable territory without me having to suffer the blundering decisions sometimes associated with this sub-group. Thank you to the author for creating questioning believability without sacrificing a character’s intelligence.

This is how to write a story!

Heads up for graphic imagery and alternative subject matter which may prevent this from being everyone’s cup of tea. While it’s difficult to determine boundary levels because my tolerances may be different from yours, be prepared for descriptions of savage hallucinations and same gender attraction.

That being said, I’m always happy to discover a distinctive approach and thought this was a sophisticated hybrid addition to the thriller game. It’ll be on my favorites list for the year.

As a NetGalley “Wish Granted”, I was ecstatic about receiving my second wish. I’d like to thank St. Martins Press and author Kristi DeMeester for my advanced electronic copy. Set to publish on January 18,2022.

*From the song ‘When You’re Smiling’

Not all books are for everyone and that's ok. And this one just wasn't for me.

"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."

It's also told during the years 2004 and 2019 in the perspective of Caroline Sawyer and her teenage daughter Lila.

Technically, this was a good book--I really like the author's writing style. But it's billed as a feminist book, which I knew I wouldn't care for. I tried to put that aside because the premise sounded interesting, but to be frank, 50% of the way in, it was fairly boring. Caroline is a neat character study, but I really didn't like Lila's chapters. Hers reads too YA for me and the repulsiveness of the crimes against young teen girls and Lila's repugnant behavior, especially towards not only her best friend, but someone she's supposedly in love with, left me a little cold. At this point I wasn't' sure what the message was supposed to be: teenage lesbians are just as awful to women and girls as men? But I read on (skimmed is more like it) hoping that I would find a better explanation or some redemption. It wraps up ok, but by then I was just glad to be done with it.

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press for inviting me to read this in exchange for a review.

I was so excited to read this. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher did giving me the chance. Once I started it, I thought I would enjoy it, but it fell flat for me. I just couldn’t force myself to keep reading after the first few chapters. I wished I could have enjoyed it more, and I tried to., but I couldn’t finish.

I picked up Such a Pretty Smile because I read it was a feminist horror. As a feminist and a lover of horror, I thought this would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, I'm giving this book 3 stars because it just wasn't my cup of tea. By no means was it bad, it just wasn't exceptional in my opinion. The writing was clear and only left me confused at one point. However, the descriptions of most visual aspects of the story felt very vague and didn't keep me engaged because I couldn't imagine what our characters were seeing. This is coming from someone who adores vivid and lyrical descriptions, though, so my expectations are biased, What were supposed to be feminist threads weaving through the story also felt very surface-level. A healthy dose of suspension of disbelief is required to understand our supernatural antagonist in a world like our own, and I'm personally not drawn to supernatural stories. Another reason I think this novel wasn't for me because it was very character-focused. I could easily tell you personality traits of our leads, Lila and Caroline, but I struggle to describe what was happening to them. I found the ending to be emotional, but unsatisfying. I would love to see this story adapted to visual medium like a show or movie, to cancel out my inability to visualize the story myself. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a female-led, character-driven supernatural thriller, but not my typical horror customer.

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester, is a novel about being female in a man's world. Caroline has a fiancé who is jealous and threatened by her artistic talent. Her shrink is patronizing and uncaring. As she tries to raise her teenage daughter alone, her sanity is jeopardized by the return of a serial killer who kidnaps young girls.

I was enjoying this book, in the beginning. The main characters, Caroline and her daughter Lila were interesting and complex.

I felt it touched on mental illness in a compassionate, understanding way. And then, in the end, it ruined everything by claiming, in a very rushed, deus ex machina way, “oh this was never about mental illness, it’s always been something supernatural that we are shoving in here with little explanation and look it’s all tied up with a bow, the end.”

If you don’t think that will bother you, then this is highly recommended. Otherwise, skip it!

⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This review and more available at cometgrrl.com.

Lila and her mom Caroline both have a secret, the same secret, which neither know other other has. Caroline secret is known as The Cur. Lila just thinks she is having a mental breakdown.
Caroline has kept Lila under strict rules about being well behaved, she won't let her out of her sight. One night Lila finds her way to an old amusement park that she has heard her mother mention. Once her mother finds out Lila is gone she knows where to go to find her. What happens will shock you. Thanks netgalley for a great read

I liked this book so much that by the time I got to the end of it, I was concerned that the end wouldn't live up to the journey to get there... and unfortunately for me, I was right. There's so much interesting depth here-- pubescence as "monster," the idea of genes being passed between generations and the resistance to becoming our parent, the stigma against anger among girls. I'll definitely read DeMeester's next, but I was a little underwhelmed, ultimately.

This was a book I was so excited about but in the end, it just didn't do it for me. I felt like I had to force myself to keep reading and see how it ended but even then I was disappointed. This book had potential but it just seemed to fall flat.

Kristi DeMeester's 'Such a Pretty Smile" is a well-written, intense horror novel that flip flops in perspective between a mother and her daughter, as they both struggle with being "good girls" and fitting into society's expectations of them.
While I can definitely see what those who loved the book enjoy, it wasn't a big hit for me. I felt like the main characters' communication skills and inability to stand up for themselves were their biggest problem, which led me to feel more frustrated for them than empathetic. It's a really interesting book with a lot of great elements, it just wasn't my favorite.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC. I was interested in the premise as a fan of horror and I am always intrigued by a novel that wants to tackle social issues. Horror is an excellent avenue to approach broader systems in ways that directly confront and critique them. Unfortunately, while I see what this novel was trying to do, the story felt shallow, on the nose, and did not resolve a lot of the problems I had with it in a meaningful way.

I want to begin with what I enjoyed about this story. I loved the writing style. The prose was well-written and crafted so wonderfully for a horror novel that even the mundane was given a delightfully grotesque feeling. Descriptions were made vibrant and intense with this style, such as Andrew's disgust being clear in this description, "His fingers white-knuckled and straining as he gripped the table so there was no chance he'd touch her... Like she'd stain him just by breathing the same air." The writing was consistent with this style, whether the scene was about a horrifying situation or not, and I really enjoyed that persistent atmosphere of discomfort.

However, the writing style couldn't pull up the weaker aspects for me. Firstly, I want to acknowledge that a lot of the issues I have with the story can be explained/justified by the reveal at the very end of the book but for how long it took to get to that explanation, they still left me feeling very dissatisfied and frustrated throughout my reading experience. This story relies heavily on secret-keeping and a lack of communication and these aspects drive the conflict and, personally, drive me up a wall. Both Caroline and Lila have some very intuitive inner dialogues full of their anger and grievances but most of the time, it remains inside and never gets expressed. In the few instances that either of them do express their opinions or ask questions that could probe an interesting dialogue, they are immediately dismissed or put down. They both have some very strong inner voices that could evoke some fascinating character interaction but then keep quiet about a lot of significant observations.

Which leads me to another issue I had; this novel is very preoccupied with themes of critiquing the patriarchy and the various ways that misogyny works its way into everyday life. I love this theme and so often this book made me think about The Yellow Wallpaper, especially with the ties to psychosis and medical misogyny, but the execution was too on-the-nose for me to get into it. Every single male character will frustrate and anger you in this book (except maybe Caroline's dad). Daniel frustrated me more than any other character within the novel. This was done deliberately and both Caroline and Lila are aware and very opinionated about the way that men patronize and demean them... but only in their heads. There were multiple times while reading that I was begging them to say exactly they were monologuing about in their mind but it never happened. I found myself wishing that there were more characters for them to interact with or, at the very least, I wish that they had acknowledged how isolated and silenced they were because that would have made more of an impact.

Overall, I think that's what really makes me disappointed. This book was a missed opportunity for me, I saw so many ways that it could have been more meaningful in its themes and how some subtlety would have made this scene more impactful while a conversation in that scene would have driven a more interesting conflict but it just fell flat. Leaning on a lack of communication for conflict will always kill my enjoyment though. I'm looking forward to seeing what else the author makes because the prose was lovely but unfortunately, this book was a miss for me.

This book surprisingly did not pull me in. I tried reading in numerous times and just couldn’t get into it! I am so sad because I loved the premise!
Thank you to Netgalley for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Day 20 of Frightening Fall 2021!
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Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester, ARC, coming 1/18/2022, synopsis in comments
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Such a Pretty Smile weaves between two timelines, following a mother and daughter as they are haunted and hunted by a man known only as The Cur, who kills young girls who are considered troublemakers. In 2004, Caroline is caring for her ailing father and trying to establish an art career, when suddenly she's hallucinating and hearing things and haunted by memories from her childhood that she had blocked out. In 2019, her daughter Lila is discovering things about herself and who she'll grow to be, but she's keeping secrets and they might destroy her.

This was such an intense thriller. The different timelines yet parallel stories were really interesting. I liked Caroline's story more but it was also cool to see things from Lila's perspective. The setting, especially the abandoned amusement park, were really good in matching the tone of the book. It definitely had some unsettling moments, and a couple gory ones, but they were what you'd expect from a thriller with a villain called The Cur.

I don't want to say too much since the book isn't out yet, but this book takes toxic masculinity and turns it into an actual monster and it was so well done. This book definitely made me want to fight the patriarchy and save every young girl that they try to silence for being different and too much. It was a really interesting way to approach these issues but I think it worked really well.

I fancy myself a horror fan so was quite looking forward to a creepy October read. And I thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy of Such A Pretty Smile to fill that roll.

The book is told from 2 POVS, mother and daughter, and I thought it had a solid premise. Then it got weird (which I typically enjoy) and then got graphic (which I usually don't mind) and then it got weirder and I really struggled to finish it.

I think Such A Pretty Smile will be quite divisive, you will either love it or it you will not enjoy it at all. Unfortunately, I find myself in the latter category. Just not my cup of tea. Give it a shot and see what you think!

ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.
Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this book. It was different in a psychological and supernatural aspect. It was weird but okay. The end synopsis just didn't make any sense to me really. I understand the metaphor message but I still feel like this was an odd read.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi Demeester. I finished this book over the weekend. I could not put it down! I’ll have to look into her other work!

Why did I finish reading this book? I just wanted to know if it was going to redeem itself at some point. It did not. At least not for me.
I did not read that this was a paranormal subject book, and it isn't my usual go to genre. But if I look at it with an open mind, it didn't have a consistent paranormal theme throughout. It felt like it was dipping into it a little then wham a whole bunch at the end. There wasn't enough to support the paranormal part of the story.
And hopefully they get the name thing figured out...super distracting when the characters name is switched with another several different times.
I didn't like it. But thanks to Netgalley for letting me preread a kindle version.

I think this book was trying to hit some metaphors and go deeper but I don't think I quite got it all. It also felt like the idea wasn't the motivating factor in the beginning but got thrown in towards the end. I wanted more on the background of why these things were happening and instead we just get a vague article with a little bit of information. I feel like this could have been great but unfortunately missed the mark.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be really strange and can't decide if I liked it or not. It felt like a stretch that it was touted as being about "powerful women being brought down by men" - almost like the book was written and then the author went back and tried to give it some political meaning. That just didn't land for me. That being said, it was scary at times and I love anything that takes place in an abandoned theme park.

The story goes back and forth between the POVs of 13 year old Lila in current time, and her mother Caroline,, 13-14 years ago. I liked the switching of POVs though I can't say I identified with either character that much. I am normally more of a psychological thriller reader than a horror reader, and struggled a bit with suspending my disbelief when all is revealed. I also thought that there were a few parts of the story that were just confusing. Despite that, the book was fast-paced and I liked the creepiness of the setting.

Overall, I can't say I would recommend the book but I am clearly in the minority when I read other reviews. I think I would have liked it better if it was just a horror book and wasn't trying to be anything else. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.