This was such an odd read and story. I struggled with my final thoughts as I honestly didn’t know what to rate it. I love when a thriller has dual timelines and multiple POVs, that’s why I enjoyed this story to a certain degree. It was also super eerie and descriptive. However, the overall story was a bit confusing and read YA at times. It also felt like something was missing from the story. I still enjoyed it for the most part!

Another spooky novel, quirky characters and more fast paced. The premise is intriguing and worth it if you're in the mood for a spooky read.

TW: Murder, gory scenes, rape, torture, alcoholism, homophobia, gaslighting, toxic parent relationship, loss of parent,

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: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.
Release Date: 01.18. 2022
Genre: Horror
Pages: 320
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
• The story sounded creepy
• The characters feel like real people for a horror novel

What I Didn't Like:
• The back and force timeline
• I hate Daniel *gross*
• The ending isn't good

Overall Thoughts: I found this book very creepy. Carolina hearing the voices of the dogs just gave me goosebumps. I liked the story and the characters. I found the writing flowed and I was interested to find out the details of what was happening.

I did not like the cross timeline, but honestly I'm so over EVERY book having this.

Daniel was just a jerk. He made me so mad. Always telling her what to do and if this pill was okay and this one wasn't. Of course nothing happened to him. He gets off free with having a new wife and baby.

Final Thoughts: The ending just felt so rushed to me. Like for so long in the book it just goes on and on with things happening and then boom.... The therapist is the killer killing for a society of child murderers. I guess that's where we went with this book. Weird. Also seriously it didn't feel the ending tied up really anything.

This is not horror. This reads more like a thriller to me.

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is an electrifying, disturbing and exciting psychological thriller that kept me hooked from start to finish. It's a fast read, but it's one of those reads where you're always unsure of where the story is going to go and what is going to happen next. My favorite thing about this book was the fact that we had two unreliable narrators, Caroline Sawyer and her 13 year old daughter, Lila. I always feel apprehensive when this literary tool is utilized, especially with characters who clearly have mental health issues, but I thought that DeMeester approached this well and really gets the reader inside Caroline and Lila's heads without committing the sin of gaslighting people with mental illnesses by villainizing them. There's also a fiercely feminist fury in this book that you can't help but feel as you read the men in Caroline and Lila's lives dissmissing and silencing them, telling them how they should feel and behave. It downright ticked me off, as every woman probably has a similar experience, and that is the point. SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is a scathing rebuke of the ways society approaches mental health in women, and the various ways that are used to keep women in their place. This book's pacing is perfect, its mystery is horrifying and it was everything I love in a great thriller. The only reason this is a 4 star read as opposed to 5 stars was that I was left SO confused about the ending. It seemed to me that something paranormal was afoot in the ending and the true culprit of who The Cur was, but I haven't seen any indications of that in other reviews. So I am confused about the ending. If someone wanted to explain that to me, I'd appreciate it.

This was a very dark book about women and power. It deals with putting women down to keep them in line, and what happens to girls who don’t fit the plan of how women are “supposed” to be. There’s also more nefarious things afoot! It’s extremely dark in tone and rather disturbing, and I kept trying to figure out what’s real and what’s not. It’s very fast paced though, and I absolutely needed to keep reading.

The book switches perspectives between Lila and her mom, as well as timelines between 2019 (present) and 2004 (past). This worked pretty well to dangle threads of what happened to Caroline in the past and how it affects Lila in the present. The book switches between these at times to keep up suspense, and I actually liked both timelines a lot because it really kept me guessing. There are murders starting up in the present day where young girls are being abducted and brutally killed (where they look like they’ve been mauled by a wild animal). The question here is is it the same killer as years ago when Caroline was younger? I really enjoyed this mystery and thought it increased the suspense of the book. I liked the general setting here as well - it takes place near Atlanta and in New Orleans. I really liked the idea of Jazzland (a theme park) and how it changes over the years.

Lila is a teenager, and she’s just trying to make it through school without being bullied or ostracized from her peers. She has a crush on her best friend Macie but can’t act on it. Lila is torn between wanting to rebel and be her own person and following along with what her mom wants her to do. I felt like the book accurately captures this time period as a teenager and what it would be like to have a popular girl take interest in a teenage girl as a special project. Lila tries to do anything she can to keep Macie happy so that Lila can remain popular as well. She’s mostly a good girl, but over the book, she starts to go down a darker path. It was really interesting to see these changes and similarities to her mom’s experience.

I also liked Caroline - she’s a sculptor, and I really liked the idea of these bizarre creations she makes. She’s in New Orleans with her fiancé trying to take care of her sick dad and have enough money to do so. She’s really struggling to make ends meet and also struggling with things she’s seeing that no one believes. She starts to unravel her past and figure out what’s going on. I really liked uncovering these mysteries! We do have to deal with men not believing or not supporting our characters and being jealous of their success. This can be hard to read about sometimes with gaslighting and mansplaining.

Overall, this was a very gripping book. I’d describe it as almost being stressful to read (but in a good way). I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a dark horror/thriller! There are some content warnings for things like murders and sexual assault.

My video review can be seen on my booktube channel (around minutes 18:30-21:43 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMXeOmpPEpc

This book starts out a thriller but quickly evolves into a horror.

The edge of your seat scares will have you gripping your blanket and leaving a light on at night. Hearing creaks and bumps from your house settling will definitely set you on edge as you read.

A beautifully written story with lyrical prose I think even those who don’t like horror books will enjoy this one if they can get through the terror that is.

"It's what men have always been doing to women, isn't it? Shutting us up anytime we say or do anything that doesn't fit into the nice little box they want us in."

This is gloriously animalistic with a flair for the inner strength of women. DeMeester captures so much in this novel that it's almost difficult to touch on each aspect. Mental illness, sexual identity, rape, female power, monsters, motherhood, coming of age... Seriously, there is so much!

The plot is a slow buildup that had me juggling so many possible outcomes. I jumped between different psychological disorders, possession and even debated werwolves at one point. When I say it's even better than that... it so was. The final few chapters really opened the narrative wide and allowed for the whole story to come together.

Some readers may think thats too long for a novel to suck you in. Typically I tend to agree. However, DeMeester structures the fluctuation between past and present timelines and the alternating POVs in such a way that you become fully involved in the struggles of each character. As creepy little nuggets of plot unfold before your eyes, the bigger picture is hard to look away from. I cannot deny that I was completely engrossed.

There are times I felt some of the descriptive writing flowed longer than needed or inner thought monologues dragged a bit. It also took me longer to read this one than I expected, but by the end I found myself a total new favorite.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read and review such a thought provoking and atmospheric novel. True rating 4.5/5.

This is a slow burn in all the best ways. Generally, I’m not a big fan of two POVs, but it really works here. It’s creepy, it’s dread-inducing, and is largely symbolic of women’s experiences with gaslighting, mental health and our place in a patriarchal society in addition to some pretty scary situations. As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to go back in time and erase my own memory so I could experience it all for the first time . . . again. I read this free via NetGalley, but I’d be happy to buy this for myself or my horror-loving friends. Maybe my favorite creepy book since Here There Are Monsters in YA or Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires in Adult.

WOW! What a wild ride with strong female characters! I loved every second of reading this book and I devoured it in 1 day! I will be sleeping with the lights on tonight. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Listen. I tried my freaking hardest to finish this book, but when you're 250 pages in and still waiting for the story to get interesting, that starts to become a bit too much for me. I was bored, bored, bored. What even was this book?

I loved reading this book! I found the writing to be very insightful and interesting. I was intrigued by the premise and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

Intense. Somewhere between psychological thriller and horror, I couldn’t put it down and it kept me thinking after I finished.

Such a Pretty Smile ~ Kristi DeMeeter
An unsettling book about the fierceness of woman. With a diabolic force that presents itself in the shadows. Leaving your mind to create the true picture of evil.
Something known as The Cur is killing young girls, troublemakers. leaving torn bodies in its wake. It's happened before... and it's happening again. Told in duel timelines of mother and daughter.. A haunted evil that terrorized Caroline Sawyer as a child is now seemingly after her daughter.
It was a slow burn to start but pulse pounding as the story unfolded.
Filled with snarling barking dogs and shadowy phantoms lurking. This supernatural thriller will keep you on the edge.

Wow, what a story! Completely original and unlike anything I have read before. At times this story gave me complete goosebumps and even an occasional nightmare or two. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the story kept changing and morphing into something new and completely unexpected.

I was expecting something a bit different from this book. It just had too much going on between the alternating points of view and timelines, complicated mother-daughter relationship, serial killer going after young women, and unexplained, paranormal-like activities involving dogs. The story is very dark and raw on multiple levels. Unfortunately, I made it about halfway and just could not finish it.

Kristi DeMeester weaves a horrific story of Lila Sawyer and her mother Caroline. Throughout the novel, the ladies must face their own demons as well as some literal ones as a serial killer runs amok through their town abducting and slaying young girls. However, Such a Pretty Smile is more than just a simple thrilling tale. It also explores deeper themes of how society treats women and the aftereffects of that. The writing keeps the story moving quickly and smoothly as the POV switches from Lila to Caroline. This page turner will keep you guessing and intrigued until the end! I highly recommend this interesting and fast paced thriller that I received as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an OK read for me, the pacing was too slow but I like the idea of there being this supernatural monster that lurks in plain sight. The dual pov worked but the story could have done without the dual timelines, maybe if Caroline's relationship with her husband and her past before Lilla was born could have been done in flashback. The way it ended feels like there's a possibility for a second book.

I first attempted to read this through ebook, which I received for free via netgalley (thank you!)

However, at the time I could not get into it and my eyes kind of glazed over when I got to Caroline's chapters. So I ended up putting it down. It could have also just been the wrong time for me.

At this time, I am eating up all the horror books I can get my hands on, and this one popped up again, available through audiobook via my library. So I gave it a second shot, and I'm glad I did.

Overall, I love dark books, that explore dark themes and I actually started to like Caroline's chapters. In the end it didn't get five stars for me because the story got lost in the "f the patriarchy" message (which I love in it's own right), but I was just left feeling a bit unsatisfied with the actual story ending.

This book is a wonder! Unreliable narration at its best. At first you might think the story is about missing girls, mutilated bodies and a possible serial killer. But the story is much more than that. Its dark, visceral and femininely honest.

A paranoid mother, a daughter who wants to step out of the boundary and a horrible past that is waiting to burst and disrupt their present. As the story progresses you’ll know it, when the timelines collide it gets ugly, and brutal. I have a feeling that this story isn’t for everyone, but if you are looking for a thriller with strong feminist vibes, I highly suggest you read this!

Thank you St.Martin’s Press via Netgalley for the reader’s copy.