Sshh, lilla gumman…Daddy’s squirrely girl…”He cooed so softly Suzette couldn’t hear everything he said. But Hanna quieted. She looked so tiny in his arms, a rag doll.

a b "2012 Project Forum Slate". IFP. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01 . Retrieved 2020-09-23.I love the evil child trope. I live for this kind of thriller in a book and the movie. My all-time favorite movie is Orphan. So I felt that I would love this book. She stuffed a grape in her mouth, a strawberry, a cheese cube, another cheese cube, another grape. And made a show at chewing, chewing.”

Zoje Stage is fearless. This book will surely be controversial and will likely be the subject of many heated debates among book clubs everywhere. I happened to love this book, but I recognize that this book isn’t for everyone. However, that’s why books are so special. A thousand people can read one book and have several different opinions and perspectives. I can’t imagine what Stage will turn out next, but, what I do know is, I will be the first in line! I received this book for free from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It will be available on July 17, 2018! There may be any number of reasons as to why BABY TEETH is not the book for you, but there is absolutely no gratuitous child abuse in my novel.There's not enough room in the house for both Hanna and her Mommy! Seven-year-old Hanna would be so much happier if Mommy would just disappear so that she and her Daddy could live happily ever after. Through Hanna and Suzette's (Mommy) eyes, we see their daily battles to maintain control in an unpredictable, ever-changing world and what it's like to maneuver through life when no one will hear you. The people in this story are permanently tied together by blood, but have toxic effects on each other. ( Warning: After the ARC disclaimer, I get a little spoilery talking about a part of the book that came up in my comment section, though I don't really consider it a true spoiler. The content may be upsetting for some.) This is going to be a controversial book due to the subject matter. Can children be so evil? How far should parents go in defending their child? It definitely isn’t for everyone. There's a constant battle of wills between Suzette and Hanna, but they actually have a lot in common. In some ways, Suzette and Hanna's relationship seems like a continuation of Suzette's fraught relationship with her own mother. Suzette's mother was completely unmindful of the psychological and physical damage she was inflicting on Suzette. Like Hanna, Suzette was constantly disappointed by her mother and she wanted her mother to prove herself worthy of her love. Even when she was pushing her mother away, it was important to her that her mother make an effort to reach out: "It was a child’s selfish desire, but mothers were meant to be selfless."

I’ve seen Baby Teeth listed as a thriller; it wasn’t that at all, but it COULD have been. It probably would have been a much more enjoyable read—cringe-worthy moments in the plot and all—if it had been written from Suzette’s POV only. Then we could have seen her mounting terror and desperation and feel it in a more pure form—the way that she did. But Stage decided to try her hand at writing in a child’s voice via Hanna's chapters and it Did. Not. Work. Honestly, a terrible idea given the level of skill she displayed in this novel. Not only did it take away from the suspense to know exactly what Hanna was going to do next from her POV, but the clunky and inauthentic way in which Stage wrote Hanna made reading her chapters a real chore. Of course, I understand that Stage was attempting to speak simplistically, as a child might, but it didn’t sound anything like a seven-year-old’s way of speech and mannerisms in the slightest. Her editor would have done better to tell her to hold off on that.It is unnerving in the reality of it. This could happen and probably does. I know there are parents out there who are afraid of their children. For Milla, it’s a headlong rush into first love. Like her character, Scanlen makes every moment count – a single loaded look, which sweeps between her parents and Moses, contains a symphony of emotions, starting with adolescent defiance and ending with an ache of uncertainty and longing.