Baby Teeth: A Novel

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Okay okay okay... Let me ask you this. Do you have kids? Has your child ever freaked out in a restaurant or in a store? If you don’t have kids I bet you’ve thought “lady, get this kid out of here!” And I do! Because 👏🏼 mama 👏🏼 don’t 👏🏼 play 👏🏼! Now, a little tantrum every now and then is normal (believe me, my 5 year old still speaks whinese 🙄) BUT in Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage you get way more than a little tantrum!! Like, dayuum!!

As I said earlier, this book won’t be for everyone. I do wonder if it would fit more into the horror genre. I found it diabolical and creepy and I’m really glad I read it. “Baby Teeth” is definitely a book I won’t soon forget. I’m very curious to see what Zoje Stage is going to come up with next. anyway. i'd recommend reading this for the vibes and for the gay emotions. it's short and sweet and sad. Suzette loves her husband more than anything in this world. They have a daughter, Hanna, who she desperately wants to love too. But she just can’t get there. No connection or bond whatsoever. No, this isn’t just your typical riff between a parent and a teenager. Hanna is only seven. So who’s to blame for this total disconnect? Sweet little Hanna, or emotionally exhausted Suzette?but really, this is all about a tiny monster, the people who love her, and why they totally should not.

So I’m going to take the easy way out and neither recommend this book or not recommend this book.... I’m going to leave it up to you, because this book evoked some pretty seriously strong reactions in people.... so if you choose to read it, read it knowing there is some disturbing content and it is 100% not for everybody.... One of my pet peeves in fiction is when entire plot lines hinge on implausible circumstances. I heaved this book into that metaphorical pile pretty early on and it will remain there forever. Baby Teeth was kin to those horror movies where the pretty blonde girl is running through the night in her heels and instead of running outside of the house for safety, she runs upstairs to the collective annoyance of the audience. Like, the plot didn’t make ANY sense! Why, you may ask? Because the entire narrative would have been different if one of two SIMPLE things had happened: If Suzette had had the common sense to a) video record her daughter’s bad behavior to show her husband as proof or b) if she’d actually tried her hand at disciplining her. *side eye glance inserted here*. That’s why I say I must be too much of a Southerner for this book, because I don’t know anyone, of any color or creed, who would let their kid get away with the things little Hanna got away with – and then crawl and grovel on their knees for this child’s forgiveness after THEY, the PARENT, have been assaulted. Seriously, implausible. And, so weak-willed that I started to really despise Suzette's spinelessness. Spine. Less. The supernatural elements are minor, with Stage introducing witches and hints of Walpurgis Night into the mix, but still these are intended to keep the reader wondering what is truly going on with Hanna. On the way home, Hanna saw that her mother seemed too happy, so she put the next stage of her plan into action. She had taken a photo of Suzette while she slept that morning, and she glued it into the center of a collage of photos of dead bodies that she had found on the internet and printed. When Suzette came in and saw it, she was horrified and shook Hanna, saying she would tell Alex. However, when Alex came home, Hanna had twisted her own arm so that bruises appeared, and when he saw them, he was furious with Suzette. They had a tense dinner, and Hanna decided that she could make Alex dislike Suzette even more if she made her ugly.This book is about Hannah a seven-year-old who has some pretty major issues.... one of them being the fact that she wants to get rid of her mother.... for good....Suzette is an exhausted mother at the end of her rope, what has she done to deserve this child? As a mother I would love to believe that I would do all the right things in this situation, but next to Hana my children are absolute perfection (just don’t tell them that)..... I felt the author did a good job in the portrayal of the parents the overly stressed out mother and the oblivious father.... and the tension this would put on a relationship when Dad chooses to pretend that daughter is perfectly normal and mom wants to pull her hair out.... It was such a long, boring, drawn-out ending that didn’t satisfy me in any way, shape, or form. I’m talking zero climax, no excitement, no fun race to the end, nothing. Just more dialogue and more recapping of what I’ve read at least twice already. Imagine having someone who you expect will love you, not love you. And not only do they not love you? They LOATHE you. These are the questions that Suzette faces day in and day out. Her daughter is not her bouncy, red-cheeked little baby anymore. Her daughter, Hanna, is now a monster, a devil.

This is not a fun read. It’s gripping, but it’s really hard for me to imagine a child who hates her mother so much. I’ve read stories of kids who are physically and emotionally abused by a parent, and still the kid professes love for his or her parent. So to have a child so young purposely trying to do anything she can to destroy a non-abusive mother is extremely foreign to me. There is something missing with this book, there is nothing there to hold your interest. I feel like Hanna should have been written with more of a horror bent, at least it would have spiced up the plot a bit. I spent the first half of the book wishing I could chalk it up as mindless entertainment, but it's missing the entertainment part. I found myself skimming out of boredom. No plot twist. No thriller. I didn’t feel tension or suspense. Dull as dishwater. Scanlen plays Milla, a 16-year-old girl from a wealthy family who falls in love with a drug-addict named Moses shortly before she has a cancer recurrence. 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.) Even without finishing this book - I can already see the author isn’t accomplishing any attempts to portray what might lead a child to kill —- such as Lionel Shriver did in “We Need To Talk About Kevin”. It’s bumblegum chewing for the sake of chewing mindlessly. I’m not a fan— but many readers probably will be:So, maybe I should get to the review. Sweet little Hanna is 7 years old and is silent. She loves her daddy, Alex, so much. Mommy, Suzette, is awful and she needs to go. Hanna wants daddy’s attention all to herself. This is told in alternating POV between Hanna and Suzette. This book has the most lyrical writing and the flow is absolutely perfect; I felt it reflected Immy’s emotions and thoughts so well. Groves, Don (5 September 2019). "Shannon Murphy's 'Babyteeth' wows the critics in Venice". InsideFilm . Retrieved 5 September 2019.