Baby Teeth

April 1, 2018

In this deliciously creepy thriller, seven-year-old Hanna silently connives to kill her mother so she can have dear daddy all to herself. Stay-at-home mom Suzette longed for a little girl she could connect with and dote on. Instead, almost from birth, Hanna is emotionally detached and silent. After ruling out cognitive disabilities, autism, and a hearing disability, Suzette and Alex come to accept Hanna's silence as a quirk she'll one day outgrow. But while Hanna is all smiles and hugs when Alex comes home, during the daytime, it's a battle of wills between mother and daughter. Alex fails to see or acknowledge Hanna's vindictive, destructive, and increasingly violent behavior. Experiencing a mix of guilt, anger, and anxiety about her parenting, Suzette also struggles with the daily pain and unpredictability of Crohn's disease, which is described with visceral authenticity. The author keeps the suspense taut by alternating chapters between Hanna and Suzette, offering a terrifying glimpse into the inner thoughts of a budding sociopath. VERDICT This twisty first novel has been aptly compared to The Omen and Lionel Shiver's We Need To Talk About Kevin, which is especially apparent in Stage's exploration of the dark side of modern motherhood. A first purchase where suspenseful and offbeat psychological thrillers circulate well.--Kiera Parrott, LJS

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Starred review from April 16, 2018
Stage’s deviously fun debut takes child-rearing anxiety to demented new heights. Frustrated and fragile stay-at-home mom Suzette and seven-year-old Hanna alternately narrate a cascade of crises stemming from Hanna’s near-total refusal to speak, her mistrust of her mom and adoration of her dad, and the parents’ frantic attempts to find a solution to Hanna’s increasingly dangerous tantrums. From Hanna’s perspective, Suzette is the only thing standing in the way of the complete devotion of her father, Alex, and she plots ways to “step up her game against Mommy.” For Suzette, her love-starved relationship with a distant mother and chronic Crohn’s haunt every attempt to bond with a little girl who barks like a “feral animal” and only speaks as a 17th-century girl named Marie-Anne Dufosset, who was burned at the stake for suspected witchcraft. For the besieged Suzette, there’s also a troubling ambivalence about whether she wants to save or kill her disturbed child. Stage expertly crafts this creepy, can’t-put-it-down thriller into a fearless exploration of parenting and marriage that finds the cracks in unconditional love. 100,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Sarah Bedginfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
A mute, diabolical 7-year-old wages war against her mother in this chilling debut.Hanna Jensen has never spoken aloud in front of another human being. Her parents, Alex and Suzette, have subjected her to scores of tests, fearing a physical disability, but in truth, Hanna simply finds words to be an ugly means of expression and chooses not to use them. Hanna also knows that her silence anguishes her mother, which is an added bonus; although Hanna adores her father, who believes she can do no wrong, she despises Suzette and torments her at every turn. Hanna has been expelled from three preschools and two kindergartens for bad behavior, forcing Suzette to home-school her--an arrangement that further strains their fraught relationship. The constant stress is wreaking havoc on Suzette's health, so she redoubles her efforts to locate a school that will accept her troubled child. But as Suzette dreams of child-free days, Hanna is making plans of her own. This tightly plotted, expertly choreographed tale unfolds in alternating chapters from the perspectives of Hanna and Suzette. Author Stage palpably conveys Suzette's fear, anger, frustration, and desperation while exploring the deleterious effects that motherhood can have on one's marriage and self-worth. Hanna's chapters are calm and upbeat by comparison, but they offer no respite from the book's mounting tension; naïve observations and whimsical fantasies share the page with twisted musings and nefarious schemes, the jarring juxtaposition only compounding the reader's sense of unease.Stage fuses horror with domestic suspense to paint an unflinching portrait of childhood psychopathy and maternal regret.

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