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Published Jul 2018
320 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Sweetness can be deceptive. In the tradition of The Dinner and We Need To Talk About Kevin comes a "bad seed" debut about a mom desperate to find help for her mute young daughter, whose disturbing behavior grows increasingly dangerous.
Suzette is a devoted stay-at-home mother doing everything she can to connect with her seven-year-old daughter, who cannot - or will not - speak. But ever since Hanna was a baby, Suzette couldn't help but feel despised by her. Manipulated. And scared to death.
Alex, Hanna's father, wants to believe his wife's accounts of Hanna's cruel and unusual behavior. The only problem is that Alex has never really seen it, himself: Hanna shows him nothing but love. Which is driving Suzette literally crazy. Could it be that Hanna is just a typical, naughty girl - one whose everyday antics toward her mother point to intelligence, creativity, maybe even charm? Or is Hanna, as Suzette fears, actually trying to kill her?
A powerhouse, razor-sharp novel of psychological suspense from blazing new talent Zoje Stage, Baby Teeth raises more questions than it answers - and will leave you guessing until its shocking conclusion.
"Starred Review. 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." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. A first purchase where suspenseful and offbeat psychological thrillers circulate." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. Stage fuses horror with domestic suspense to paint an unflinching portrait of childhood psychopathy and maternal regret." - Kirkus
"Zoje Stage's Baby Teeth is cunning, sharp, and nasty, and wickedly funny until it isn't funny anymore. This intelligent, unrelenting, layered shocker can stand proudly alongside classics like The Other and The Butcher Boy, with their 'evil' children uncannily reflecting our own sins." - Paul Tremblay, nationally bestselling author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World
"Every time we read the premise of Baby Teeth, all the hair on the back of our neck stands up. Simply put, it's about a sweet little girl who wants to kill her mother. And it. Is. Bonkers. Do you have goosebumps yet?" - HelloGiggles
"Imagine We Need To Talk About Kevin only with insight into what Kevin was thinking - and if Eva had fought back....You'll be desperate to discuss the ending once you've recovered from the shock of it. A must-read." - Catherine Ryan Howard, USA Today bestselling author of Distress Signals
"Baby Teeth is electrifyingly creepy. It calls to mind the great monster children of The Fifth Child or We Need to Talk About Kevin, but has a devilish tension all its own. Twisted, playful, and deeply unsettling, Zoje Stage's debut announces her as a new voice worth celebrating." - Colin Winnette, author of The Job of the Wasp
"Baby Teeth is deeply unsettling in the best possible way. Absolutely unforgettable and unflinching, it digs right into the painful nerve of family, obligation and dependence—it's a hell of a debut." - Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself
This information about Baby Teeth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Zoje Stage is a writer and former filmmaker. She was a 2008 Fellow in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation of the Arts and a 2012 Emerging Storytellers Fellow from the Independent Filmmaker Project. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Baby Teeth is her first novel.
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