“Baby Teeth” – Zoje Stage
When you have a child, you'd do anything for them. Well, at least that's what I hear. I'm not a parent, but I'd do the same for my dogs (yes, I know it's not the same thing, calm down). However, is there a limit to what you would do for your child? What if your child were trying to hurt you or, say, kill you? This is the problem Suzette faces with her daughter Hanna in Baby Teeth. Unfortunately, Suzette seems to be the only one to see Hanna for who she really is.
Seven-year-old Hanna is a very intelligent child, but there's a huge catch - she doesn't talk. At all. She lashes out, barks like a dog, and creates chaos, but when her father, Alex, is around, she's the perfect child. Which is why Alex has a hard time believing Suzette when she tells him Hanna isn't who he thinks she is, and that she needs help. Suzette believes Hanna hates her and may be trying to intentionally hurt her. That is, until Hanna talks to Suzette and claims she's Marie-Anne, a witch that had been burned at the stake, and she's not just trying to hurt Suzette…she's trying to get rid of her permanently.
As the story progresses, the questions continue to develop. Is Hanna really possessed by the spirit of a witch? Is she really out to get Suzette? Or Is Suzette just imaging everything?
This story started and ended in two totally different directions, neither of which I quite anticipated. With each chapter alternating perspectives between Hanna and Suzette, the reader is given insight into each of the two main characters, allowing for constant reanalysis of what's to come next. Part of the time I questioned whether or not Hanna was really possessed or just a very intelligent child. I would also flip-flop between feeling sorry for Suzette and thinking of how she maybe wasn't as motherly and loving as she had made herself out to be. However, the end of the story (no spoilers) confirmed and clarified a lot of my questions, which I appreciated. It left a slight hook, which is always a good way to end a story, but not enough of a hook to leave me guessing what would happen next, or give Stage a place to start a sequel (most times, stories are best left the way they are without a follow up book/movie).
The writing style Stage has is really easy to read, but the story was really hard to get into. In my opinion, it started off really slow and didn't seem to pick up until about the last third of the book. That's also when the story seemed to get widely more dramatic. The first two-thirds of the book were slow and uneventful, and then suddenly everything was chaotic. It happened so fast, and while it was entertaining, there didn't seem to be much buildup to the chaos, causing me to be thrown out of the story due to it seeming widely unrealistic.
Despite the fact that the book was a lot slower than I'd prefer, it was still mildly entertaining and provoked thoughts and reflections after I had finished. One of the things I wondered was whether or not this was the kind of thing parents went through often, or if this was so rare a situation that it was nothing for me to worry about when potentially having my own children in the future. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be for my child to not be able to vocalize their needs to me. Yes, my Golden Retrievers don't talk (I know, I know, another dog reference), but even though they're very intelligent creatures, the intelligence and imagination of a seven-year-old is far greater. I'm certain that assessing my dog's thoughts and needs is a lot easier than assessing the thoughts of a small human.
Entertainment Weekly quotes this novel is, “We Need to Talk About Kevin meets Gone Girl meets The Omen…” I don't agree that it meets the twistiness and the suspense of Gone Girl, so if that's what you're looking for, choose another book. However, I do believe it is similar to We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Omen, so if you like scary, psychotic, potentially possessed children, this is the book for you. If you're looking for another reason to potentially continue your birth control plan or forgo having kids altogether, this may also be the book for you. If you're looking for suspense, thrills, and a book that drags you in from page one, this may need to be a pass. Patience is a virtue, and you'll need it for a majority of this book.
Though Baby Teeth wasn't a favorite of mine, I still enjoyed the uniqueness and creativity that Stage had to offer, and with her good story-telling skills and writing abilities, I would very much pick up her next book in the hopes that this debut novel of hers was just the start of something fantastic.
