Hanna's such a sweet child. It's such a pity that she doesn't speak. Her father knows she's a good girl. Her mother knows better.
In this disturbing (yet wholly compelling) story, we get the alternating viewpoints of both Hanna and her mother, Suzette. Suzette loves her daughter but she's exhausted. Home-schooling Hanna because she's not able to stay in other schools for long, Suzette finds her precarious health and sanity are starting to weaken. She wants to believe Hanna's not a monster, but increasingly, it's becoming clear that something's wrong with her daughter. Complicating everything is the fact that her husband doesn't seem to believe that Hanna's anything but a sweet, misunderstood girl.
Of course, Hanna loves her father. In fact, she loves him so much that she would be happy if her mother was out of the picture. In fact, she'd be happy if Suzette was completely out of the picture, buried six feet underground.
Having the alternating viewpoints of both Suzette and Hanna is fascinating, especially since you start to wonder if Suzette is perhaps going a little mad. With her Crohn's disease already making her unwell, Suzette's strained by being home all day with Hanna, all the while feeling more day by day that Hanna's a monster. Hanna's inner dialogue is pretty sophisticated, which makes things feel even more unreal. She's quite aware of what she's doing, thank you very much, and doesn't appreciate that people think she's stupid because she doesn't talk. And she's sure that if she could just get her Mommy out of the picture, she and Daddy would be so, so happy.
This kid is chilling. Suzette's not necessarily going to win Mother of the Year award, but her unraveling is something that Hanna's been working on, bit by bit (a little like pulling a thread slowly but surely).
I feel this is definitely going to be one of those divisive reads --- either people will love it or hate it. However, no matter what, I think it's the kind of book that people won't be able to stop talking about.
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