Baby Teeth

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage   304 pages

Literature has a dark sorority of bad, creepy, and cruel girls, which now includes seven-year-old Hanna Hansen. Hanna is mute, and there is not a test known to modern medicine that can discern why. In the eyes of her father, she is a silent and sweet little angel. When he is not around, Hanna consciously makes her mother Suzette's life a living hell. They engage in a battle of wits that rivals Rosemary's Baby.

Evil child tropes make me uncomfortable, hopefully because I find the premise far fetched. I was not scared, while I was reading, but Hanna's POV gave me the intended creepy vibe. When she stood in front of her mother with a hammer and her mother just freaks out, any normal person was thinking 'OK Suzette, you are more insane than your daughter. Just call the police.' Hence the implausible plot, or the unrealistic behavior and reactions of the parents, which ultimately made this an irritating exercise in believability. Also, the pacing contributed to the annoyance factor. The story could have been told in a fraction of the pages. And not to discount a serious health issue, but Crohn’s disease so was omnipresent that it was a plot device...rhetorical why? Basically, I wish the story lived up to the book jacket, but it doesn't.

Posted by: Regina C.