Just Finished: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

 

I first saw this book on a trip to Barnes and Noble and although I didn't get it, the book stayed in my mind. The description on the back talked about a mother and daughter. A mother who was unsure of her parenting and unsure she wanted to be a mom and a daughter who hated her mother and wanted her father all to herself. The description sounded like some sort of creepy demonic child from hell plotting her mother's demise every second of her day. Something about it, just made me unable to stop wondering, so I eventually caved and picked it up on a trip to the mall. 

This book was a wild ride. It was not at all what I was expecting, but I think that made me like it even more. First off, it talks in detail about the mother, Suzette's, health issues. She has dealt with Crohn's disease since she was a young woman and the trauma of it has had a huge impact on who she is. Her life has been restricted to close bathrooms and exhaustion. On top of that, her mother was never very attentive and let her struggle for a long time before she was finally diagnosed. Her issues with her mother make her wonder about her own ability to be a mom. 

Another thing I really liked was addressing some common fears of parenthood. I am not a parent and don't really desire to be one, and Suzette expresses some of the reasons I feel this way. She feels guilty for not enjoying being a mom, guilty for wanting space from her child, she feels guilty for wishing she hadn't had a child, and guilty for wishing her child wouldn't ruin her bond with her husband. Overall, I don't think these things make Suzette a bad mom, I'm not saying she's great, she screams and curses at her seven-year-old child, but she's not a monster. 

The daughter, little Hanna, on the other hand, is a monster. And maybe she wouldn't be so bad if her parents had taken her issues more seriously earlier, but the child wants her mother gone, as in dead. She has a different persona for her mother and the rest of the world and for her father. For Daddy, as she calls him, she is sweet, fun, loving little Hanna, but for Mommy she is cruel. What makes it worse is that it is pretty clear she understands what she's doing harms her mother and the other people she interacts with. She doesn't care. She only cares about her father. 

I was really surprised by this book. To be honest, it wasn't at all what I expected and I can definitely see some horror fans not liking it. For me, it's very human (which seems to be a trend in the horror novels I pick up). However, there is a lot of cruelty. And the ending, it got me. I'm still processing my feelings. 

Overall though, this book was really good. I enjoyed the read, it made me think without it feeling like work. I zipped through the last 100 or so pages. If you're looking for something to mess with your mind and you like extremely flawed characters or maybe you're a parent looking for someone who has it worse, I highly recommend this read.