Such a Pretty Smile
Books | Fiction / Horror
3.3
(59)
Kristi DeMeester
"A biting novel from an electrifying new voice, Kristi DeMeester's Such a Pretty Smile is a heart-stopping tour-de-force about powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them. There's something out there that's killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don't know when to shut up. 2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can't share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she's seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother-the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice-until she is punished for using it. 2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape-both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancâe is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waives her "problem" away with pills. But Caroline's past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can't understand. As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty"--
Horror
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More Details:
Author
Kristi DeMeester
Pages
320
Publisher
St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published Date
2022-01-18
ISBN
1250274214 9781250274212
Community ReviewsSee all
"There is a lot to unpack here. This is a very dark and explicit story of women coming of age in a patriarchal society and how women perpetuate the sins against us through silence. "
Margie Hunter
"Loved the book for the first like 200 pages, I couldn't stop reading and wanted to know what happened next, the ending though was not a twist, it was just social commentary about being yourself and not letting society and men put you in a box"
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Amanda Burawa
"I was enthralled the whole time. This book is amazingly written and I couldn’t put it down unless I had to sleep. I read it in two days!"
Cotton Bruno
"Whoa. This novel is hella underrated."
Rhiannon Rabby
"I finished the book in two days. I couldn’t put it down at all. Such a unique twist! I seriously didn’t see it coming. Definitely makes you keep questioning and wanting to know more and more. "
Natalee Ruiz
"I enjoyed this quite a bit. Loved how the dread kept slowly building, and many of the scenes could translate perfectly to a horror film which was fun to imagine. The ending was a little weak for me but overall a spooky, thrilling ride with some great commentary on institutional sexism and the history of women being silenced and/or stifled."
Allison Footit
"Dual timelines. Coming of age. Serial killer. Beautiful prose. Feminist horror at its finest.<br/><br/>Need I say more? Alright, I'll say a little more, but not much more.<br/><br/>There's a killer on the loose; girls are being found mangled. Lila, 13, who lives with her mother Caroline, suspects her mother knows more than she's letting on when she starts acting extremely protective and behaving strangely whenever the killer comes up. They both have secrets they're keeping from each other. They're both experiencing things they can't explain. What's the connection? Could it be that Caroline remembers the last time these murders happened when she was younger in a different city?<br/><br/>I loved so much about this novel. The characterization was top-notch, the pacing was just right, and I had no idea how it was going to end. I cared about the characters, their struggles, and their safety. Learning a little more about what's happening as the chapters alternated between Lila in 2019 and her mother in 2004 made this book seem a lot shorter than it was and I mean that in the best way possible. I appreciated this book's message, though it made me angry...at toxic masculinity, at the patriarchy, at men that dismiss women. Some might find parts of the story a little heavy-handed, but I think it was just right.<br/><br/>You know what else makes me angry? That I waited this long to read Kristi's work. Don't be like me.<br/><br/>* I was provided a review copy by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press"
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Justin Lewis