Such a pretty smile

Such a pretty smile

Kristi DeMeester

Book - 2022

"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 fiancé 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"--

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Subjects
Serial murders > Fiction.
Women > Mental health > Fiction.
Mothers and daughters > Fiction.
Feminist fiction.
Psychological fiction.
Thrillers (Fiction)
Horror fiction.
Novels.
Genres
Psychological fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
Horror fiction
Novels
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Kristi DeMeester (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
310 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781250274212
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

DeMeester builds a unique and haunting mother-daughter relationship in this tragic thriller. A serial killer known only as The Cur is murdering young girls. Teenager Lila is increasingly unnerved on several fronts: by the stories of finding dead girls' bodies, by her attraction to her friend Macie, and by her increasingly strained relationship with her mother, Caroline, a well-known sculptor. Caroline has a dark and unsettling past, as the author reveals in chapters set in 2004, 15 years in the past. Lila is convinced her mother knows something about The Cur, something she's kept hidden throughout Lila's life. Lila knows her mother suffers from paranoia, but is it possible her paranoia stems from real events? And can these past events somehow be causing shockwaves in the present? The author keeps us constantly in a state of suspense, wondering just what Caroline knows, just what Lila suspects, and just who or what is really killing these children. A memorable psychological thriller.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Demeester (Beneath) blends realistic descriptions of dissociation and schizophrenia with the horror of a serial killer preying on young girls in this chilling probe into gender-based violence. In 2019, high schooler Lila Sawyer struggles with her attraction to her only friend; her increasingly strained relationship with her mother, Caroline; and the frightening news of young girls who were discovered dead and mutilated in the nearby woods. Demeester's immersive descriptions suck readers into Lila's inner turmoil as she starts seeing and hearing dogs that aren't there and feels a dark presence awakening inside of her. Afraid that she's inherited Caroline's paranoid schizophrenia, Lila keeps these episodes secret while working to uncover what Caroline is hiding about a serial killer, known as The Cur, from years ago. Well-structured timeline shifts to 2004 depict Caroline's sanity unravelling as she cares for her terminally ill father and manages her fiancé's mounting envy of her artistic talent, while, in the present, Lila becomes enamored with the sense of power she feels when the darkness within speaks through her. Demeester's darkly visceral imagery draws a fine line between mental illness and supernatural events that will leave readers doubting reality as the uncanny merges with the real-world horrors of a young girl coming of age. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

What is scarier, sexism in mental health care or an actual monster? DeMeester's (Beneath) empowering, engaging, and intense supernatural thriller seeks an answer through alternating time lines and brisk pacing. In 2019, 13-year-old Lila is dealing with an overprotective mother, an unrequited crush on her best friend, and the murders of several local teen girls. In 2004, Caroline (Lila's mother) is a young adult, facing an eerily similar serial killer who sets off a series of events that destroy Caroline's marriage, earn her critical acclaim for her grotesque sculptures, and inspire her to get treatment for mental illness. The unease is thick, pressing down on readers. Lila and Caroline intimately spill their dark secrets on the page but struggle to share these supernatural experiences and disturbing realizations with other people, for fear of stigmatization. As events in both timelines spin out of control, past and present collide in an epic showdown that will leave readers looking over their shoulders. VERDICT An obvious choice for fans of female-driven psychological horror (e.g., Sarah Pinborough's Cross Her Heart and Rachel Harrison's The Return). Also a good suggestion for readers who want to explore the trauma and inequalities in mental health treatment (like in Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver).

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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