How’s my squirrely girl?” ...... Providing optimistic perky happiness of possibilities? —- sure ..... deny deny deny.... no problems with his little angle —- HANNA LOVES DADDY! I’m guessing ‘Daddy’ will face up to the problems pretty soon....but for now - he prefers to deny them. This is going to be a controversial book due to the subject matter. Can children be so evil? How far should parents go in defending their child? It definitely isn’t for everyone. The story is told through two perspectives; that of Hanna, the little girl and her mother Suzette. From the very beginning I had a difficult time connecting with these voices. They did not ring true for me. This book fulfils Topic #4 (Title/Author Beginning with Q, X, or Z) of the A Book for All Seasons (Equinox #2) Book Challenge.

Baby Teeth: The First Ten Chapters by Zoje Stage | Goodreads

This book is told through POV chapters titled "Suzette" or "Hanna” The reader gets a glimpse into the mind of each. Hanna is the proverbial "bad" seed who acts out and has behaviors which get her into all kinds of trouble. Although she is seven years old, she had thoughts and actions, I would associate with a much older child. While reading the book, I kept waiting for the light bulb to go off over Alex's head and for him to finally "see the light". Suzette, being the target of most of her daughter's bad behaviors, struggles with feelings ranging from wanting to help her daughter, fearing her child, and wanting to not have to deal with her child anymore. Booksource: I received a copy of this book from the Publisher. Because I have someone who doesn't hate me and begged for it! Pure win! (I loved it all on my own)

Baby Teeth

The premise of this novel is very simple: A seven-year-old terrorizes her mother but puts on an innocent face for Daddy, driving a wedge between the couple and driving the mom to desperation. Think The Orphan (2009) meets We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). With that out of the way, we can move on to the merits and non-redeeming qualities of this book, shall we? Zoje Stage is an American writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known for her work in the performing arts and literature. She was awarded an Emerging Storytellers Fellowship from the Independent Filmmaker Project for her script "Hands and Knees" and a Fellowship in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2012 and 2008, respectively. [1] [2] Stage fuses horror with domestic suspense to paint an unflinching portrait of childhood psychopathy and maternal regret. I’ve seen Baby Teeth listed as a thriller; it wasn’t that at all, but it COULD have been. It probably would have been a much more enjoyable read—cringe-worthy moments in the plot and all—if it had been written from Suzette’s POV only. Then we could have seen her mounting terror and desperation and feel it in a more pure form—the way that she did. But Stage decided to try her hand at writing in a child’s voice via Hanna's chapters and it Did. Not. Work. Honestly, a terrible idea given the level of skill she displayed in this novel. Not only did it take away from the suspense to know exactly what Hanna was going to do next from her POV, but the clunky and inauthentic way in which Stage wrote Hanna made reading her chapters a real chore. Of course, I understand that Stage was attempting to speak simplistically, as a child might, but it didn’t sound anything like a seven-year-old’s way of speech and mannerisms in the slightest. Her editor would have done better to tell her to hold off on that.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage discussion/opinions? (SPOILERS!) Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage discussion/opinions?

I don't think I am giving anything away by saying that. You can deem that much from reading the synopsis, but this book is so much more than that.Due to Hanna being non-communicative and combative, Suzette is forced to keep her home and provide all of the child's schooling and care. A vengeful pit grew inside her and it remained to be seen how it would grow—very possibly into a tree with snaking branches and claws. How fun it would be to be such a tree, looming like a giant on a neighborhood street. People would pass beneath her, and the ones she didn’t like—snap snap crunch! She’d snatch them up and tangle her branches around them, and their bones would break with little crunches that would be mistaken for the snap of a twig. Her bark-self would absorb their yummy blood and the tree would grow and thrive. (Hanna) Zoje Stage is a writer and former filmmaker. She was a 2008 Fellow in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation of the Arts and a 2012 Emerging Storytellers Fellow from the Independent Filmmaker Project. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Baby Teeth is her first novel. Upon first glance, this book seems angsty, dramatic, and queer-friendly. As I read on, I became more and more disappointed. For those not looking for spoilers, do not read on. Before reading this book, I was intrigued by the idea of a lesbian vampire romance written by a queer author. I am from Washington State in the United States, so I am all for vampire-centered romance because of Stephanie Meyer's books that came out during my teenage years. In addition to this, Meg Grehan may have taken inspiration from the Irish writer, Sheridan Le Fanu who wrote Carmilla, in the early 1800s, which created the first written representation of lesbian vampire romance in Ireland.

Review: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage | The Nerd Daily Review: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage | The Nerd Daily

Now, before you even start naysaying about how this story has been told before I need you to kindly STFU. Even Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” So yes, simply put this story has been told before . . . . O'Sullivan, Michael (19 June 2020). "Moving yet unsentimental Aussie film 'Babyteeth' is worth your time". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved 19 June 2020.a b "2012 Project Forum Slate". IFP. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01 . Retrieved 2020-09-23. There is something missing with this book, there is nothing there to hold your interest. I feel like Hanna should have been written with more of a horror bent, at least it would have spiced up the plot a bit. I spent the first half of the book wishing I could chalk it up as mindless entertainment, but it's missing the entertainment part. I found myself skimming out of boredom. No plot twist. No thriller. I didn’t feel tension or suspense. Dull as dishwater. This book has the most lyrical writing and the flow is absolutely perfect; I felt it reflected Immy’s emotions and thoughts so well. She didn't have the greatest relationship with her own Mum and feels this is her chance to do better by her daughter.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage | Goodreads

This novel kept dragging on to the point where I was beyond bored. I was waiting for something awesome, anything entertaining to happen, and nothing. As I said before, I loved this novel’s cover but I felt even that was a bit misleading. There was literally nothing to do about baby teeth even though it implies that it’s some kind of horror novel. Common now. "Baby Teeth" is not a horror novel as it’s more of a psychological thriller if anything. There are some bits and pieces that make it a bit creepy and disturbing but nothing to the levels you’d expect in a true horror novel. Hanna would sit there, watching them, trying to decipher the puffs of smoke. How much had her young brain already misconstrued? Observing, absorbing. Warping, twisting. Drawing conclusions about everything they did.Jefferson, Dee (30 November 2020). " 'That we made it at all seems like a miracle': Cate Blanchett's refugee drama sweeps AACTA awards". Australia: ABC . Retrieved 23 February 2021. One could say Grehan mixed Meyer’s and Le Fanu’s works to create what is this book. Grehan not only uses poetry like the vampires in Meyer’s books, but she also makes the main character seem more humane because she drinks blood from the hospital without supposedly killing humans. This is similar to how Meyer’s vegetarian vampires only drink animal blood to survive. It was such a long, boring, drawn-out ending that didn’t satisfy me in any way, shape, or form. I’m talking zero climax, no excitement, no fun race to the end, nothing. Just more dialogue and more recapping of what I’ve read at least twice already.