Wow! (Silence) wow! ( more gulping) wow! ( hyperventilating , drinking up entire cold carafe filled with ice water) Wo..( Brain freezing- couldn’t pronounce the words)( silence for 45 minutes: my my mouth agape, eyes popped out, looking at the wall as if I’m watching the final scene of Seven and Wicker Man at the same time) Finally I gathered my wits to form reliable words and write a review about WTH I just read kind of jaw dropping, sinister, dark, complex story I’ve just finished. A little O...

Not for me.Not one bit.I should have put this down. But I didn't and that's on me. I have a feeling this book is going to be polarizing. Readers are either going to love it or it just won’t work for them. The synopsis was intriguing. Sounded like it would be right up my alley. I enjoy reading dark books. I enjoy disturbing books. I enjoy horror. I did not enjoy this.Girls are being murdered. Their bodies are being torn apart. The victims are girls who do not always follow the rules, girls you wa...

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE by Kristi DeMeester An immersive psychological thriller told through the eyes of Caroline Sawyer and her daughter Lila … stressing the misogyny of women, and warped societal expectations of normalcy in gender. Lila’s point of view is the present …. while Caroline’s is not only now but in 2004 New Orleans. This affords the reader insight not only into actions and motivation of Caroline … but, more importantly the mortar that built Lila. Teenage girls are being murdered and rav...

**4.5-stars**Lila Sawyer, at 13-years old, is grappling with many things. One of the largest is coming to grips with her own sexuality. This issue is constantly at the forefront of her mind, but there are other things too. Someone is taking and murdering girls in her area; girls that are about her age. Because of this her Mom, Caroline, has become really paranoid and strict about Lila's whereabouts and movements.It's more than that though. It's like her Mom knows something about what is going on...

Such a Pretty Smile is an enthusiastic middle finger to the patriarchy. It opens with a grisly description of a young girl found mutilated and murdered days after her disappearance. As more girls turn up brutally murdered, it begins to look like the work of the Cur, a serial killer that slays girls who refuse to be tamed. Told in dual timelines, the reader follows Lila, a thirteen-year-old girl, and her mother, Caroline, an artist known for crafting creepy statues. Lila has been a good girl her

“Smile and the Whole World Smiles With You.” *Not in this book.Because a serial killer is on the loose. Or something...A freakish and edgy entry to the psychological thriller genre, this eccentric novel bends to the supernatural and horror spheres. Definitely unnerving which had me hyper alert while wondering where it was headed. Keep your anti-anxiety remedies close at hand.Two unstable narrators were the height of unreliable territory without me having to suffer the blundering decisions someti...

If you’ve ever had visions of stabbing the stranger who told you to smile in the neck, this may be the book for you. For real though, and this goes out to anyone who tells random people to smile: Stop it. Right now.Lila is in 8th grade and struggling with an unrequited crush on her best friend Macie. She also has been feeling off lately, as if there's some dark force inside her. When she sees Macie in a compromising position with an older boy, these two struggles collide as Lila has an almost fe...

What a weird book this is and I say that at 25%. This book reads like Young Adult as we are in 13 year old Lila's head for the first four or five chapters that I read. In the background young girls are being brutally murdered. We are also offered a glimpse of Lila and her mother, Caroline's, odd relationship. Her mother is a famous artist that creates macabre sculptures and she's also a helicopter mom that won't even let her daughter shave her legs so she remains a good girl. Um, okay. When I fi...

Thank goodness for the rain....hours to read...and it is Halloween Eve🥺 This book is not for the faint of heart (Moi) It is a nightmare of delusions, which I would categorize as horror, but an ultimate thriller! Whatever you label it, just know it will get under your skin...it's creepy! The author is well crafted in how she wrote this multi-dimensional evil force. Some of the tension building was absorbing and disturbing, as if you are inhabiting all of the characters' minds.2019- "There was blo...

I am so conflicted on how to rate this. I know there is supposed to be some hidden message about women learning to use their voice and speak up for themselves. However, when you list your book in the horror genre, I expect horror. Yes, there were some descriptions of how the girls were killed, but that is not enough to throw your book in the horror arena. The relationship between the mother and daughter was horrible. Nothing was resolved in the end. Overall disappointment for me.2.6 rating round...

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. Caroline Sawyer is a well-known artist in her local communities and also the loving, single parent of daughter Lila who happens to be thirteen years old, such a difficult age. Lila has always been an obedient and good child

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date: Jan. 18, 2022 Kristi DeMeester brings women’s issues to the forefront with her hauntingly chilling novel, “Such a Pretty Smile”. At first glance, it is novel about missing and murdered girls. Or mental illness. Or a dilapidated theme park full of dark creatures that go bump in the night. Or none of these, and yet all of them. In 2004,

The book opens with the present-day perspective of a thirteen-year-old girl named Lila who’s going through the typical issues that you'd expect with a preteen. She has a crush on her best friend, who’s oblivious to her feelings. She's dealing with an overbearing mother. She's navigating changes to her body and the evolving expectations surrounding her femininity and womanhood. As if all this isn't complicated enough for a thirteen-year-old to handle, there’s also someone out there murdering y

I regret that Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester was my first DNF of 2022. After reading 53%, I quit because I felt the book was not for me. I will not be rating or reviewing it. This is only my opinion and I am sure that the book will appeal to most readers.

This book is one of the most odd horror novels that I've ever read, but I liked it! I still can't quite explain what I think this book was trying to create, but I guess it's one of those things (like rewatching the Dune movie) where I'll eventually understand more and more as I think about it.Lila Sawyer and her mother Caroline live in Atlanta, Georgia, in an apartment together while her mother is an art professor at school nearby. Her mother is a local celebrity, a well-known sculpture artist,

A common theme in this horror novel is men dismissing women as hysterical. Females are the problem and not males sexually harassing girls or older guys trying to have physical power over females or men being jealous of a woman’s talent. Females who fight back are abducted and killed by what some call The Cur, a sort of man-beast that comes around every fifteen years or so to keep women in line. Caroline is a sculptor who has been on medication for years after being diagnosed as schizophrenic. Sh...

Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is a standalone horror novel. The story in this one is one that is told in two different timelines one in 2004 and one in 2019. Of course there are also changes to the point of view in the story too.Back in 2004 Caroline Sawyer is an artist who is married when she begins to see and hear things no one else does. Caroline struggles with hearing dogs barking and a dog faced man hiding in the shadows watching her until she finally gets help and medicine to cal...

This is one that grew on me more and more as I read it. I ended up loving the darkness and the fury of it all. The story is grim, but the message about not being tamed is just about everything.I’ll admit, though, that my love for it grew slowly. At first, things that should have been secret were all too obvious to me. I still don’t know whether the author intended to try to hide these things or not, but that was a little unsuccessful for me.However, I kept at it and was glad that I did.Hidden am...

(I don't rate with stars; just read the review)Review originally published at Mystery & Suspense Magazine:https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/su.....In the last two or three years, just under the surface of the modern horror fiction scene is a low-level buzz that grows stronger and stronger each day. It’s very exciting to both observe the way the buzz is shaping the industry and actively BE THE BUZZ.A very exciting time for genre buffs. New, powerful voices are on the rise telling unique stories

Such A Pretty Smile is a devastating and unflinching look at the way women are forced to make themselves smaller, quieter, nicer - all that nonsense - so men can feel better about themselves and it may fill you with rage. It is a horror novel/thriller/mystery hybrid and it has some very graphic content. Prepare yourself. This was a tough book for me at this time. I’m sure others in a different headspace will have a better time with it. It had such a pall of despair and fury and frustration over