Suspense | Book Chatter

Baby Teeth
By Zoje Stage
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250170750, July 2018, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Impossible to put down.

The Rest of It:

Hanna is seven-years old and has not said a word to anyone. Ever. Concerned, her parents take her for testing but there is no physical reason for her lack of speech. When it’s suggested to Hanna’s mother Suzette that perhaps it’s a behavioral issue, Alex, Hanna’s father doesn’t want to believe it. Suddenly, out of the blue, Hanna says something to Suzette but instead of excitement, Suzette feels dread because the words that come out of Hanna’s mouth are quite disturbing.

Oh! There is so much going on in this one. Hanna is fiercely attached to her father which makes it all the more difficult when Suzette realizes that her daughter needs help. Alex only sees the good. He’s at work all day but Suzette is the one who home schools Hanna. Suzette is the one who sees her act out in unimaginable ways. Suzette is the one Hanna targets when her jealousy rears its head. No school will take her. Suzette begins to feel like she’s trapped with this kid who does horrible things but she’s still her mother, so what can she do? What can be done?

That is the question. That and trying to figure out what is wrong with this kid! The entire time I was reading this book my mind jumped all over the place. Is this kid possessed? Is she playing games? Is there something really wrong with her? A brain tumor? Something? This is the type of book that will drive you crazy but is also incredibly fun to read. Suzette is weaker than I would have liked her to be but as a mother myself, I’m not sure how I would handle a similar situation.

Baby Teeth is listed as a must-read by many for good reason. It’s thoroughly entertaining and impossible to put down. It made me second-guess myself a few times and had me questioning what the “right” decision would be for a parent in the same situation. I really enjoyed it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Perfect Mother
By Aimee Molloy
Harper, 9780062696793, May 1, 2018, 336pp.

The Short of It:

Another page-turner that keeps you guessing.

The Rest of It:

Motherhood is a hot topic this summer. I wonder why. Maybe because so many of us are overwhelmed, super busy, and give everything we have to our kids? Whatever the reason, I have at least three books in my stack dealing with motherhood in some way and The Perfect Mother was one of them.

May Mothers is a group made-up of women who had their babies in the month of May. They meet at the park for their regular meetings but now that their infants are a couple of months old, they decide it’s time for a girls night out and head to a local bar for some drinks. Excited to be taking a night off from baby duty, they get a little careless and drink a little too much so when one of the moms suddenly vanishes from the bar, only for them to find out later that she is home, with the police, trying to figure out who took her son from his crib, things begin to escalate as the moms try to make sense of what’s happened.

Mommy groups can be very supportive but also very dramatic. That is the case here. These women take it upon themselves to find the missing baby. They inject themselves into the investigation, steal evidence, put themselves in very dangerous situations, usually with their own infant strapped to their chests. It’s crazy what they do!

Although the missing baby is the focus of the story, Molloy also touches on the loss of identity that can come with having a baby and how difficult it is to figure out those first few months as a mother. This, I could relate to well.

The Perfect Mother is not a perfect book. It’s a little predictable and you might tire of all the “mommyness” contained within its pages but it was a quick, entertaining read and a good distraction from the headlines that continue to find me even though I have made a real effort to avoid them.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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