Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester

Synopsis:

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 waves 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.

Edition:

E-ARC via Net Galley

Disclaimer:

I received a complimentary advanced reader copy of Such a Pretty Smile in exchange for review consideration. This does not in any way impact the content of my review.

Trigger Warnings:

My Thoughts:

Do you ever read a book and think to yourself, if I was going to write the most perfect story for me, I wouldn’t because this person already has? Yeah, me neither. But if I was ever going to, this would have been the book that did it to me. Did that make sense? No? Sorry.

I’m sure by now you all know that I have a real weakness for feminist horror. Women just know horror. I think we inherently understand the terrifying because we encounter it so much day to day, you know? Take that dummies who think women can’t or shouldn’t write horror. I see your stupid asses on the internet all the time. You’re ridiculous and wrooooong.

Such a Pretty Smile gives you a little taste of the (admittedly slightly exaggerated) consequences of being a loud girl. An assertive girl. The kind of girl that won’t sit down, shut up, and take whatever little scraps the menfolk deem to throw her way. I mean, I know the world isn’t quite as bad for strong women as Such a Pretty Smile makes it out to be, but it might as well be. We don’t always die for the right to use our voices, but we do often enough that this storyline feels pretty fucking pertinent.

“At school, there had been a mild panic among the students, and parents kept their girls at home, locked in their proverbial towers as if wood and locks couldn’t be opened. Or broken. Those pure, innocent girls kept from anything that defined them in the name of protection, while their brothers carried on as if there was nothing to fear. But for them, there wasn’t. They would never understand the inherent trepidation that came as a result of being wrapped in girl flesh.”

I love the characters of Lila and her mother Caroline. Their imperfect, and occasionally not great. They’re complex characters – not feminist archetypes. There’s no monoliths here. Everyone has something that keeps them from reaching the “feminist ideal.” But I think it is because of this that they are so inherently my own feminist dream. I hate the idea that no one is allowed to stray from some path laid out for them by someone who probably strayed from that path all the time. Or was at least making themselves thoroughly miserable trying to stay on it. Being a “perfect” anything is fucking exhausting. I like that these characters serve as a reminder that there is nothing wrong with imperfection. Sometimes it’s the very thing that gets you where you need to be.

“You have such a pretty smile.” “You’d be so much prettier if you smiled.” If you’ve ever wanted to stab a man for saying these or similar things to you, Such a Pretty smile is probably gonna be right up your alley.

Rating:

If you like feminist horror that doesn’t shy away from violence, you’re probably going to love Such a Pretty Smile.