Baby Teeth

By: Zoje Stage

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage’s tense audiobook of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth.

Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex. Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied. 

But Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven years old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother’s rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she’s with her father. To Alex, she’s willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she’s told. 

Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn’t love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger....

“We Need to Talk About Kevin meets Gone Girl meets The Omen...a twisty, delirious read that will constantly question your sympathies for the two characters as their bond continues to crumble.” (Entertainment Weekly)

©2018 Zoje Stage (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"Unnerving and unputdownable, Baby Teeth will get under your skin and keep you trapped in its chilling grip until the shocking conclusion." (New York Times best-selling author Lisa Scottoline)

"Imagine We Need to Talk About Kevin only with insight into what Kevin was thinking and if Eva had fought back. This dark, terrifying novel unfolds as a battle of wits between a struggling mother and her psychotic young daughter and its genius is that the reader’s allegiance isn’t allowed to linger too long on either side. You’ll be desperate to discuss the ending once you’ve recovered from the shock of it. A must-read." (Catherine Ryan Howard, USA Today best-selling author of Distress Signals)

Just ok

I found myself being really annoyed with the characters and frustrated by them for different reasons through the book. The daughter is definitely creepy, but it just didn't grip me or give me chills, or give me enough suspense. It was pretty typical mom gives up career to be stay at home mom to weird child, who is clearly in need of professional help, while the husband pretends like everything is great and ignores the fact that his child barks at people, causes bodily harm to her mother and others, and sets fires. Sorry - insert eye roll here. Every time I considered turning off the book I decided to push through and keep going since I spent one of my precious credits on this based on the reviews. The reviews were so good, I kept going back to them thinking maybe I missed something. I convinced myself the story would get better but it just didn't for me. It wasn't terrible. I finished it, but the end was super annoying and made me wish I'd stopped sooner and not wasted 4 more hours. If you're looking for something to really keep you in suspense and give you the creeps, this isn't it. As for the performance, it was pretty good overall.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Immediately Gripping

This was a chilling portrayal of twisted psychology, and, surprisingly, Crohn's Disease. Remind me never to get that disease. Or this family. The level of disturbing unease over what those you love can hide from you gradually rises throughout the book, and gets EXTREMELY intense. If you are looking for an intimate glimpse into the creepy things that can go on behind someone else's eyes, this is the book for you. I'll just say that if you have any trust issues with people close to you, you probably shouldn't read it. You may never trust anyone again.

I sometimes listen to more than one book at once and jump back and forth depending on my mood, but this one had me hooked all the way through. I found myself frustrated with some of the parenting decisions, but even so it was impossible not to feel for these people. It was also easy to see how they could choose to do things as they did, even though I might not. In my mind, that is a sign of good writing and well developed characters. And the story itself was so engrossing it was hard to turn it off.

I was very impressed with this book. If I could change one thing, it would be the overuse of the word giggle. If you say "giggle" a thousand times, you really need to say "laugh" at least once or twice. But this was a minor annoyance alongside many wonderful things about this book.

50 of 58 people found this review helpful

Creepy Creepy

Narrator was excellent! Enjoyed this book very much. Had my emotions in a knot. Disappointed with the ending though. Feels incomplete. Ending gave me chills. What an evil child!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

great book

loved it, cant wait for next. wonder what Hannah will think up to exact her plan.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! From a Hard-to-Please-Critic

This book is a must read if you like psychological suspense thrillers. It starts in the first few pages and pulls you right in. It really never gets boring or slows down. When I'd get ibtwrrupted, I'd rewind do so I didn't miss a second of it. I'm definitely hard to please and rarely write reviews, but I truly hope and PRAY she comes out with a sequel to this book!!!!

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

It's really hard to care about these characters

The characters in this book are more frustrating than anything.

At first, I was excited to hear the perspective of a self-conscious mother and her sociopath seven-year-old. But as the chapters waned on, I found myself more and more bored by their woe-is-me diatribes. Add the father--who embodies most white/upper-middle class/successful male clichés like "overworked man," "breadwinner," "dotes on his daughter," "ignores problems in the family," "dismisses his wife," etc.--and the book quickly falls flat.

Every time I considered turning off the book I hesitated. The reviews were so good! I figured I must be missing something. I convinced myself the story would get better with time--but nope, it sure didn't.

I've got three to four hours left of this and I'm stopping while I'm ahead.

Baby Teeth IS NOT an awful book! In fact, it's not even bad. It's just...okay. And based on that, I'd say save your money/credit.

43 of 57 people found this review helpful

Unnerving

The character in the book is very unnerving, but I very much enjoyed the book. Without giving anything away, I just kept thinking to myself, "no way could she be capable of that" and I was constantly wrong.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Disturbing, yet enthralling

This book was disturbing in all the right ways. Incredibly intriguing and at times made me so uncomfortable I had to take breaks to listen to happy podcasts. Only complaint I have is the abrupt ending. I would be stoked to read a sequel!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Very good and CREEPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this book a lot. Very twisted and creepy. Keeps you interested the entire time. If you are a mom, you might be scared of your kids!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Baby Teeth

Compelling and frightening from the start. Great performance. The various voices were sensational and stayed in my mind long after. The only voice that was a little off was the male voice. He was supposedly Swedish but the accent sounded decidedly Indian.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful