Rating: 5/5
*I was gifted an ebook copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
Synopsis from Amazon:
"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 waives 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."
I gotta say, I went into this book expecting something different, but I liked what I got much more than what I had expected... Does that make any sense? From the synopsis I had expected something of a murder mystery I suppose? This is definitely not that, but in a good way. This book is a multi-POV book that skips forwards and backwards in time at different intervals. It had more of a supernatural, psychological aspect that I hadn't expected with a feminist twist. It wasn't preachy either. It seems like whenever books try to put in a feminist undertone, they end up being kind of preachy or overwhelming or like they sacrifice the plot for the purpose of getting their message across. With Such a Pretty Smile, there was such a clever juxtaposition of the feminist message with the very dark and disturbing story so as to be impactful, but not overwhelming. The horror aspect of the book was very well done to the point of being very gruesome. The entire atmosphere of the book was very viscerally unnerving. When the author described the dark things going through Lila's mind, you felt it. Being inside Lila's mind was equal parts claustrophobic and nearly feral. I admire how well Lila's unraveling was portrayed. Really, DeMeester's writing throughout the entire book was so richly descriptive. There was clearly a lot of thought and effort put into making the atmosphere almost uncomfortably vivid.
As for the story itself, it was grisly but captivating. At the end of the day, you've got unreliable narrators that are becoming increasingly unstable, to the point that the reader isn't sure what is and isn't real. Though, this ends up tying back into the feminist aspect of the book. The concept of the "hysterical woman" who is only ever "overreacting." While I'm sure the Cur is meant to be some sort of allegory for womens' forced silence, it's also just a damn creepy figure. Although, it was a bit underutilized. I think to increase the horror-aspect of this book, more of the Cur would've been nice to build tension. Most of the actual tension in this book comes from the dissolution of the relationships between the different characters. Though it is very well done.
I have very little bad to say about this book. Most of my problems came from the distribution of chapters from Carolines perspective. Or I suppose my problem is more from the layout of the chapters in general. Like, I believe it's something like 25% of the book before we ever actually get Caroline's POV when I think that could've started much earlier on. It would've read more smoothly if both POVs kind of started to unravel at the same time. As it currently is, Lila's mind starts going a lot faster so you go from these very intense chapters of Lila, to these relatively boring chapters of Caroline back in 2004. Obviously 2004 Caroline's POV starts to ramp up at some point, but I just feel like they could've been distributed better so as to devolve in tandem (if that makes sense). But this is really a small thing, it doesn't take much from the plot itself.
I guess I mostly just have good things to say about this book: it's a good length (to the point without being too long or short), the cover art is very cool, and the book itself is hard to put down. If you're looking for a horror book with a unique vibe, then check out this one. The way all the psychological and supernatural elements tie in with the feminist undertone is really interesting. Really the way it emphasizes women's voices being suppressed, inevitably coalescing into something dark and uncontrollable is just clever. I think this book is a great example of how to get your point across, without sacrificing the integrity of the book itself. Such a Pretty Smile by: Kristi Demeester is now available everywhere books are sold! Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ebook to review, I genuinely enjoyed it and look forward to seeing what's next from DeMeester!