Zoje Stage

In "Dear Hanna," Zoje Stage returns with a bone-chilling sequel to her international sensation, "Baby Teeth," immersing readers once again into the unsettling world of a young sociopath navigating adulthood.

At the heart of the story is Hanna, whose disturbing past includes a failed attempt to murder her own mother as a child. Now twenty-four and seemingly reformed through therapy and letter-writing to her younger brother, Hanna leads an outwardly normal life as a wife to Jacob and stepmother to his daughter, Joelle. But beneath the facade of domestic bliss lies Hanna's penchant for manipulation and a chilling willingness to hurt others when her carefully constructed world begins to unravel.

Stage masterfully crafts a narrative that is equal parts darkly humorous and deeply unsettling, drawing readers into Hanna's twisted psyche and the web of deceit she weaves to maintain control. As Joelle's behavior threatens Hanna's carefully laid plans, the story hurtles towards a gripping climax, leaving readers on the edge of their seats until the final, chilling conclusion.

With its compelling protagonist and relentless suspense, "Dear Hanna" is a stand-alone sequel that will captivate both returning fans and new readers alike. Stage's razor-sharp prose and knack for psychological tension make this novel a must-read for anyone craving a thrilling dive into the depths of darkness.… (meer)

This book feels like it wants to be disturbing but it also doesn't understand what truly makes a book disturbing. Simply throwing words and phrases on to pages doesn't make it creepy. The baby deciding to be a weirdo and watching the parents have sex for example is it weird the baby wants the mother to die from sex which doesn't make sense because how would they know it happens so often but yet expect death from it?

There's a lot of scenes that are just supposed to be like gross out horror but it's not working because there author does not understand horror is a slow build and also a collection of emotions being provoked. For example the child will chew food up and gross combinations and spit it onto her mother's face but that's not gross because the child's been doing stuff like that this entire time. It's not a new thing or surprising it's just gross but we're supposed to feel something about it. Besides annoyed at this child.

The child also has weird comprehensions beyond their capabilities but also is a child and toxic child understands things like a child but other times will know enough that they want their mother to die. Inconsistently the series of pages that I read made me exhausted and rolling my eyes.

It feels like it wanted to be splatterpunk gore but it didn't really hit the mark, it didn't really hit any mark actually. It's just a weird attempt at being controversial but everybody reading it can tell that it's tryharding. It's not even enjoyable in a way that it makes you laugh it just makes you annoyed, cringe, or just tired. Reading it made me so tired that I kept falling asleep because some scenarios are just impossible to imagine with the child doing this or that or even attempting to kill the parent because why would a child understand such complicated things yet talk like a little baby? And when the toddler talks more adult it's in weird clunky sentences.

I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the risks, I don't care about anything going on in this book, I don't even care if somebody new comes in, I just expect them all to go the same way one way or another. Something something the child torments them. It's so quirky and unique it's not like the other girls. Ugh.

1 star and I'm not the only one rolling my eyes at this book.… (meer)