Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

46 reviews

lucyyybee's review

medium-paced

2.5

Super disappointed in this book. The title, reviews and cover art really convinced me this would be good. I can’t imagine someone actually finding this book horrifying or thrilling. Several times I believed the book was finally getting creepy but it always went back to underwhelming. “You’ll be desperate to discuss the ending once you’ve recovered from the shock of it.” WHAT? I was shocked at how boring it was. I was hoping the end would have a major twist or insane explanation of the rest of the book. Don’t judge a book by its cover, this is truly the definition of anticlimactic. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

_lars_'s review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Violence, Ableism, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment

There was some really uncomfortable

sexual scenes described from a child's perspective & then more sexual scenes acted out by said child

tokki_reads's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Cursing, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Blood

applesodaperson's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Yes!!!! This book was so entertaining!! It fits into what I like to call the "evil children" subgenre, which The Push by Ashley Audrain also fits into. And are these books particularly realistic? No. But are they entertaining as hell? Absolutely yes. I think books like these are pure entertainment, and I just love hearing about a deranged child doing evil deeds and tormenting their parents. It really does remind me why I never want children. 
Anyways, in this book specifically, I like how it was pretty unclear until the end who Alex was going to side with, and if he was going to believe Suzette about how evil Hanna is. It kept me on the edge of my seat, because of course I was rooting for Suzette to survive and live her best life with Alex. The one thing I didn't like was the line about Hanna saying she wants to marry her dad. Yeah that was just a little too Freudian for me. But other than that I loved it, and thought that the aspect of Hanna not speaking made this book all the more interesting.
Also, I totally imagined Alex as looking like Klare from Fleabag.
Listened to on Libby.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

danyels_denouements's review

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

hazle_363's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book was compelling but I was anxious the whole time I read it

I didn’t like the open ending, I wanted to have Janna’s brain explored a bit more and a resolve to whether her and her mom would reconcile

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Domestic abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Cursing, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Self harm, Blood, Violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Grief, Gore, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror

flutelover32's review

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness

readabookmofo's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

 The real horror in Baby Teeth is not a child terrorizing her mother; the real horror is a woman and her daughter pining and fighting over the love and affection of an incompetent man-child. 
 

There were some very unsettling scenes in Baby Teeth,

namely when Hanna torments the helmet-wearing child. That was pretty rough.

I welcomed free birth control. Aside from that, there wasn't much else I liked in the book. 
 

I'll start with what bothered me the most. Plot holes galore. Suzette, the mother, complains incessantly about how her husband, Alex, doesn't believe her about their evil daughter. This went on for years. She never thought to record anything? Set up hidden cameras?

In the middle of the book, we get a flashback to what started it all, when Suzette stuffed uneaten food into Hanna's mouth. Hanna states that she starts being horrible to Suzzette to "test her love for her", but that is just dropped into a random ether of nothingness and never revisited again. At some random point, it turns into a strange Electra complex, so I'm unsure of the point of the flashback.

 

Suzette's character is extremely infuriating. She's highly dependent on gaining her self-worth from her husband's love and his approval of her appearance. Not only does she have these character qualities that never develop or grow, but she's also incredibly ignorant.  

When the possibility of child abuse at her husband's hand is raised, she actually states his being Swedish as a reason for him not being capable of abusing Hanna. Say that again? And there's a completely unnecessary tidbit where she assumes a teacher at a school they visit is gay because of the way he dresses and carries himself. And don't forget when she wanted to ask the doctor where she was from; no, where she was really from. These scenes were odd and felt out of place. 
 

Alex's character was equally infuriating. Believing his child over his own life partner was appalling. But as soon as Suzette makes a legitimate mistake, she's met with pitchforks. He keeps using the same excuse of, "Well she's not like that with me" as proof positive of Hanna being a good kid. He gets a bit better toward the end, but at that point, the damage had been done.  

One of the biggest downfalls of this book was how repetitive it was. This is the bulk of the book: Hanna does something bad, and Suzette tries to tell her husband about it, but he doesn't believe her. Repeat. I got so tired of the "Mommy has to die" line. It got old very quickly. This, combined with so many unnecessary scenes (such as painful detail into how Suzette draws a proportionate human figure), made me almost DNF this book.  

Baby Teeth just didn't hit the mark for me. There was so much potential in the story idea. It would have been great if Stage took an angle of focusing the horror aspect on a woman being forced into a life of classic gender roles. Or if the focus was on the parents realizing how much happier they were without Hanna and leaving her at the boarding school for much longer than needed.

The focus was on Hanna terrorizing Suzette and just being an evil child; it was dull and added nothing new to this common trope, which I'm quite tired of. Have we not had enough of women being gaslit (for lack of a better word) and made to appear unhinged, not only in fiction but in real life as well?

 

There are so many more things I didn't mention that made this book subpar. I haven't completely written off Zoje Stage, but it certainly wasn't the ideal introduction to her work! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

ericaburns1's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Disappointing ending. Almost wish there was a sequel. Too many loose ends. Big drama and complicated feelings from both Suzette and Hanna kept me hooked and shocked. The book goes back and forth from mother’s to daughter’s pov. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse and Death

Mentions of possession/demons/witches

schnanko's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have read books that have made me uncomfortable, grossed out, fascinated...this book was genuinely terrifying. I was on the edge of my seat to an extent I haven't been in forever. It was amazingly written and the plot was absolutely incredible. I just finished it and I want to read it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Blood, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Bullying, Cursing, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship