I would like to thank Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – 10/1

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.68 Kindle eBook

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.

With New Year we are bombarded with messages to look good, get fitter, be more productive and various other things that remind me of a Radiohead song. For women there will be plenty of articles nd clickbait about how to be better more in tune with what a woman should be. Almost as if there is a single template everyone should be aligned to. This gets explored to devastating effect in Kristi DeMeeester’s excellent dark horror novel Such A Pretty Smile where how girls and women should behave ensnares a mother and her daughter in a terrifying tale that also explores how attitudes to what a girl or woman should be.

Lila is the thirteen-year-old daughter of Caroline a famous artist known for haunting works of sculpture. They live alone and Lila is currently struggling with becoming an adult and her sexuality as she develops feelings for her best friend Marcie. Caroline though is often distracted and haunted by her past.  A series of horrific murders focused on teenage girls further disturbs Caroline and Lila finds herself feeling watched and on occasion compelled to do and day terrible things. Lila uncovers that her mother had similar experiences in 2004 and slowly the truth about that time when Caroline was a young struggling artist comes to play and terrifying pattern emerges.

Such A Pretty Smile is a brilliant work of feminist horror exploring how those who do not fit society’s of women and in particular mens’ view of it can suffer the most for being out of line. It is hugely atmospheric and ethereally creepy. This is a novel with a constant sense of menace hovering just underneath the scenes. DeMeester cleverly uses a tale of two time periods – Lila in 2019 and Caroline in 2004 to explore the roles of daughter; teenage girl, mother, and wife which the two core characters all have to fit within. Lila being gay is struggling with working out her feelings for her friend who is actually far more obsessed with being a girlfriend to a older student with a car and rebels and brings Lila along with her wake. These scenes are often painful; a toxic relationship; unrequited love and the sickening way boys treat young girls as playthings to be used and thrown away all come to pass. Lets be clear this is not a YA tale certain scenes are chillingly graphic. What is fascinating is Lila slowly releases the hidden anger and fury she has in a strange, menacing almost animal-like behaviour which makes us as the reader concerned if this is teenage rebellion to the extreme; a mental health condition or as the similarities to Caroline’s tale emerges something supernatural.

With Caroline we have a character who in 2004 appears distant; secretive and forever fearful and then DeMeester shows us the scenes that led to this older incarnation. Caroline in her twenties is married to Lila’s father Daniel and superficially we think a happy couple. But Lila’s father is dying, and she is using her pay checks to keep hi in a decent hospice; Daniel appears a tad controlling on what Lila does and eats and also jealous of her work. A series of murders focused on teenage girls begins, and this seems to bring out fugues; hallucinations and a dreamlike state on Lila – the reader gets worried as to the cause just as we do in 2019 with Lila. What is Caroline’s connection to the murders? The tension amounts and the scenes get more graphic (be aware there are some reference to dead and dying animals) What really brings the topic of the book hoke though is the attitudes then displayed to Lila her husband does not care and forces her to a very unsympathetic and sexist psychiatrist. Neither Lila or Caroline are treated anything more than problems; irritants and they do not get listened to which pushes them into more danger.

This is a story that holds the core explanation close to its chest for most of the novel which really helps push the tension as we jump timelines. The horror we experience is watching how Caroline and Lila’s behaviour changes and none of the men they encounter help and instead often seek to exploit the situation. Notably the malignant force appears to be part man part snarling beast almost giving this tale a dark adult fairytale dimension. In the final third of the story, we start to get hints as to what the force behind this is and we realise the extent of its power plus why it chooses the victims it does bringing again the core subject of the book to the fore in a very terrifying final set of scenes. I have a slight issue with a coda at the end that while brings a note of hope also slightly tries to turn the story into a bigger battle than the rest of the book signalled but the overall journey into these two characters’ lives is compelling and I highly enjoyed reading this.

Such A Pretty Smile is excellent feminist horror that knows both how to disturb a reader but also make them think about what creates the horror; and often that isn’t just needing a supernatural force but instead our own attitudes and conventions as to how women should behave and obey. Perfect cold horror for a January night’s reading and strongly recommended!