Published by: St. Martin's Press on July 17th, 2018
Genre: Horror
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis:Sweetness can be deceptive.
Meet Hanna.
She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.
Meet Suzette.
She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette's husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that there’s something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isn’t the best place for their baby girl after all.
Review:
Okay, first thing you should know is that this is an Adult title. I would definitely, DEFINITELY not classify it as YA. I don't generally read a lot of adult titles, so this was a change in direction for me. Doesn't hurt that my mom read it right before me and LOVED it. My mom & I have similar tastes in books, so I was fully prepared to love it just like she did.
I didn't love it. I liked it, but I didn't love it.
There were some startling similarities with my own life, which really threw me for a loop. Suzette's health problem was Crohn's Disease and my teen brother was just diagnosed with that in April 2017. So whenever she talked about her health, I was able to follow it and it wasn't like she was speaking a foreign language or anything. Also, the book takes place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Squirrel Hill. My grandmother grew up near there and my great aunt still lives near there. I haven't been there since I was little, but I was still startled by that.
Alex was the weakest link in this whole book. I kept calling him a wuss because he was just blinded by how perfectly Hanna acted in front of him and he couldn't imagine her behaving the way Suzette said she was behaving. I desperately wanted him to stand up for Suzette and stop letting Hanna manipulate the situation. It just drove me bananas. It was infuriating how he couldn't see Hanna's behavior and the only reason he couldn't see it was that he was always working. I so badly wanted Suzette to tell him she was going on a trip and that he had to stay home with Hanna. But then I would realize that Hanna would never show Alex her dark side. Because she loved her Daddy and Mommy was a Bad Mommy.
Mommy was a Bad Mommy because she wouldn't go away and leave Hanna alone with her Daddy. That was what Hanna wanted most of all. For her Mommy to go away and for it to be just Hanna & Daddy together. I started to wonder if there was something sexual going on between Hanna & Alex and the only reason I wondered that was because of a particularly graphic scene that involved Hanna in a sexual scenario. I would love to say more about that scene, but it kinda gives stuff away, so I won't say anything more.
Hanna is mute except for when she informs Suzette that she's not Hanna. She's Marie-Anne Doufosset. At this point, I start to wonder if something else entirely is going on. As the book continues, we learn more about Marie-Anne and who she is and why Hanna is so fixated on her.
"Nobody approved of the ways she had fun."
Hanna's schemes go from relatively harmless to downright dangerous and I start to actually worry that she might actually do what she set out to do-kill her own mother. The ways Hanna has fun would make any normal child or adult absolutely horrified. There's a lot in this book that creeps me out, but there's one particular thing she does near the end of the book that made me cringe and made me feel exactly what Suzette was going through.
The ending was hugely anti-climatic and it really brought the book down for me, rating wise. I wanted more from the ending. It did leave it open for a sequel though, so we'll have to see if that happens.
Final thoughts: Overall, this book was good. Hanna was written super well and I actually felt like she was the most developed character. There were some slow parts & the fact that I don't think Suzette nor Alex were as well developed as they could have been. Plus, the ending was disappointing.
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