Evil kids have been a staple of horror, whether they’re possessed, sired by the devil, or just a plain bad seed. More recently, as parenthood becomes more and more impossible, these books and movies seem to be making a statement about how draining it is to be a mother. Movies like The Babadook and books like The Push by Ashley Audrain, Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker, and Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage feature scary kids and confused, flawed mothers who wonder if the problem is them. Both The Push and Baby Teeth have fathers besotted by their young daughters and refusing to believe anything is wrong with them, blaming the mother for any issues.
Baby Teeth stands out by featuring the point-of-view of Hanna as well as her mother, making it clear that Suzette is right to be afraid. (Note: This review will contain some spoilers for Baby Teeth.) Now Stage has released a sequel to Baby Teeth, Dear Hanna, that picks up when Hanna is an adult. The underlying question: Can sociopathy be cured? Or do sociopaths just become more clever about hiding their disorder?
When we last saw Hanna, she was a seven-year-old being placed in a facility for severely disturbed children after trying to burn her mother to death. (The adult Hanna ruminates that she should have stabbed her mother in the eye with the burning ember, not the cheek.) While Baby Teeth was told from both Hanna and Suzette’s points of view, Dear Hanna is Hanna’s story alone. Hanna rarely thinks about her parents, and they only make one brief appearance in this sequel.
We meet Hanna again at 20 years old. She lives with her parents and works as a phlebotomist. When middle-aged Jacob brings in his 12-year-old daughter Jo to get her blood drawn, Hanna is immediately drawn to him. The two marry quickly, and Hanna settles in nicely to the roles of wife to a real estate agent and mother to a budding dancer. Her closest relationship, however, seems to be with her 15-year-old brother Goose. He’s away at boarding school, and he and Hanna exchange long, personal letters via snail mail. He seems to be the only person who knows the true Hanna.
The real action of the book starts a few years later. Jo is 16 and has a new boyfriend. Hanna feels ignored by Jacob, preoccupied with work and hobbies, and Jo, who has quit all her activities so she can hang out with the boyfriend. Wanting attention, Hanna fakes a pregnancy and a miscarriage. But the ploy backfires—Jacob wants to try again, and Hanna has no interest in being a mother. Then Jo ups the ante by announcing her own pregnancy. Furious at being sidelined, and terrified of what she might do to a baby in the house, will Hanna revert to her old tricks?
Just like she did in Baby Teeth, Stage does a spectacular job making readers understand the thought processes of a sociopath, whether she’s seven years old or 24. I hadn’t expected to find myself sympathizing with a sociopath, but I did. (Alternate view: I am also a sociopath.) At the same time, I really missed having Suzette’s point of view. I had expected this sequel to pick up with Hanna being discharged from her school, and I was surprised and a little disappointed to find her so much older, and Suzette practically missing from the sequel.
Hanna reminded me of Cassidy in May Cobb’s The Hollywood Assistant (reviewed here). While Cassidy didn’t plot anyone’s murder, both women were on the same slippery slope, and it’s a slope most of us have found ourselves on at one time or another. Everyone has a little sociopath in them.
Some readers of Baby Teeth complained that the book ended not with a bang, but a whimper. They might have a similar complaint about Dear Hanna. The final twist is easily predicted by any fan of the genre, and the denouement is quiet. Still, I’m a big fan of Hanna and I hope this book is the second in a trilogy. Seeing Hanna as a mother worried about her child’s intentions would be the chef’s kiss for this character.
Thanks to Over the River PR for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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