Such a Pretty Smile: A Novel

by Kristi DeMeester

Overview

One of Goodreads Most Popular Horror of 2022

Named one of Esquire's Best Horror of the Year

"Brutal and shocking." - emily m. danforth

“Razor-sharp. This one will cut you.” - Christopher Golden

In this biting and electrifying novel from bold horror talent Kristi DeMeester, there’s something out there that’s murdering young women—until an overwhelmed mother and her secretive daughter refuse to live without answers any longer.

He’s known as The Cur, and he leaves no trace—except for the victims he most viciously slays every fifteen years. Young women who refuse to conform and don’t know when to shut up.

2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. But when young women around her begin dying, wild speculation ensues. Soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she’s in danger for using it.

2004: Caroline Sawyer sees dogs everywhere that no one else seems to notice. As these snarling, teeth-bared delusions begin to take shape in the sculptures she makes in a trance-like state, her fiancé is convinced she needs help from a professional. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that others around her can’t understand.

As past and present demons converge, Caroline and Lila must chase the source of the unrelenting, oppressive power to its core. Brilliantly paced and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile will make you want to stand up and rage at everyone who ever told you to shut up and smile pretty.

"Compulsive and horrifyingly entertaining." - Liz Nugent

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250274212
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	676,520
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

KRISTI DEMEESTER is the author of Beneath, a novel published by Word Horde Publications, and Everything That’s Underneath, a short fiction collection from Apex Books. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Ellen Datlow's The Year's Best Horror Volume 9, 11, and 12; and Stephen Jones' Best New Horror, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1, 3, and 5; in addition to publications such as Pseudopod, Black Static, Fairy Tale Review, and several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.

Reading Group Guide

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE Discussion Questions

1. Such a Pretty Smile changes in both time period, setting, and point of view throughout the novel. How did these shifting perspectives change your feelings about the personal lives of Lila and Caroline? How did it change your feelings about the events surrounding The Cur? Is there one character or time period that resonated with you particularly? Why?

2. Three central characters—Lila, Caroline, and Beth—are all labeled as girls or women who will not conform. What are some other ways you have witnessed marginalized people being silenced or targeted for not conforming? What steps can we take to stop such actions and prevent them from going forward?

3. Examine Lila and Caroline’s relationship. Were you able to see connections from Caroline in 2019 to Caroline in 2004? How did Caroline change over the years? Do you think she was there for Lila in the ways she needed to be?

4. Put yourself in Caroline’s father’s shoes. How would you have handled the aftermath of the trauma Caroline faced when she was first taken by The Cur? Would you have done anything differently?

5. How does Caroline’s art represent what she’s feeling? What do you think her art might have looked like had she not been abducted as a child?

6. Such a Pretty Smile is more than just a horror novel—it is about how women are gaslighted, abused, victimized, and shamed by the patriarchy as a way to keep anyone who isn’t male, white, cisgender, and heterosexual under their control. How do the various psychiatrists—especially Caroline’s—prop up these societal methods of control? How does Daniel? Are there any other characters who were surprising villains to you? Were there any surprising allies?

7. Lila, Caroline, and Beth each struggle against being silenced, and against being targeted by The Cur. What are their differences in the ways they handle these struggles? What are the similarities?

8. At any point, were you able to predict who was behind The Cur’s attacks, or what The Cur represented?

9. Do you feel that Lila and Caroline were able to reclaim some power in their final scenes together?

10. How did the end of the novel make you feel? Angry? Hopeful? Fearful? Inspired? How does the end of the book also feeling like a beginning? Does this affect your interpretation and feelings about the events that occurred?

Editorial Reviews

09/06/2021

Demeester (Beneath) blends realistic descriptions of dissociation and schizophrenia with the horror of a serial killer preying on young girls in this chilling probe into gender-based violence. In 2019, high schooler Lila Sawyer struggles with her attraction to her only friend; her increasingly strained relationship with her mother, Caroline; and the frightening news of young girls who were discovered dead and mutilated in the nearby woods. Demeester’s immersive descriptions suck readers into Lila’s inner turmoil as she starts seeing and hearing dogs that aren’t there and feels a dark presence awakening inside of her. Afraid that she’s inherited Caroline’s paranoid schizophrenia, Lila keeps these episodes secret while working to uncover what Caroline is hiding about a serial killer, known as The Cur, from years ago. Well-structured timeline shifts to 2004 depict Caroline’s sanity unravelling as she cares for her terminally ill father and manages her fiancé’s mounting envy of her artistic talent, while, in the present, Lila becomes enamored with the sense of power she feels when the darkness within speaks through her. Demeester’s darkly visceral imagery draws a fine line between mental illness and supernatural events that will leave readers doubting reality as the uncanny merges with the real-world horrors of a young girl coming of age. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Wonderfully well written; the dread, the enigma, build with each scene. It’s coming of age, it’s family secrets, it’s life in the balance, too. It’s Thomas Harris, it’s Lois Duncan… but no, it’s Kristi DeMeester, in complete confident control of your experience. An outstanding story in outstanding hands." –Josh Malerman New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie

"Raw, beautiful, and absolutely haunting. Such a Pretty Smile captivates both with the shadows that lurk beneath, and an unwavering look at the wildness and horrors of girlhood." - Camilla Sten, author of The Lost Village

"I've never read anything quite like SUCH A PRETTY SMILE: at turns brutal and shocking, at turns lush and evocative, and deeply disquieting throughout. This novel unsettled me at nearly every turn of the page, and that feeling has stayed with me since I closed its cover days ago. Kristi DeMeester is a highly-original voice in horror and I can't wait to see what she writes next." -emily m. danforth

"Kristi DeMeester is certainly an exciting new voice. Her exploration of toxic female friendships and her deep dive into the darkest parts of the human psyche made this a riveting, compulsive and horrifyingly entertaining read." - #1 international bestselling author Liz Nugent

"Kristi DeMeester's novel is a menacing, mysterious, and righteously angry fever dream, one that hooks into you from page one. SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is unafraid to bare its feminist fangs."—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Survivor Song

"A mother and daughter fight for their lives and their sanity in Kristi DeMeester’s SUCH A PRETTY SMILE, a quietly brutal feminist horror novel about what it means to be a ‘good girl’ in a world of men—and monsters. Thoughtful, creepy, and razor-sharp. This one will cut you.” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat and Red Hands

"With expert pacing and captivating characters, Kristi DeMeester’s SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is a gothic thriller that speaks to the strength of women. A darkly feminist and timely novel, I was spellbound until the final page." – Karma Brown, bestselling author of RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE

"Darkly visceral...will leave readers doubting reality as the uncanny merges with the real-world horrors of a young girl coming of age." - Publishers Weekly

"DeMeester’s storytelling is ferociously and unashamedly feminine...very satisfying." - Sadie Hartmann "Mother Horror," Mystery & Suspense Magazine

"DeMeester has taken the horror fiction world by force, delivering her own brand of hard-hitting yet intensely personal horror." - This is Horror

“Sharp-minded fiction…shed[s] unabashed light on a grim saga that personifies the legacy of dread that follows women throughout their lives.” - Fangoria

"Intoxicating, lyrical...emphatically feminine and provocative." - Litreactor

"Gorgeous and grim...a story about what it means to be a woman, living in a world determined to make you small, and meek, and above all, quiet." - BookRiot's The Fright Stuff

"So much horror centers on the beastliness of men, but few recent novels have literalised the monstrosity of misogyny with quite the finesse of Such A Pretty Smile...DeMeester’s novel really screams its intention, with implications that reach far beyond any single showdown between a young girl and a violent man." - Esquire

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

What is scarier, sexism in mental health care or an actual monster? DeMeester's (Beneath) empowering, engaging, and intense supernatural thriller seeks an answer through alternating time lines and brisk pacing. In 2019, 13-year-old Lila is dealing with an overprotective mother, an unrequited crush on her best friend, and the murders of several local teen girls. In 2004, Caroline (Lila's mother) is a young adult, facing an eerily similar serial killer who sets off a series of events that destroy Caroline's marriage, earn her critical acclaim for her grotesque sculptures, and inspire her to get treatment for mental illness. The unease is thick, pressing down on readers. Lila and Caroline intimately spill their dark secrets on the page but struggle to share these supernatural experiences and disturbing realizations with other people, for fear of stigmatization. As events in both timelines spin out of control, past and present collide in an epic showdown that will leave readers looking over their shoulders. VERDICT An obvious choice for fans of female-driven psychological horror (e.g., Sarah Pinborough's Cross Her Heart and Rachel Harrison's The Return). Also a good suggestion for readers who want to explore the trauma and inequalities in mental health treatment (like in Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver).

Library Journal

03/01/2022

DeMeester's (Beneath) latest is a horror suspense novel with some very sharp teeth. Young Lila Sawyer would love to understand her mother, the famous sculptor Caroline Sawyer. However, Caroline has a dark past, one that begins in New Orleans when she and the rest of the city are terrorized by the Cur, a serial killer targeting young girls. In the present, both mother and daughter notice young girls in their neighborhood turning up dead. The Cur appears to be active again, both Caroline and Lila are keeping secrets, and something hungry is closing in. The story jumps between different timelines, from Caroline's past to Lila's present, but DeMeester's descriptive powers are laser-focused on the psychological horror that both mother and daughter endure. Indeed, DeMeester's descriptions of physical and mental trauma are both beautiful and harrowing, and the breathy drawl of narrator Kristine Hvam roots the supernatural suspense deep in the heart of New Orleans. What draws listeners in and creates the most tension in this story is the isolation of Lila and Caroline—from each other and from the men they trust, men who either ignore or dismiss the horrors the mother and daughter have experienced. VERDICT Recommended for public library horror collections.—James Gardner

Library Journal - Audio