Such a Pretty Smile

August 1, 2021

Something snarly called the Cur is going after girls who dare to be different, tearing them to shreds. Years ago, it threatened memory-repressing Caroline Sawyer, whose visions have been manifested in the frightening sculptures she creates. Now it threatens her 13-year-old daughter, Lila, who's been voicing her private pain, and mother and daughter start tracking the Cur to its source. Billed as feminist horror, which sounds cool to me; a 100,000-copy first printing.

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September 6, 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.

February 25, 2022
DeMeester builds a unique and haunting mother-daughter relationship in this tragic thriller. A serial killer known only as The Cur is murdering young girls. Teenager Lila is increasingly unnerved on several fronts: by the stories of finding dead girls' bodies, by her attraction to her friend Macie, and by her increasingly strained relationship with her mother, Caroline, a well-known sculptor. Caroline has a dark and unsettling past, as the author reveals in chapters set in 2004, 15 years in the past. Lila is convinced her mother knows something about The Cur, something she's kept hidden throughout Lila's life. Lila knows her mother suffers from paranoia, but is it possible her paranoia stems from real events? And can these past events somehow be causing shockwaves in the present? The author keeps us constantly in a state of suspense, wondering just what Caroline knows, just what Lila suspects, and just who or what is really killing these children. A memorable psychological thriller.

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October 1, 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).

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.