It is Tuesday book lovers!
Sharing with you today a review for a book I originally rated a little bit lower and six months later and on publication day I have decided to bump it up a star… this book has stuck with me and I let myself be swayed by the opinions of others and that was not fair to this book or to the author!
COMING TO SHELVES TODAY 7/17
Baby TeethĀ byĀ Zoje Stage
4 controversial starsĀ šššš
About the Book
Sweetness can be deceptive.Ā
Meet Hanna.
Sheās the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. Heās 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 sheāll 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 Hannaās tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette’s husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that thereās something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isnāt the best place for their baby girl after all.
My Thoughts
I believe Iām going to bust out my complement sandwich for this review… as a refresher a complement sandwich is good/bad/good…. so in short the bad is sandwiched in between the good….. I also want to make it very clear that I read this with a group and I was in the true minority on this…. so the opinions in this review are absolutely my own and my review should be read with the understanding that this book is unquestionably not for everybody….
This book is about Hannah a seven-year-old who has some pretty major issues…. one of them being the fact that she wants to get rid of her mother…. for good….Suzette is an exhausted mother at the end of her rope, what has she done to deserve this child? As a mother I would love to believe that I would do all the right things in this situation, but next to Hannah, my children are absolute perfection (just donāt tell them that)….. I felt the author did a good job in the portrayal of the parents the overly stressed out mother and the oblivious father…. and the tension this would put on a relationship when Dad chooses to pretend that daughter is perfectly normal and mom wants to pull her hair out….
Now to the meat of the sandwich, the problems I had with this book…. hannahās age was probably my biggest problem, I just found it very unbelievable that a child of her age was able to have the thought process and knowledge that she did no matter how gifted she was….. this I believe leads to the real problem if Hannah were 12(The age I believe A character who acted as she did was more apt to be) then she probably would have already been diagnosed and been in some major therapy…. however this also begs the question why was she not in major therapy at seven? Perhaps Alex and Suzette were not parents of the year, but they did take her to see several doctors and Iām not quite sure why more wasnāt done at a younger age? Although if something were done at a younger age we would not have had this book…. so perhaps that is the reason….
This was a quick page turning red that probably would be better classified as horror….. and if this is a genre you stay away from Iād definitely recommend staying away from this book…. this is a book that you canāt say you liked it, but I will say I appreciated it…. it definitely made me think, what would I do if I were this mother? And I believe sometimes it is hard not to judge in this situation, but I am a firm believer that unless you have walked in somebodyās shoes you really have no idea what is going on in their life and thatās kind of how I looked at this book….
So Iām going to take the easy way out and neither recommend this book or not recommend this book…. Iām going to leave it up to you, because this book evoked some pretty seriously strong reactions in people…. so if you choose to read it, read it knowing there is some disturbing content and it is 100% not for everybody….
*** thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***
Have a day filled with words!
Author Bio ā 
About the author:Ā 
The Cottage on Lily Pond Lane
Author Bio ā 
I also did not know that it was based on a true story, i know obviously Auschwitz is true, but this is also the true story about Lale Sokolov and his “romance story” with the love of his life Gita.
The horror that one man can endure and feel has been put into this book and is sometimes overwhelming, and that is a good thing, it should never be forgotten what happened in these camps, it should never be forgotten what these people went through.
Lale was taken to Auschwitz in 1942 he was 26 years old.
He offered his services when the Nazi’s came to his town, he was told that one member had to go and help them and the rest of the family would be saved, Lale stepped up to the mark, his older brother had a wife and a child so he thought that it would be best for him to stay and look after her.
At that time he and the rest of the world were unaware of the horrors that he would see and endure, he just thought he was helping his family!
On arrival he was stripped of his name and given the number 32407 which was tattooed onto his arm, along with the thousands of other arrivals.
He was set to work, firstly lugging bricks, and then on the rooftops of the new buildings of the ever extending camp.
One day he got really sick with typhiod, a disease that was swarming through the camps, a man took care of him, his name was Pepan.
Pepan was the man that had Tattooed him on the day that he arrived at the camp, after that Pepan took him under his wing and used him as an apprentice, he taught him the trade and also how to keep his head down and his mouth shut!
One day Pepan disappeared, so Lale was crowned the new “Tetovierer” (Camp Tattooist) – Lale never saw Pepan again.
Because Lale was fluent in 5 or 6 languages he learned to hover around and collect information, and because of his new job he was given preferential treatment, he was given better lodgings and extra helpings at dinner, which Lale saved and gave out to his friends in Block 29 where he was first stationed.
While he was tattooing new prisnners one day he met Gita, he tattooed her arm with the number 34902, he never forgot that number, they tried to meet each other and sometimes managed fleeting glances and stolen kisses, much to the dismay of his German Officer in charge of him, his extra rations soon started to go to her.
He also managed to gain gems and money from dealings with some of the other prisoners, so he started exchanging these for extra food, this was like currency in the camps and Lale soon became the man to go to for anything.
There are, as you would think, a lot of harrowing stories inside this book, but also a lot of love.
My heart was in my mouth a few times, especially with Josef Mengele hovering around and telling him that he will be next!
The Authors Notes, and Following at the end of the book is beautiful and the Afterward from Lale and Gita’s son Gary made me tear up.
š§š§ – Narration by Richard Armitage was outstanding, his accents were wonderful and his voice was just perfect for this story.
Save a credit for this one guys, it is well worth it.
Prepare yourself,
Vicci
P.S – I had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz a couple of years ago, and it was truly the most strange place I have ever been, it is still as grim as it is portrayed in books and pictures, and the government and workers there have done well to keep it as it should be, a museum that portrays the horrors that went on there.
They haven’t “Disneyfied” it, and they are very respectful.
You cannot just go and walk around chatting, you have a guide and you go around in small groups, you have earphones on and the guide talks into a microphone so you don’t hear anyone else talking.
Krakow itself is beautiful, and seeped in history and well worth a visit.
We should never forget!
Learn more about Lale and his story here:- The Tattooist of Auschwitz – and his secret love