I bought this book before going to bed one evening despite the negative reviews and thought if nothing else it would at least put me to sleep. When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy.

During Suzette’s chapters, my heart broke as she detailed her inability to communicate with her mute daughter, Hanna. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company.It's always what hits our psyche the hardest that seems to stir up that powerful mixture of emotions. At first, I sympathized with Suzette, a severely ill woman stuck at home with a delinquent child no school will accept. But her dark mind played on, resistant to more-comforting distractions in the weeks since her surgery.

For new readers of the genre, this book is probably going to blow minds, but as a connoisseur of creepy children novels, this was severely lacking in horror and excitement. Feel free to contact me for more information about my reviewing policy, the books I love, or just for a general chat! She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. Hanna's chapters are calm and upbeat by comparison, but they offer no respite from the book's mounting tension; naïve observations and whimsical fantasies share the page with twisted musings and nefarious schemes, the jarring juxtaposition only compounding the reader's sense of unease. Content-wise, it was a tough book to get into because obviously, you are not going to care about this little girl-monster, and the archetypes were so glaring they seem to smack you in the face.Her parents, Alex and Suzette, have subjected her to scores of tests, fearing a physical disability, but in truth, Hanna simply finds words to be an ugly means of expression and chooses not to use them.

I'll say that whether you like this book or not, Zoje Stage set out to entertain and shake up her readers and succeeds in hitting her mark.Add the father--who embodies most white/upper-middle class/successful male clichés like "overworked man," "breadwinner," "dotes on his daughter," "ignores problems in the family," "dismisses his wife," etc.