Such a Pretty Smile

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 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 this unrelenting power to its core, either to obliterate it, or lose themselves forever. 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


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.