Cutting Teeth

LoveReading Says

Part wildly wicked murder mystery, part razor-sharp dissection of motherhood, Chandler Baker’s Cutting Teeth is the kind of novel that’ll leave you wondering what the hell just happened! Featuring frazzled moms, vampiric four-year-olds, a hot pastor, and a murdered pre-school teacher, it’s an outrageously unique story that’ll have you flipping the pages at breakneck speed — guaranteed.

Healthy-eating obsessed Rhea is a single mom to four-year-old Bohdi, while Mary Beth, mom to Noelle, takes counsel about having more marital sex from Pastor Ben, a man who’s handsome like a “nineties heartthrob”. Then there’s Darby, a woman whose breasts “used to be quite nice before her kids literally ate them”, and whose four-year-old daughter Lola is a biter.

As more kids at the Little Academy preschool hop aboard the biting bandwagon, their teacher Miss Ollie is murdered on school grounds. Little by little, more facts about the murder are revealed. When the media gets wind of them, questions about juvenile vampirism (AKA Renfield’s syndrome) are raised. Then the Poop Bandit strikes — which kid has taken to depositing do-do around the school?!

On top of the unfolding whodunnit mystery, Cutting Teeth offers incisive commentary on the unfair standards mothers are held to ­—  while men are able to become “the dad that gets their shit together”, in contrast “there’s no redemption for mothers. Mothers better be born perfect.

Pure and virgin white.” Add to that the novel’s indecent levels of humour (“Mommy? Should I bite him?” asks little Lola when the police take Darby in for questioning), and Cutting Teeth amounts to a roguishly satisfying read. 

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Cutting Teeth

A murder. Ten witnesses. But no one saw a thing...'Sharp, original, wickedly astute' Ashley Audrain, Sunday Times bestselling author of The PushA young teacher is found murdered in the preschool stationery cupboard and the only witnesses are ten toddlers. The problem is the children can't tell the police what happened.But it soon comes to light that an unsettling medical condition is going around Little Academy: the kids are craving blood, and the parents have been keeping secrets from the authorities that could change everything about the case.As the police draw closer to the truth, it soon becomes clear that the children are not just witnesses, they're suspects…and so are their mothers.Part murder mystery, part domestic suspense, Cutting Teeth is a thought-provoking thriller that asks: what wouldn't a parent do for their child?'Thrilling and thought-provoking' Stacy Willingham, New York Times-bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark'Bestseller Baker takes readers on a stomach-dropping emotional roller coaster in this suspenseful and darkly comic tale of motherhood and murder... a wicked thriller'. - Publishers Weekly

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