Hmm this book personally turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for me. I started it not really having a clue what it was about and when it started, I got creepy child vibes and got excited.

That's not what this book is.

After a couple of time jumps I realised there is no real plot here and it's mainly about Sammie, a woman in a lesbian relationship who's found herself in the parenting/housewife role whilst her partner Monika goes out to work.

I enjoy reading about mothers who struggle with mothering, not everyone is born to be a mother and some people don't realise that til they have kids. And I'm sure everyone feels like they're failing at parenthood at some point, but Sammie never tries to help herself. She's such a frustrating character so to spend this many pages in her head was quite draining! She just makes such bad choices and it feels like she doesn't even try and connect with her son (and he's a whole other ball game I couldn't figure out!)

This book jumps through time totally randomly, which I didn't really mind but kind of felt to me like when I lie in bed at night struggling to sleep thinking about every situation in the past I wished I had handled better. We just jump from bad moment to worse moment in this depressing downward spiral. I felt like I wasn't getting the full story, there must have been some good family moments, some parenting successes, yet they are rarely shown.

The ending was pretty good and raises more questions than it answers, but in a good way! Upon reflection there were a lot of things I liked about it, the queer relationship and parenting POV, the unreliability of the story told through Sammie's glaze, the frustrations over the situation you're in, not being the one you wish, or feel entitled to have. But I also found it a chore to read at times!

Not a very clear, concise review but neither was the book so 🤷

One of those difficult books to review - it did not drag so I got through it quickly, some of the characters were intriguing, some frustrating but I am left nonplussed. I wanted more of a climax as regards the son - was he evil or just reacting to his hopeless parents? The book has hints of 'We need to talk about Kevin' but then it did not follow this up. There is also the 'mother gives up career and life for child, feels frustrated' trope - but again this just sat there.
I didn't 'not like' this book, but I am struggling to find anything that lifts my enthusiasm beyond 'fine'.

I love any sort of character driven book and this did not disappoint .
A tale about. motherhood , relationships and life challenges . A queer family, a challenging son makes for a messy life …
Our protagonist Sammie is flawed, chaotic and resentful of her wife . Her son has issues she can’t control and she doesn’t know how to cope . I’m not a mother myself but I loved getting into Sammies head and found myself feeling like I actually knew her as a friend by the end of the book. . We see her struggle over the course of a year , splitting from her wife , dating new people, visiting a therapist and trying to parent her son . I loved the Florida setting and references to places .
The ending was slightly abrupt but then maybe we could have a sequel ??!

Not sure what to feel about this book. I was really pumped to read a book about lgbt parenting but this was frustrating to read, although I cannot get to grasp what it is exactly that irritated me.

I loved this poignant, heartbreaking novel. Fans of hard-hitting contemporaries which focus on character rather than plot will love this one. It was such an incredible experience to read about this complex and difficult dynamic between mother and son, and watching the main character's marriage fall apart. It's also a challenging novel because it makes you question Sammie and her way of telling the story, of whether things really happened that way - which is exacerbated by the final chapter, which made me re-think the whole story.

Wow, this was hands down one of the darkest books I've ever read! Going in I really wasn't sure what to expect, but if shock factor is what you're looking for in a book - this definitely delivers.

At first, I was really unsure how to rate this. I disliked every character - especially Sammie who was a consistently frustrating lead. But I also feel that that was very much the point of it all, so in that way, it was extremely clever.

I don't want to give spoilers, but if ending was how I interpreted it, it absolutely gave me chills!

This was such a unique book so unlike anything else and if you'd like to switch up your reading from your usual comfort genres I'd definitely recommend using this one to do it! It's certainly a wild ride.

I found this book compelling almost in spite of itself and grew to enjoy that tension. In a sea of literary fiction that engages with queerness as set dressing, I really rated Arnett's willingness to be explicit not just about sex between women but the complexity of those relationships, and of queer motherhood. At times the shifts in time felt a little jarring but I soon got used to those. I went in thinking I was getting a spooky novel about a malevolent child and instead got a thoughtful novel about being stuck in your own perception, of mothering and unmothering, of relationships falling apart and of losing a sense of who you are. I usually want more resolution at the end of a novel like this but actually, I think the email closure is effective in showing us that sometimes people change only a little. I can't give 3.5 on the stars here but it's a solid 3.5 for me!

The cover drew me to read this book rather than the description. Unfortunately, this didn’t really click with me! I found I had some issues with the pacing of this novel and I wasn’t really invested in the narrative or any of the characters. Waiting to see what the author brings out next.

One of those difficult books to review - it did not drag so I got through it quickly, some of the characters were intriguing, some frustrating but I am left nonplussed. I wanted more of a climax as regards the son - was he evil or just reacting to his hopeless parents? The book has hints of 'We need to talk about Kevin' but then it did not follow this up. There is also the 'mother gives up career and life for child, feels frustrated' trope - but again this just sat there.
I didn't 'not like' this book, but I am struggling to find anything that lifts my enthusiasm beyond 'fine'.

I was looking forward to reading With Teeth as I had very much enjoyed Kristen Arnett's debut novel Mostly Dead Things. However I found With Teeth didn't really work for me. The sections from the viewpoints of peripheral characters don't really add anything.