For fans of Big Little Lies and Nothing to See Here, a novel that asks: do we really have to give our children everything?
CUTTING TEETH
by Chandler Baker
Flatiron, July 2023
(via Writers House)
Rhea, Darby, and Mary Beth are on personal quests to reclaim aspects of their identities subsumed by motherhood—their careers, their sex lives, their bodies. But all three women are about to lose major ground when they realize their children, who all attend the same preschool, have developed an unsettling medical condition: the kids are craving blood.
It seems a little strange but relatively benign until a young teacher is found dead. And now, the only potential witnesses (and suspects) are ten adorable four-year-olds. Part murder mystery, part motherhood manifesto, the novel explores the standards society holds mothers to—along with the ones to which we hold ourselves—and the things no one tells you about becoming a parent.
“As brutal in its honesty as it is in its deceptions, CUTTING TEETH is a viciously sinuous whodunnit . . . an incisive and fearless exploration of motherhood and the self-inflicted wounds we hide up our sleeves as we each struggle to survive it.” —Elle Cosimano, USA Today bestselling author of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
“With devourable writing and pitch-perfect humour, CUTTING TEETH is a sharp, original, wickedly astute look at the sting of modern motherhood. In this group of toddlers and parents out for blood (literally!), Chandler Baker nails the performance pressures of parenthood, and the unachievable standards to which we hold ourselves.” —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push
Chandler Baker is the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese Witherspoon book club pick Whisper Network as well as The Husbands, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, and a number of YA novels. CUTTING TEETH is her third novel for adults.
Nora Spangler is a successful attorney but when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor appointments, knows where the extra paper towel rolls are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband works hard, too… but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder? When the Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women—a tech CEO, a neurosurgeon, an award-winning therapist, a bestselling author—with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help with a resident’s wrongful death case, she is pulled into the lives of the women there. She finds the air is different in Dynasty Ranch. The women aren’t hanging on by a thread. But as the case unravels, Nora uncovers a plot that may explain the secret to having-it-all. One that’s worth killing for. Calling to mind a Stepford Wives gender-swap, THE HUSBANDS imagines a world where the burden of the “second shift” is equally shared—and what it may take to get there.