Dear Hanna

A Novel

By: Zoje Stage

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Zoje Stage delivers another knockout with a blood-chilling follow-up to international sensation Baby Teeth, taking readers back into the unsteady world of a young sociopath who’s all grown up.

Hanna is no stranger to dark thoughts: as a young child, she tried to murder her own mother. But that was more than sixteen years ago. And extensive therapy—and writing letters to her younger brother—has since curbed those nasty tendencies.

Now twenty-four, Hanna is living an outwardly normal life of domestic content. Married to real estate agent Jacob, she’s also stepmother to his teenage daughter Joelle. They live in a beautiful home, and Hanna loves her career as a phlebotomist—a job perfectly suited to her occasional need to hurt people.

But when Joelle begins to change in ways that don’t suit Hanna’s purposes, her carefully planned existence threatens to come apart. With life slipping out of her control, Hanna reverts to old habits, determined to manipulate the events and people around her. And the only thing worse than a baby sociopath is a fully grown one.

With its dark humor and chillingly seductive protagonist, Dear Hanna is a standalone sequel sure to thrill returning and new readers alike.

©2024 Zoje Stage (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Once you get inside the head of this suburban whirlpool of psychological madness, there is no escape until the shocking final pages.”—Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall

“The most unsettling child you’ve ever read about is all grown up . . . Just like our dear Hanna does with her beloved charcoals, Zoje Stage masterfully draws you into a story made up entirely of shades of gray. You won’t know what to believe, you won’t know who to pull for, and you won’t put it down until the last page is turned.”—Tony Wirt, bestselling author of Just Stay Away

“Oh, but this is a deliciously nasty piece of work. Dear Hanna succeeds brilliantly on so many levels: as an ingenious follow-up to Baby Teeth, as a stand-alone thriller, and as one of the best, most squirm-inducing portraits of a deviant schemer this side of Gone Girl. However, Stage never skimps on the humanity of her characters; impossibly, you’ll feel for Hanna almost as much as you’ll dread whatever she’s capable of doing next.”—Nat Cassidy, author of Mary and Nestlings