There are so many plot twists in Hannah Echlin’s Clever Little Thing that it’s impossible for a synopsis to truly do the story justice—this book will genuinely keep readers guessing, wondering what is a mother’s intuition and what could be perinatal psychosis.
Charlotte knows that her 8-year-old daughter Stella isn’t like other children. Stella can’t stand certain sounds, has sensory issues with tight-fitting or scratchy clothes, and goes into an apocalyptic tantrum Charlotte calls “freak-out mode” when she’s overstimulated. But Stella is also reading vastly above her grade level, and is curious about the world in a way that makes her precocious and unique.
But after Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, quits her job with a vague text message, things begin to change. Charlotte notices her daughter accepts change more readily and even begins to change physically, gaining weight rapidly. Alarmingly, Stella also seems to be regressing in her reading skills and her once avid curiosity is gone.
Teachers, counselors and even Charlotte’s husband, Pete, assure her that Stella is merely changing as she grows, and that she should be happy her daughter is turning into a more typical child. Charlotte isn’t so sure: To her, Stella is an entirely different child, almost like a changeling. As Stella continues to evolve, Charlotte begins to feel like she’s the only one who can see the truth about her daughter. However, she’s also in the midst of a high-risk pregnancy, a situation that others seem to think may be the true source of her anxiety.
The book is entirely narrated from Charlotte’s point of view, and her rising sense of panic and the “wrongness” about her daughter is acutely palpable. Still, Echlin keeps the reader removed enough that they’ll begin to wonder if the pressures of motherhood to a challenging child (Pete is a rather absent father) and a difficult pregnancy are clouding Charlotte’s judgment.
Clever Little Thing is an impressively twisty thriller, but it’s also a testament to a mother’s intuition and her love for her child exactly as she is, not as society wants her to be. Sometimes spooky, sometimes rage-inducing, Clever Little Thing concludes with a truly unexpected, impossible to predict ending.
