Clever Little Thing

A newly pregnant London mother notices alarming changes in her eight-year-old daughter in this haunting psychological thriller from Echlin (Gone). Former lifestyle blogger Charlotte Mason’s precocious daughter, Stella, has always been difficult—something Charlotte embraces, but others, including her husband, Pete, have concerns about. After Stella’s longtime caretaker, Blanka, dies, the child becomes unusually compliant and sluggish, often parroting the simple phrases (“Oh, yes”) uttered by her late Armenian sitter. Pete, swamped with work, initially brushes off Charlotte’s concerns about Stella, attributing her anxiety to hormone spikes from the pregnancy. Charlotte finds a more sympathetic ear with Blanka’s mother, Irina, with whom Stella seems to have a curiously close relationship. As Charlotte’s concerns mount, she grasps at wilder and wilder hypotheses about Stella’s situation—some of which are supernatural, though none are nearly as jaw-dropping as the climax Echlin eventually delivers. At once a propulsive page-turner and a thought-provoking exploration of maternal attachment, this is a devilish good time. Agent: Chad Luibl, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.)