This book was unfortunately not my favorite and while I appreciate the brevity of the book, it wasn't for me. The characters weren't likable enough for me to care or root for them and they weren't compelling enough for me to be enthralled by them either.

I think this book is the perfect introduction for anyone looking to read horror. It is short but also digestible, while actually being scared. I have not been uneasy or scared while reading a book in a long time.

I think everyone got catfished by this novella. The cover and plot make it seem like we're getting a spooky ghost story but what we got was actually an incredibly annoying story of squabbling between characters.

This book was so a small package full of a host of haunting. The cover drew me in, but the story kept my attention.

This horror book was unlike other horror books. It did feel a little unhinged at times which could be a good thing, but this was seemed very wierdly paced. Now, did I like it. Yes, the ideas that a house is built like that and it's a thing of urban legends so to speak was a great premise. Their was a lot of blood and gore and it definitely makes you think about your friend group.

I did not enjoy this as much as I would’ve liked to. The cover and the premise sounded very interesting, but the plot felt rushed. I was a little confused at parts, and the overall scary vibe was very PG rated.

A creepy, haunted house, ghost tale that I loved. It was perfectly dark. I love a horror story that's actually horror and not just gratuitous violence.

I know this novella was hit or miss for a lot of people, but for me it was a hit! I've since read and loved Khaw's follow-up novella as well, so I'm just assuming I'm the right kind of reader for their work. Anyway, this was creepy (and slightly terrifying) in all the best ways, and I would absolutely recommend it if you're looking for a quick, spooky read!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was disappointed with the ending. I was also disappointed by the basic nature of the characters and their relationships to one another. This almost read like a movie script instead of a novella and I think it would've been a better movie. There was some genuine creepiness to it and I appreciated that it represented different cultures than America, with both Japanese and Malaysian focuses. Just not necessarily what I wanted or expected, but a lot of people are going to love this story. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy!

This was fun. Love a haunted house. Wish this was longer so we could’ve had a little more build & suspense & really linger in the house awhile. Really looking forward to reading much more of Khaw’s writing.

Wow, this book does a lot in a short time. I kept wanting/expecting things to play out a certain way, but once I let the story do what it wanted to, I enjoyed myself a lot more. I think if I reread it, I’d like it more. A unique, engaging page turner.

Talked about this book on Scarred for Life and would love to connect with Cassandra on the podcast. Fantastic story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this free ARC.

This book was choppy at times. I wanted more and wished this was more then just a novelle. I did use this for my Horror book club.

I loved this book. One of the only books in a long time to genuinely give me nightmares. I'll be citing it as a horror favorite for a GOOD LONG WHILE, for sure!

‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ by Cassandra Khaw is a horror novella that is part haunted house, part Japanese ghost story.

A group of distant friends (they were all once closer, but things change) decide to hold a wedding in a creepy venue, a haunted moldering Japanese mansion. The five people all have different motives for being there, but there is a presence they didn’t count on, and once she shows up, all bets are off on who will live and who will die.

This book had a great atmospheric vibe to it. The story builds slowly, like a roller coaster climbing the first hill. Once the story starts with the spooky stuff and the yokai, it is relentless and a bit unpredictable.

When a group of horror-obsessed friends arrive at a remote haunted Japanese mansion for a creepy wedding, they're *hoping* something supernatural and scary happens. After all, they love having the wits scared out of them. But no matter how much they say they expect it, they certainly can't handle it when the ghost of a buried-alive bride-to-be manifests and begins wreaking havoc. This is a short and scary book, full of horrific Japanese supernatural beings and division among friends. It's great, and fully worthy of that creeptastic cover.

Musings:

This is a horror novel that suffers from using the title in the story itself way too much. While it is an intriguing line and it does make an interesting title, I felt like it cheapened the story a bit to where I read it and felt like it was just ok.

There’s different kinds of horror for different seasons and this felt like turning on the tv to watch a horror movie hoping it’ll get to my bones and instead it felt like the wind barely tickling my skin. This novella is not very scary. It feels like it wants to be with the bones and yokai trapped within the house, but it felt like a scenario they should’ve been able to get out of way sooner and it suffers from protagonists that make you yell at the screen to just turn around and go home, but even knowing the risks they go straight on ahead anyway.

The characters were all flawed but, there was not enough time spent with them for me to really care about their fates at all. They all seemed to want to lie to each other about one thing or another and it created a situation where when they decide to not leave each other at the end I didn’t really understand why? The only thing I could come up with is a basic care for human life, but with the way these characters act they don’t really seem to value that in actuality all that much. They also really don’t care for each other at all.

I enjoyed moments of this story enough to recommend it to people like me who read and watch all kinds of horror because that’s what feels fun regardless if it ends up being great or not. It’s fun to talk about either way. I’d even buy a physical copy just for the cover alone. In the end though, if your looking for really bone chilling horror then this novella is a skip.

This a pretentious horror novella that was full of characters who couldn’t stand each other. Why are they friends? Why should I be nervous for them when they clearly don’t care about each other or themselves? Why is so much backstory hinted at but never explained? There was potential here for an interesting story, but unfortunately it never quite gained its footing before it plummeted into ridiculousness.

I've tried coming back to this one multiple times, and I finally finished it, but it wasn't the most enjoyable experience for me. I felt like there was too much exposition describing everything to me, without letting me fill some things in to help capture that eerie feeling that I love about horror titles. It's a quick read and a unique story, but it just left me dragging and took me forever to finish.

i wanted so badly to like this one, but the whole thing fell so flat. it was such a short read but it just seemed to drag on and on, mostly because it did a lot of telling instead of showing. i wanted so much to get more lore about the manor but instead we just got all of this information about characters that i really didn't care too much about. additionally, the characters swore FAR too much. even if it's colloquial and it's how people talk in the real world, it didn't translate well to the page at all and just made them come across as more one-dimensional than they already were.