Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw is creepy and raw, a mix of Cabin in the Woods, Breakfast Club and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Five friends, Cat, Faiz, Nadia, Lin and Phillip, travel to a haunted house in Japan to have a wedding. The dynamics of the friendship is as captivating as the back story the wedding venue, a haunted Heian manor. The manor is haunted by a bride waiting for her groom to return. As the group prepare for the wedding of Faiz and Nadia, hidden feelings and secrets surface that intensify the macabre atmosphere of the manor. Khaw's story is a great addition to horror collections.

I definitely requested this book based on the cover - but can you blame me? It's a knockout. Definitely the creepiest of 2021. I was curious about the Japanese folklore fusion, too, but I was just mostly confused. This is a really short novella, but at times it seems to drag unbearably under the weight of all the metaphors. I think maybe the book would have had more impact on me if I had been at all invested in any of the characters, but I wasn't. They were all irredeemable, so the stakes didn't matter to me. I know there is a scary story buried in here, it just wasn't for me.

Five friends in their early twenties visit a crumbling Japanese manor for a haunted house-themed elopement, but the ghost of a jilted bride sends them quickly spiraling into madness and violence.

Every book has its reader, but I was not the reader for this book. Based on the description, I was expecting a creepy haunted house story with J-horror vibes. Nothing But Blackened Teeth is not that.

From the outset, none of the characters, including the narrator, are likeable, not even in the fun-to-hate sort of way. The first half of the novella is spent detailing the petty, spiteful grudges that circulate between them, and it is very clear that they are all selfish, jealous people. They are so resentful towards each other that I wondered why they were even still friends. In particular, the narrator, Cat, is recovering from a depressive episode and whines incessantly about how unloved and rejected she feels, yet rebuffs every attempt from the others to reach out to her. Whatever point the book wanted to make about the hardships of mental illness were steamrolled by the sheer obnoxiousness of Cat's constant self-pity. Before the ghost even appeared, I wanted all of these people to die.

The disconnect between the reader and the characters is exacerbated by the group's utter lack of reaction to any of the repulsive things that happen. Eyeballs spill from the cracks in the walls, paintings of youkai writhe around them, and a dead girl laughs with glee at their plight, but they don't even acknowledge it. They were so unresponsive that at one point, I wondered if the supernatural phenomena were actually happening, or if Cat was simply hallucinating.

I, as the reader and an outside party, was perfectly willing to acknowledge all of the strange goings on, but I didn't find any of it particularly frightening, either. I blame this entirely on Khaw's prose. It's clogged with so many distracting metaphors and similes that there's no room for tension or build-up, and the pacing is terrible. The book slams into ghostly activity practically out of nowhere and left me blinking in bewilderment at the randomness. And then the randomness kept escalating. An attempt was made to cultivate a spooky atmosphere, but it didn't work for me. Additionally, there wasn't much of a Japanese or Heian-era atmosphere, either. Besides the occasional Japanese phrase dropping, the mansion could've be anywhere in the world.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is disgusting and gross and senselessly violent, but it is not scary. My library will purchase this book simply because it has gotten so much hype and early reviewer attention that people will be interested in reading it, but I will not be recommending it to anyone.

You know when they say, 'It's only weird if you make it weird?' Well...This book IS weird..in a good and creepy way.

First, I loved that this was a novella. My to-read list is ever growing, and this was a nice change of pace. And with that COVER! It was easy to pick up and read in one sitting.

The book reads first person inside the head of main character Cat, whose mental health has been wavering for some time now. Trying to bounce back and move forward, she finds herself on a trip to Japan to celebrate the nuptials of a friend and rekindle the friendships that lost flame when she suffered a mental breakdown. Best part is, in all her fragility, she decides it's perfectly okay to stay overnight in an ancient, haunted mansion that is crumbling with age and playing tricks on her eyes the moment she walks in. Japanese folklore is laced throughout the pages, where creepy creatures dance at the corner of Cat's vision and haunting whispers make her question her sanity as soon as she lays eye on the peeling, molding wallpaper and crumbing statues. Cat's headspace makes this book not only creepy, but also a psychological thriller leaving the reader to question everything, page after page.

It reads almost like a found-footage indie horror film, getting weirder and creepier and sometimes confusing with each page. It started getting difficult to understand what was happening closer to the climax, but I honestly think this was the author's brilliant way of making the reader feel just as anxiety ridden and confused as the main character is feeling. Again, Cat's headspace is nowhere I would want to find myself alone.

Lastly, as others have mentioned before, the author really laid out the metaphors and symbolism pretty heavily. Though this was a consistent theme throughout the whole book, so it somehow added to the weirdness that was developing and maybe that was the point. Also, I found that some of the descriptions were confusing and I had a hard time following along at times. That could be due to my lack in knowledge of Japanese folklore and culture. I frequently had to look up pronunciations and descriptions of many of the statues and described creatures to paint a more elaborate picture of what Cat was experiencing. I think if I knew that knowledge beforehand or even had an index somewhere in the book, that I would have enjoyed this book all the more and it would've given an even creepier vibe.

If you're into edgy books that have classic horror tropes and read like a scary and psychological trippy movie, then this is for you!

I’ve been saving Nothing But Blackened Teeth to put me in the Halloween spirit. This novella is easily read in one sitting and while I settled in to my favorite chair after sundown for a spooky tale, I ended up shaking my head at what could've been.

A group of friends travel to an abandoned mansion for a pre-wedding celebration. Turns out most of them have had feelings for or past relationships with each other but it’s all pretty vague and almost feels like we’re expected to just immediately know the relationship dynamics. Instead, I felt like I was eavesdropping on conversations that didn’t mean much without provided context.

The crumbling mansion seems pretty creepy, could’ve been very atmospheric and created some real unease for readers but it was a fuzzy backdrop to a stage of arguing characters. All I knew that kept the creep factor going is that there’s an old tale that a bride was buried alive under the mansion when her groom didn’t show up for the wedding and since then women have been sacrificed and packed in the walls to quench her loneliness.
Ummmm… this was an incredible opportunity for nightmare fuel and it was completely wasted on characters with zero development.

I didn’t care about them because I never understood their motivations, reasoning, or history. There is zero suspense. The most unsettling thing about this book is the cover for me. I wish the house had ate them all, honestly.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Nothing But Blackened Teeth is scheduled for release on October 19, 2021.

I requested Nothing But Blackened Teeth from Netgalley because I love Haunted House books. The list of characters was small and easy to keep track of. The setting was awesome: an ancient mansion in rural Japan. The history was a legend full of horror.

Friends from college come together to celebrate a wedding: Faiz, the groom who cannot deny his bride anything. Nadia, the bride whose dream has been to be married in a haunted house (I know! What could go wrong?). Phillip, whose vast wealth makes the entire wedding trip possible. Lin, the one with the wife and a presence in the upper society of New York. Cat, the narrator who has recently had a serious episode of depression brought on by Faiz leaving her for Nadia.

Very early in the first chapter, we know things are not as they seem and that one of the characters knows this long before the others. I struggled with the Japanese cultural aspects of the book. I had to stop and lookup terms. The Kindle app dictionary did not provide many answers. The need to find what the words meant pulled me from the story.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth has an atmosphere that draws you in and ultimately takes you to very dark places and an unexpected conclusion.

I first read Cassandra Khaw in COME JOIN US BY THE FIRE, a free audio collection put out by Tor Nightfire. It’s still free as far as I know on Spotify and you should grab it! Khaw’s story THESE DEATHLESS BONES was one of my favorite stories of the collection. It read like a dark fairytale and was beautifully written. It felt more like an experience than simply reading a story (or having one read to me!). So I was very much looking forward to this novella and tell me that cover isn’t the stuff of nightmares! I’m keeping it around to spook my child because I am nothing if not mother of the year material, ha.

So what’s it about? I’ll tell you a little bit but hopefully not too much because it’s a novella and I think you should discover its secrets on your own. A group of friends head out to a destination wedding. But it’s not your typical wedding venue. The bride wants to get married in a haunted house so they’re all gathered in a Heian-era mansion in Japan where, if rumors are true, a bride asked to be buried alive when her groom didn’t make it for the nuptials and now she demands a little company each year in the form of a warm body while she eternally waits for her man to show. Being a ghost sounds like lonesome work so who can blame her?

This is probably not the best of ideas but a bride wants what she wants. However, this is a particularly not-so-great plan because this group of friends is a hot mess. Along with the gorgeous descriptions of the decaying mansion, it’s soon apparent that these “friends” have some mighty unfriendly history, including messy past relationships with each other, jealousies, and unresolved hurt. All that is sitting there simmering below the surface waiting to spill over. It makes me wonder why any of them agreed to go to this thing in the first place. Their interactions are strained and fraught with tension but the reader is never told exactly who did what to who or why and I was left floundering a little bit because I am nosy and I want all the backstory when it comes to relationship messes. The reader gets little tantalizing dribs and drabs as the characters argue and verbally stab each other so you’re left to fill in the blanks. I love novellas but I do wish this book had been a little longer to flesh out all of that stuff. This won’t bother you if you’re not as nosy as I am and you’re probably not!

The rest of the story is a beautifully written visit inside a haunted, crumbling mansion, filled with creepy-ass dolls, and what’s not to like about that? Nothing. There is nothing not to like about that if you’re asking me! I loved the imagery and the beauty of the writing, the folklore, the anger, the frayed nerves, and the brutally shocking moments.

Khaw’s novella is as creepy and darkly poetic as I was expecting and it was also exquisitely vicious so don’t let the atmospheric writing fool you into thinking this is a quieter horror novel. It’s not. I think it’s a great choice for a cool autumn night during this spooky season. Or any season when you want some eerie feelings creeping under your skin. I can’t wait to see what Khaw writes next!

This novella was not it. I was excited to read this novella for the spooky vibes, but it was just a disappointment.

Between a lack of atmosphere and bare bones descriptions, I found it difficult to get invested in this story. The writing style was abrupt at times, shifting focus unexpectedly, and it made it difficult to settle into the story. In addition, although I was not expecting this novella to explain Japanese myths to me, I felt like the lack of description when mythical creatures started showing up was detrimental to the story. I couldn’t be scared when I was tasked with imagining the average yokai, tengu, etc. I needed MORE.

I really wanted to love this. I thought it was going to be wonderfully creepy but it just wasn't that for me. The writing was a little too purple for my liking. It kept taking me out of the story and I struggled to get through this short novella because of it.

This is one of the best horror novellas I've read in the last five years. I did have to do a little research to familiarize myself with the non-English language used but remarkable for its compact length.

As much a character drama as it is a horror story, but it excels at both. Creepy and atmospheric, tense and chilling. My only complaint is it's too short.

So there I am, cozied up in my bed at night ready to read a horror novella (‘tis the season, after all). I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, and if the book didn’t turn out to be particularly scary, I was at least hoping to at least be exposed to some Japanese folklore. Only, I didn’t get any of that, but rather a melodramatic, reality show-esque story featuring five of the most poorly written, absolutely unlikeable characters I have ever encountered paired with a very barebones backdrop of Japanese folklore. Five friends decide to celebrate an upcoming wedding within their friend group by spending the night in a haunted Japanese mansion. As it turns out, all five of these characters have been romantically involved with someone else in the friend group at some point (including the bride and groom gasp). Only, these supposed “friends” have such deep-rooted insecurities and problems with one another that I just could not suspend my disbelief to believe that they are actually a close-knit group, let alone that they can stand to be in the same room as one another for more than five minutes.

Take Phillip for example, the only white guy in the group. He is immediately described as wealthy, white, privileged, a valedictorian, a trust-fund baby, a star athlete, a womanizer etc etc etc. In a beautiful display of the author deciding to forgo their purple prose and, just for a brief moment, show rather than tell, he is *literally* wearing his varsity jacket (despite being twenty-something years old) to really hammer home that this guy is the stereotypical jock character. It seems that in almost every dialogue exchange, someone has to take a shot at him for being either wealthy or white. I just don’t believe that these supposed acquaintances would have such an issue with his wealth or status, especially since he’s pretty much footing the bill for the entirety of their little Japan trip. It serves no real point to the already flimsy story and is instead just drama for the sake of drama. It is so strange and reads as the author foaming at the mouth at the mere idea that someone could be born not only into wealth, but also have the sheer audacity to be born white. Surprisingly, Phillip is usually pretty agreeable and is actually the least unlikable character, if only due to the fact that his characterization and physical description are so absurd that they border on parody. The other four main characters are seemingly in competition to be the most annoying and unsympathetic. Lin, for example, remarks on how he is likely to die first in a haunted house scenario because he is the comedic relief. That statement must have been one of the “devastating twists” that are advertised in the book description; I didn’t realize that sarcastic remarks and one-liners are the peak of comedy. There are numerous examples of lampshading and these types of references to the most tired horror clichés, only they serve no real narrative purpose. There is no clever subversion of these tropes a la the film Cabin in the Woods or the video game Until Dawn if you prefer, but they are rather just brought up because… reasons I guess? It seems that the author is trying to remind the reader that this is in fact a horror story, even though the pages and pages of petty melodrama without any suspense or intrigue might serve as evidence to the contrary. There’s nothing wrong with unsympathetic characters, especially in a horror story, as it gives some amount of catharsis when the actual bloodshed starts, but these characters are just flat-out flat and unapologetically awful.

The real star of this book, however, is the painfully purple prose. Metaphors and similes abound, the author is trying so hard to be literary and every single attempt falls flat. It is wildly, undeservedly pretentious. Numerous tabs, all opened to thesaurus.com, were undoubtedly employed during the writing of this book. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this was a rough draft to the rough draft to a story idea that they wrote while they were in high school. From page 1, the writing style is an absolute mess and it never improves. The writer’s obsession with figurative language is a major detriment to the already barebones narrative because any semblance of horror that might be built is undercut by the fact that the author just cannot help themselves and go more than a few paragraphs without producing some overwritten comparison. This story is little more than about 100 pages, but it feels twice as long because the writing is an absolute slog to get through. At times, I forgot that I wasn’t reading an amateur story dug up from somewhere deep in the bottom of the trenches of the Creepypasta Wiki.

Bad characters and bad writing might be forgivable if it weren’t for this next criticism: THIS BOOK IS IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM SCARY.

I’m not even trying to be cleverly cynical or witty when I state that reading the back of a milk carton is scarier. The one vaguely positive thing I can say about this book is that I kind of like the cover art, but it is inadvertently a detriment to the story. The monster of the story is portrayed in detail, and seeing it quickly undercuts the image from being a little spooky to very goofy and I can’t help but picture it as this emoticon -----> :O. This book has no other surprises to throw at the reader, and putting the monster right on the cover is essentially the author playing their hand far too early.

I cannot in good faith recommend this to anybody. It’s not even worth reading from an ironic “so bad it's actually good” perspective because there is nothing good I can say about it.

If forgettable straight-to-DVD horror were a book, it would be this.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth was a short horror story based on Japanese lore and culture. I found Khaw's writing style to be fresh and accessible. She did an amazing job creating atmosphere and building tension among the characters but without more of the backstory and how their relationships connected, I felt it was very difficult to care about any of them. I wish we could have gotten more of a parallel between the ghost legend and the ensemble of characters. This could have easily been another 200 pages. It was a solid read but I was left wanting more.

One of my most anticipated reads. I was happy I was able to get the NetGalley download. Unfortunately, this was a letdown. It’s labeled a Horror but I didn’t get any horror vibes from it, nor any creepiness. Being that it is a novella didn’t allow for the story to evolve. This book is about a wedding celebration in a creepy Heian-era Japanese mansion where five friends get together to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a couple within the group. The mansion is said to be haunted by a bride to be and girls that had sacrificed themselves.

An abandoned Heian-era mansion in Japan is the perfect venue for this wedding party, but it’s also the home of a ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year, but honestly, I have nothing positive to say about this novella. I would say that I loved the Japanese folklore aspect of this book, but nothing was explained at all. I know it’s not the author’s job to educate me on Japanese mythology, however, there was no description at all of what these creatures were. If I were writing a book, I wouldn’t feature an Impundulu without explaining to the reader what it is and what it looks like. This aspect could’ve been a positive to me if it was handled differently.
For the first few chapters of the book, I wasn’t necessarily hooked, but I noticed that the story was building and I was excited to see where it went. However, the story never built to anything. I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, and when something finally happened, I found myself asking “That’s it?”.
There were things that were alluded to in the book that were never explored. There was a scene in one of the first chapters that seemed like it would give us backstory on why two of the characters hated each other so much. But it never explained why. It teased an explanation, but that explanation never came. Another thing that wasn’t explored was that towards the beginning of the book, for two chapters, the author had me thinking that a character was possessed. But, then they just never acted possessed again and it was never mentioned.
The characters in this book were awful. And not awful in the way that you care what happens to them and are rooting for their downfall, they’re awful as in you care nothing about them or what happens to them. There was no real character development.
This book was just not for me. I didn’t enjoy anything about it and I’m really upset about that since I’ve been looking forward to this book for months. The premise was amazing and there were so many opportunities for it to be scary, but the author didn’t utilize any of those opportunities. I wouldn’t have finished this if it was a full novel instead of a novella. This book just really frustrated me. I’m very disappointed.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire/Macmillan and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: suicide attempt; murder; gore

While this body horror novella of Japanese folklore might work for lots of other readers I was....underwhelmed? 🤷‍♀️ shocking I know! This was a very character driven story in which the character's decisions just didn't seem logical to me. For the amount of chaos that ensued, the characters either seemed to freak out to an extreme (reasonably so) or be ridiculously calm and deflective? I say that with a question mark because it was a little hard to ascertain what was actually happening and what was a description from the main characters perspective.

If you are a character driven reader who enjoys complex relationship dynamics this might be enjoyable for you. There were moments of comic relief that were enjoyable and the gore was well described but as a visual reader I was thrown off by the lack of environmental descriptors especially given that this can be categorized (if I'm not mistaken) as a Gothic horror. I was a bit confused as to where and when the events were taking place or did not find motivators to be fully flushed out.

One positive is the folklore elements as the spirits and creatures mentioned were not explained to the point of didacticism. Though I would have enjoyed more descriptions of how these creatures interacted with their environment. The purpose of the haunting also didn't seem in line with the resolution.

That being said, I am interested to read more from this author in the future should it come up for a tbr challenge.

How can you not be pulled in by this premise:

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

I was really excited when NetGalley and Tor-Forge was offering this as a "Read Now" selection. I'd seen this ARC making the rounds and it sounded like the perfect creepy story. It's short too--more of a novella as I realized when looking at some other reviews.

Unfortunately, this book ultimately fell a little short for me. The author's use of the simile for absolutely everything distracted me far too much and took away from the flow of the story. It was more frustrating than scary, and made me start skimming quite early on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for making this available in exchange for a review.

This book started off with such an eerie and spooky vibe, doing such a wonderful job of setting the scene with all the Japanese folklore and ghost stories. It was on track to being a really great book but at some point it got weirdly meta which wasn’t necessarily terrible, but i wasn’t expecting it and it kind of took me out of the moment. Aside from that I really did enjoy reading this one!

A slim horror novel that really packs a punch! I expected this to be a bit more supernatural, but it focuses more on human interaction and how we can be cruel and violent towards one another under stressful circumstances, which was very fascinating. I'll admit that I felt the first half was a bit slow, but the ending was phenomenal!

Five friends travel to Japan so two of them can get married in a haunted mansion with a disturbing history. They explore the creepy building and tension escalates due to their emotional baggage which would likely exceed airline weight limits. Then, the big bad arrives for its gruesome sacrifice.

I was wowed by the writing. The description and imagery are stunning. The backstory of the group’s complicated relationships with one another is doled out in delicious bite-sized pieces. Protagonist Cat’s mental instability is nicely established while the reader gets to know the other characters: the bride—Cat’s nemesis Nadia, the groom—Cat’s best friend Faiz, privileged rich boy Phillip, and Lin, who wasn’t there for Cat when she needed him most.

Lin’s snarky sense of humor made him my favorite characters. He acts as a kind of Greek chorus, spewing out horror tropes and warnings of impending doom. His humorous dialogue adds a cool layer, and increases the tension, because the group is truly in peril. Cat, still fresh from her breakdown, makes a fantastic lens from which to view the story. Her gut screams that Lin’s predictions are valid, but the heartstrings of friendship steel her in place.

I love that the story includes an epilogue that shows the aftermath. Everyone experiences some kind of horror in their lives and how the experience changes them is compelling.

Another author may have extended this tale to fit a novel-sized container, but more space might have been like cutting a perfectly concentrated drug with fillers, resulting in a diluted reading experience.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Nightfire, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC., for providing an Advance Reader Copy.