Wow! This cover! I might be losing sleep just by looking at it! This creepy store follows five friends that have reunited in Japan for a wedding. The twist is that the five friends grew up ghost hunting together and the destination wedding is taking place in a haunted, abandoned imperial palace. The dream wedding quickly turns into a nightmare. This story was short but was packed with Japanese folklore, horror and gore.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a bone-chilling and eerie novella. It follows a group of friends as they host a wedding ceremony in a Heian-era mansion, only for the night to rapidly spiral out of control. Old secrets are revealed, jealousy flares, and the house is watching. Tensions rise as it soon becomes clear that they are not alone in the mansion. What more do you need for an ideal wedding location?

Khaw expertly introduces the characters and cuts to the heart of their insecurities and motivations. I absolutely couldn’t look away as the group fractured and found themselves pushed to their limits. Khaw paints a clear picture using sharp and sinister language. I love intricate prose, so this was the perfect novella for me! If you’re not a fan of purple prose, this may not be the novella for you.

I have not read much horror, but this is easily one of my new favorites. I would recommend readers pick this up if they love horror stories about haunted mansions, complicated relationship dynamics, and intricate prose. Nothing But Blackened Teeth releases October 19, 2021. Thank you so much to Cassandra Khaw, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This short novella packs a punch, though the writing didn't really gel for me the way I'd hoped. This is very much a me issue and shouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it, though do be aware that there's mention of suicidal ideation and past attempted suicide. There's also, perhaps unsurprisingly, plenty of gore by the end in addition to the baseline horror.

I really, really wanted to like this more. The premise sounds fantastic, the buzz was hot, and the cover was worth the price of admission alone. Unfortunately, while Khaw achieves a healthy balance of minimalist description and creepy vibes, it all becomes bogged down in far too much purple prose (or in this case, violent violet prose). I don’t think there is a single sentence in this slim novella that doesn’t have some sort of metaphor or allegory, and in a story that is already short, it becomes just too much. If all of that flowery description were to be removed, we’d have been left with a decent story, but a very short one at that. Overall, rather disappointing.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Tor Nightfire for a free digital review copy.

3.5/5 stars

I was drawn to this book because I love the cover and I love Japanese horror, unfortunately the story didn't quite do it for me. I wish this had been a full length novel rather than a novella; its short length meant that I did not get a chance to connect with the characters (who are interesting, complex, and flawed) and thus did not really care what happened to them. That being said the ghost is genuinely terrifying and the "decrepit mansion" gives the book a spine-tingling claustrophobic feel. I would definitely recommend this to readers who are looking for a good ghost story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for sending me an advanced copy.

I really wanted to like this book. Look at that cover! Best horror cover of the year. As another reviewer said, I’m not here to discourage anyone from reading this book, but I’m not the right reader here. Unfortunately I did not care about any of the characters and their drama. I’m definitely going to look for future books by this author but this one didn’t do it for me.

omg this book was such a wild ride, and I'm still not sure I totally understand what happened by the end of it, but WOW it had me on the edge-of-my-seat. it was short, but it packed a punch. I'm excited to read more by this author.

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Nadia, her fiancé, Faiz, and friends Philip and Cat have flown to Japan. They’ve gathered in a Heian-era mansion where Lin will shortly join them. According to Japanese folklore, a jilted bride [whose groom died on the way to the wedding ceremony] haunts the mansion, waiting for her groom to arrive.

And Nadia, it seems, has always dreamed of being married in a haunted house . . . .

Cue the madness and mayhem.

Will there be a wedding? Who will survive their night in the ghost-riddled mansion?

“Nothing but Blackened Teeth” is most definitely creepy, definitely grim, gruesome, and gory, filled with horror movie tropes. The interplay between the characters often suggests some over-the-top drama that remains largely unexplained; this tension tends to overwhelm the telling of the tale, pushing the horror aspects of the narrative into a secondary position. Since the dynamic between the characters lies at the heart of this narrative, some more information on their histories might help to strengthen the reader/character relationship.

The characters feel a bit like caricatures, none of them even remotely likable. To a person, they are mean-spirited and self-absorbed, the epitome of grandiloquent that may leave the reader rooting for the ohaguro-bettari. Perhaps with some backstory for each of the dysfunctional friends, their being here together might have made more sense.

The Japanese folklore component of the narrative gives the story a unique, appealing perspective. However, although the flowery, flowing writing is lovely, the author has a tendency to be overly excessive in using descriptors, a writing style that often pulls the reader out of the telling of the tale. Nevertheless, the book would stand as a promising addition to the horror genre.

However, the dialogue in this book, with its less-than-auspicious start, is extremely abhorrent. The use of an offensive, unnecessary expletive in the very first sentence is particularly off-putting . . . and this invective peppers a multitude of ordinary conversations throughout the narrative . . . seven times within four paragraphs on one page, six times in one paragraph on another page.
It is the overuse of this objectionable expletive that becomes a deal-breaker and lowers the rating for this book.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley
#NothingButBlackenedTeeth #NetGalley

What initially drew me to it was the cover- There’s a woman with no eyes and a red slash for a mouth with claw like hands- you’ll have to look it up because it’s creepy as hell. This is a haunted house tale thats infused with Japanese folklore.

What I loved about this is that you are dropped into the action immediately. Four friends have traveled to Japan to visit an abandoned mansion. They’re there because two of their friends are getting married- friends who have a taste for things that are creepy, because the bride’s dream was to get married somewhere haunted. They picked the right place- local lore says that the foundation of this mansion is resting on the bones of a bride and that its walls are packed with the remains of the girls that were sacrificed to keep her company.

You have two things going on- the creepy setting itself sure, but you also have this group of friends who clearly need to work through their own history. The narrator and the bride are frenimies at best, and the friend that is set to marry the couple has slept with the bride, unbeknownst to the groom. It was such a fun juxtaposition of actual horror and petty friend drama. Like things are getting VERY spooky and theye’re still arguing! This is a short book- 128 pages- and reading it definitely got me into the fall mood. The writing style is very unusual- it’s stylish and sparse- and the pacing is different. You would have sections with a lot of rumination, and then only a couple of paragraphs with action. In between all of this, you have dialogue between the characters that unexpectedly made me laugh. It’s about relationships, history, mental illness, and the price of love. This is a very original story- it wont be on my favorite of the year list, but I did enjoy it.

This creepy, terrifying novel kept me turning the pages - and checking the locks! It will appeal to fans of classic horror by the likes of Stephen King.

I was looking for a good halloween read, and started reading this book. I didn't even make it through the first chapter. It's too creepy for me. It is well written (the part I read) and a great premise, but it was so much darker than I expected. If you like horror, go for it! I prefer not to have nightmares I love the fact that it deals with a culture that I'm unfamiliar with, but that wasn't enough for me to finish it. I would recommend this book to those who love horror!

I hated this. The cover drew me in and when Netgalley offered this to review I jumped at the chance. Huge letdown.
It truly felt like the author was trying to make the prose desperately clever, but instead it was just a jumbled mess, using unnecessarily large words that cluttered it up. The amount of astonishingly bad metaphors is ample. This was a novella so you would think in its brevity, we would get a clearer picture of the character group and their motivations early on. No. The characters felt devoid of life and personality. There are also no scares nor any build up that would lead to a tense paranormal atmosphere. So…it can’t even properly pay tribute to the genre.
This honestly really read like a bad creative writing story assignment. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, unless they want a headache.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing the ebook for review.

Where do I start with this? The characters immediately drew me in. They have very complicated relationships with each other and that conflict was intriguing. The setting was also fantastic - an ancient manor, slowly falling to pieces. With the added twist of the myth of the bride who had been buried alive, I really thought this would possibly become a favorite. However once the story took off things seemed to get really messy. It felt very frantic, I had to go back and reread pages over and over again, like I could not grasp exactly what the author was trying to convey to me. The way the characters reacted to things confused me. And then end seemed so abrupt. While this was gruesome and intriguing, it felt like it lacked something I can't quite put my finger on.

This is not a bad book by any means. Khaw's prose is lush and descriptive. The horrors, when they appear, are palpable. I think the reason I didn't love this book as much as I wanted to is because all of the characters were total and complete jerks. By design, I think.

I know that having horrible characters doesn't make a book horrible, but I was actively rooting for something bad to happen to them. And that could have been purposeful too! I just had a hard time hoping for their safety and well-being and maybe that makes me the villain of the book...

CW: alcohol use, folklore involving being buried alive, stabbing, blood/gore

With lush, lyrical prose — the kind of stuff that just begs to be read aloud — and some truly horrifying imagery — things that’ll stick with you long after you close the back cover — Nothing But Blackened Teeth is everything I want in a haunted house story. Set in a Heian-era mansion on the eve of a modern-day wedding which is about to suffer disastrous consequences, it’s about how relationships change over time, about what we do or don’t owe each other, and about how our own pasts can haunt us — and much more.

The title comes from the yokai running the show in the mansion: Its name translates into English as “nothing by blackened teeth.” But that isn’t the only presence in the mansion; indeed, Nothing But Blackened Teeth is rich with Japanese folklore and kaidan — the wedding party even plays a game of hyakumonogatari kaidankai, which may or may not be a catalyst for much of what follows afterwards. There are so many layers here; peel one away and you’ll find another, and another, and another.

Because it’s a novella, it is entirely possible that you’ll be able to finish it in one sitting. I’ve done that — twice. But be sure to give it some time. Sit with it for a while. Let it work its terrifying and eerie magic. It landed even more deeply for me — really dug itself into my chest and took up residence there — the second time ‘round.

If you want a book to keep you up at night, this is the one for You! Books don't typically scare me but this one definitely had me flinching at sudden noises.
I loved the novella length of this! I didn't feel like I was missing information and it wasn't too wordy. It was the perfect length for this plot.
I had to do a bit of looking information up but it left me feeling like I was not only scared but learned something. Know that if you don't look up definitions of words, the book will still make sense but I think you would be missing out.
This is not for the faint of heart and would reccomend this to all of the ghost story lovers!

This story was short but very tense and scary. I finished the story in one sitting, I needed to know what was going to happen. It had a lot of Japanese culture that wasn't explained that i had to look up, but that wasn't bad and I learned more, The story in the haunted house keeps you on the edge of your seat. Warning for blood , gore, and violence

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a decadent word salad that shifts between horror and uber-literary. I always appreciate when an author showcases their ability as a word-smith, but the flowery-ness of the writing is ultimately a distraction from the horror.

It's also difficult to find anything or anybody to care about, the characters are assholes and for a group of so called "friends" there is more hate than love among them.

The cover of this book is what ultimately attracted me to it and while the horror aspects are good, the constant bickering of the characters and the overly ornate writing style were near constant distractions.

Story was scary, the writing was amazing, and it was a good read overall. The author's command of language was outstanding. There were so many phrases and passages that were just so beautifully written I could barely stand it. However, the overall story and character development didn't stand up to the writing. Gorgeous prose, weak plot. Can't wait to see what she writes next though. I'm here for it!

This book was much more literary than I expected, by which I mean I expected a much more straightforward ghost story than what I got. Rather than being scared, the end story was much more haunting than your typical ghost story might be, focusing less on the actual supernatural and more on the psychological states of five codependent people each with their own complex histories. The descriptions were beautiful and the characters realistically flawed, and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit!