I knew that this story was going to be creepy.....but holy crap! This story is just downright horrific! Awesomely horrific!

A group of "friends'' -- really people who used to be friends but have basically destroyed their relationships through growing up, poor decisions, and thoughtlessness. The cohesiveness of young bonds broken by adulthood and change. But, they are together again. To celebrate a wedding. In the weirdest venue ever -- a dilapidated, remote Japanese mansion with a haunting, creepy history. Nadia & Faiz celebrating their love. Peter performing the ceremony. Lin and Cat rounding out the party. Nadia has always dreamed of a wedding in a haunted house....and Nadia gets what she wants. But, the house also wants...and what it wants is dark and gruesome.

Wow. Just wow. This story is short, but it packs quite a supernatural punch in 100 pages. I could see this being a Japanese style horror movie. Wicked camera tricks. Black eyed spirits. Weird lighting and jerky movement. Perfect!

Great story! This is the first story by Cassandra Khaw that I've read. I'm definitely going to read more! Loved it! The cover art is perfect!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Macmillan/Tor-Forge. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

This was short but so effective. I went in expecting a nice little spooky horror story and left feeling like my chest had been ripped open and dug around in. This is gory, the characters are all imperfect, there are no redeeming qualities to any of this. But that’s what makes it so good. The descriptions and the writing style alone captivated and unsettled me, but the characters and the plot drove that unease home.

This was a creepy-as-fuck Japanese ghost story! Thanks for the advance copy of Nothing But Blackened Teeth @tornightfire

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a quietly building horror story about a group of friends who spend the night at a haunted mansion in Japan.

The house is said to be built upon the bones of an abandoned bride with girls sacrificed in the walls to keep her company. Obviously, it's the perfect venue for a surprise wedding!

I had to read this with Google open beside me to look up all the Japanese terminology, but it still was utterly spooky and beautiful. The prose got a little purply at parts, but the overall atmosphere was frightening and I loved it!

★★★★/ Would jump to 5 stars if a glossary of terms was included

Definitely would recommend for fans of quiet horror, folklore, and Japanese ghost stories! This one comes out October 19th and is worthy of a preorder!

NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH is a mesmerizing and disturbing combination of Japanese folklore, a haunted house story, and a tale of decaying friendships. Khaw balances the tasks of ramping up the tension and familiarizing us with the characters, their weaknesses, and the mythology of the house in a shortened story length, and she does it very well. The prose is elegant, the imagery is gnarly and scary, and it's a great short read for the upcoming Halloween season!

The thrilling originality displayed in Khaw's first two novels (Hammers on Bone, A Song for Quiet) takes a back seat here. This time around, Khaw draws on familiar horror tropes--the group of young people treating a haunted house with lack of proper respect, ghosts thirsting for human sacrifice, demon possession--and injects them with some truly horrifying imagery drawn from Japanese mythology. The creatures inhabiting this short work are worth the price of admission, and we should thank Khaw for introducing us to a world of terror obscure to most western readers. Thank you to @TorNightfire for providing an advance reader copy for my review.

Ennui is characterized by listlessness yet is never made more animated and compelling than in Nothing But Blackened Teeth. Sometimes ennui can be seemingly mundane--a lack of satisfying direction in your life. Other times, it can be a bride buried alive under her wedding venue, waiting for her runaway groom to arrive. While huge contrasts in severity, those who've experienced the former know that it can still be quite horrifying, and this novella is able to drudge up human nature and make it just as unnerving as the spiritual evil it unearths. That's not the only contrast between realism and fantasy. Nothing But Blackened Teeth has an array of realistically flawed characters, infused with Japanese folklore and sweeping, metaphorical language to elevate its tone into something uniquely satisfying.

Cassandra Khaw knows how to make every object seem interesting with inventive descriptions, but their dialogue is just as cutting. Whether its protagonist Cat's half-remove from the horrific proceedings in which things are still bubbling within her but she tries to stifle, or her friend Faiz' jovial attitude that begins to unmask, the characterization is always compelling and authentic. One thing that should be mentioned is that Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a story that leans more heavily into characterization than horror - especially in its first half - but to me, it's that grounding in humanity that make the latter proceedings cut deeper.

Khaw's writing has always worked for me, but I think this is my favorite of their works. The prose is just as lyrical and original as their best, and it's married to themes and characters that develop a lot of growth and complexity. It moves at a steady pace and growing tension, rewarding its readers with something incredibly moving and illuminating. Nothing But Blackened Teeth will make its readers think they've been plummeted into the action with lasting effects that should temper their ennui for quite a while.

Absolutely chilling and beautifully written. I ripped thru this one in no time and enjoyed every jump and scare that hid behind the lush language and strong characters.

This complex novella is all about the atmosphere. It’s one that stays with you long after you turn the last page. It just leaves you feeling unsettled and creeped out. One of the first things that jumped out at me when reading this was the DNA it shared with Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. That immediately pulled me in. The lavish prose creates an intense atmosphere that at times almost felt like a fever dream, especially when the drawings come to life and start conversing. And with an unreliable narrator telling the story, who has recently suffered a mental illness, that could totally be the case. When so-called 4 friends converge on a notorious haunted house in Japan for an impromptu wedding, secrets come to light, ratcheting up the tension and dread until it’s released in a bloody ending. The story uses Japanese folklore to great effect, creating a compelling ghost story. And while it mostly takes a backseat to the atmosphere, when the ghost does appear she is quite terrifying. The ending is rushed leaving the reader with a bunch of questions. Usually that bothers me, but it didn’t really in this case. It left me feeling uneasy and shocked that it ended that way, but it strangely worked in not wrapping everything up in a neat bow. I highly recommend it for fans of unreliable narrators, haunted house stories, and atmospheric reads.

Nothing but blackened teeth has the most terrifying cover I've ever seen in a book. In this novella a group of friends meet in a haunted mansion in Japan to celebrate the wedding of 2 of them when strange and creepy things began to happen.
Im my opinion, the book was interesting, quite atmospheric and grotesque
but there were many Japanese words that I had to search in order to understand and imagine what the hell was happening in the story. Despite that, I think it is an amazing and gorgeous book and I highly recommend it.
Thank you so much to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Publishing for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

So much wasted potential here. The cover drew me in immediately. I was hoping for a truly scary story. However, this novella was a disappointment. It had a fantastic premise, a group of friends ghost hunting in an abandoned manor. However, it fell apart quickly.

First of all, this should have been a full length novel. To put this into a short story cut out crucial character development so that you cared about the characters. I needed more information because it seemed so rushed.

Secondly, there were too many Japanese terms for me. I didn't understand a lot of the terminology, which was difficult for me because I do have a large vocabulary, but it doesn't include Japanese. I'm sure they are words with no true English translation, but it made the story difficult to understand.

This was a jumbled mess. I had a hard time following it. I think the main issue was the length of it. It needed more. I got characters mixed up and I didn't understand decisions of the characters. The whole thing felt rushed and thrown together. It would have been great in full length novel or movie form, but this just didn't do it for me as a novella.

Ok, where to start with this review... Well, first off, I was not a huge fan of the writing style. It was overly complex in some parts, making it hard to read and get the point across due to disjointed sentences/paragraphs. I get that the author was trying to get a certain point or emotion across during these times, slipping in lots of details that would have been non existent othersie, but it was a bit much at the start of the book. It does get a little better on this front later in the story. Still descriptive, but it flowed more smoothly.

I really enjoyed all the Japanese details and different folklore creatures. That was probably my favorite part, as I am into that kind of thing. It was fun watching them come to life and was not overly coplicated. I do however wish the story revolved more around the folklore and less around the characters, which brings me to my next point.

I thought the story as a whole was neat, but somewhere along the way I felt it got lost in the actions of the characters. The author pretty much narrates what is about to happen just before it happens, which takes the fun and shock factor out of what is about to happen. Whereas this is a short story to begin with, that part really took away from the whole mood that was set.

Also, the ending comes so abruptly. It's like the story starts out with all of this potential and introducing us to the folklore of this specific place and then ends so suddenly with a simple character driven ending. I guess I would have liked to see a little more of the folklore translated into these parts and less of the full on character narration during one of the most crucial parts of the story. It was just a bit of a letdown. I mean, the parts that were good, were good, then it just kind of trails off suddenly...

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire and Netgelley for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review

A novella explores both a creepy ghost story and several friends' relationships.

A group of five friends reunite in a creepy heian-era mansion in Japan for a destination wedding - at a haunted house. Faiz and Talia have always loved ghost stories so it makes sense for their wedding to be held in a place where it is rumored that a bride's bones were buried - and she requires sacrifices. Their rich friend Phillip is going to officiate and their friend Cat, recently out of hospitalization is there despite there being hostility between herself and the bride. And then friend Lin shows up, and everything gets chaotic. Friendships are tested, and that's when the actual ghost shows up...

After the cover haunting me for months, I finally sat down to read this one. There is horror, there is tension and there is very descriptive prose. Someone else compared this to a Shirley Jackson story, and that's an apt comparison. It's a more literary horror story, and will appeal to those who enjoy that and less "pulp" horror.

*An e-ARC of this book was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are mine.

A horror novella that was pretty enjoyable, in an overall sense. I came for the cover and summary and stayed for the story. The characters are diverse, the plot is interesting, there are occasional awkward tension breakers and strained comedic moments, there’s a ghost story that’s terrifying, and the cast is a bunch angry young adults who clearly have seen horror movies, but ignore all the “DON’T DO THIS” signs so they go ahead and do it themselves. Really? A mansion built on the bones of hundreds of girls BURIED ALIVE so let’s have a wedding there? (WHYY!)
However, the writing, as amazing and beautiful as it was, was very and overly flowery in places. It was actually distracting a handful of times. There are big words that fit in some places, but felt out of place in others. There was a specific moment that stuck out to me where someone pushed another and it was a whole paragraph in describing that moment.
Otherwise, I quite enjoyed reading it. It was just right where it wasn’t too creepy and I can sleep at night. The ending was predictable (in a horror movie sense), but the actual happenings and how it played out DID somewhat surprise me.

A group of friends go to a haunted mansion for a wedding. The run down, abandoned house is the final resting place of a former would be bride and holds the remains of girls who were buried alive to keep her company.

The cover and synopsis is what pulled me in. The characters and purple prose is what nearly stopped me from finishing. I could not really connect with the writing style. Just because someone knows a lot of words doesn't mean they all need to be crammed in. It reminds me of the way middle grade kids will go back and add as many words as possible to pad out a school report to the required number of paragraphs. I didn't connect with any of the characters. I didn't like any of them and they didn't like each other much either. This was not the terrifying ghost story I was hoping for. You may enjoy it more than I did. I seem to be in the minority of disappointed readers.

First off, I really wanted to love this book. The cover is what drew me in originally and I was hoping it would be as creepy as it looks. It wasn't for me at all.

I didn't like any of the characters. They all acted childish from the very beginning of the book. And why are they all hanging out together when they clearly hate each other? Too much time was spent bickering back and forth and not enough time moving the plot forward.

There were SO many Japanese terms that I had to stop and Google what they were since there were no explanations given and my Kobo was no help in that department. The writing style was not my cup of tea either. For being a novella it was super wordy and had way too many metaphors for my liking. It seemed like there was a metaphor in just about every sentence. All of this took away from the story for me and any part of this book that could have been scary.

Lots of people have been giving this book amazing reviews, so just because I don't like it doesn't mean you won't!

Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was written beautifully. Scary spirits! Interesting Japanese folklore. The ending was rushed though!

The beginning had a lot of promise, and then it deflated.

A group of friends meets at a haunted Heian-era manor in Japan for a wedding. There are secrets amongst each other, and the bride doesn't like Cat, our main character. Then the ghost of the building, a bride waiting for her husband, shows up and takes the human bride.

The length of this novella made this feel incomplete and made me wonder if I was intentionally not supposed to like any of the characters. When the bride got stolen by the bridal ghost, I didn't want the other characters to try to get get her back. I was disappointed in the end because not everyone died.

Cat is a huge mystery. She was in the mental hospital for reasons that aren't explained. I did want to know if her being in a mental hospital had anything to do with her seeing ghosts and was that a recent thing. Or did an incident happened that forced her to seek mental health? What made her feel well enough to leave? But the author skimmed over any answers.

The prose is beautiful, but it never goes deep enough for me to follow the story. It didn't paint a deep enough understanding of what is happening. Everything felt like I was watching this behind a screen.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a ghost story set in an ancient Japanese mansion. Five friends are meeting to celebrate the wedding of two of their number. Horror follows.

There were things I definitely loved about this book. I enjoyed the language and the descriptions of the house. There was a slow, lingering creepiness to the story that I enjoyed a lot. The ending was interesting.

There were other things I didn't enjoy as much. The characters never quite gelled for me. And there were some plot points I thought were rushed a bit. I think the pacing was what threw me. This is a novella- somewhere between a short story and a novel- and it felt like it was at war over whether it wanted to be shorter or longer. The story itself leans towards brevity, but the character interactions needed more room to grow.

Still....it was good! I liked it and there are some images in it that made me shudder. So I do recommend it! I'm actually interested in reading other works by this author.

Thank you to #netgalley for this ARC.

I usually don't get scared from reading, but this book intimidated me. I mean, look at the cover. Stunning and creepy as hell! Japanese horror is a different level of horror, and I was looking forward to being scared. Unfortunately, this story was horror of a different kind.

I'm not really sure what to say about this story. I found it difficult to read/comprehend because of the language; the over descriptiveness of the most minute detail while barely a hint about the characters. At first, I thought this whole story was translated from Japanese, but there were plenty of Japanese words for which my Kindle was of no help. The prose reminded me of the Beatnik era. I kept picturing a beatnik on stage, totally dark with the spotlight on him, reading his poetry to a steady, slappy drum beat. It was surreal.

Aside from the language, I disliked all the characters. I like to establish what the characters look like, or to at least know whether they're masculine or feminine., I didn't know the narrator was a woman until much later. In any case, they were not likeable people. I don't really think they like each other very much.

Maybe I just didn't get the allegory. Maybe this kind of prose is just not my thing. I do think this book would make a pretty great graphic novel. The imagery and dialogue seem better suited to it.

A horror novella that I overall really enjoyed. I was thoroughly creeped out while reading it and found that I really enjoyed being in the main character's mind and hearing everything through their perspective. The book is very self aware.