I knew I had to read this book the second that I laid eyes on it, the cover is nightmare fuel and the prospect of a haunted house in a Heian-era mansion complete with a tragic urban legend was too good to pass up. The Ohaguro-bettari, literally translating to Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a faceless yokai dressed in a wedding kimono known for luring in single men. What an incredible subject for a ghastly horror story, there is something inherently creepy about a faceless ghost with only one feature, a mockingly sinister smile.

The story centers on a group of “friends” who travel to Japan for a marriage ceremony, the thrill-seekers rent a mansion in hopes of supernatural spooks over nuptials. To call any of the attendee’s friends though is a stretch, the relational dynamics between every character oozed toxicity and the thinly veiled loathing between them just screams disaster. The Ohaguro-bettari was truly a terrifying entity, it was every bit a faithful adaptation of the malevolent trickster spirit. The setting is incredibly atmospheric, I blazed through this story in one sitting on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

While the story starts off well, it stumbles a few times in the middle of the book. While the petty drama of the group was intense, I also found the addition of humor to be disjointing, and it broke my immersion in the story. I was blown away by the major appearance of the spirit, only to sign when one of the characters immediately cracks a joke about ghost fucking.

I was thrown off when the story seemed to shift focus away from the yokai, and I had to take time to think about how I wanted to write about this book when I finished. My initial reaction was mixed, but the more I thought about it and made connections between the selection of this particular yokai and the character drama the more I appreciated it. While this story didn’t quite nail it for me, I really admire Khaw’s lush style of writing, it is so uniquely her own and I would love to read more of her work.

The second I saw this book’s cover floating around on social media, I just knew that I needed to get my hands on it. Not to mention that I’m a sucker for Japanese horror, so a haunted house thrill ride in Japan? Count me in.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is the story of a group of five “friends” (I use the term very loosely here) as two of them are getting married. Faiz and Nadia are set on having a borderline sacrilegious wedding ceremony in a haunted house so when the trust-fund friend, Phillip, fronts the money for everyone to go to a decrepit old mansion in the middle of nowhere, Japan, it’s all perfect. When the story’s narrator, Cat, presents a main source of tension and her friend, Lin, as well, things go from zero to one hundred really fast. This is a house that yearns for blood.

After reading this novella in a single sitting, though, I found myself a touch disappointed. Perhaps I went in with my expectations set to high but the weirdest thing about my mixed feelings is that I want both more and less out of it.

Cassandra Khaw has a meticulous style that is flowery and explicit simultaneously. In some places, she has the most on-point descriptions of yokai, ghosts, and gore. In other’s the wordiness detracts from the story, the terms requiring google definitions (and this from someone who thought he had a pretty large vocabulary…) to understand what was being said. I loved the descriptions of the house itself and of the ghost, but what was majorly lacking was context. What happened to Cat that locked her away? Why is Nadia so hateful towards her? Why does no one like Lin if he seems just as successful as Phillip? How are any of these horrible people friends?

I’m all for messy people being messy, but the depth was lacking and the book turned into more of an 88-minute horror film one watches with friends while drunk and everyone tries to guess who dies first simply to move things along.

Will I read more of Khaw’s work? Absolutely. Sadly this one was just most of a miss from me.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I don’t discourage anyone from reading this book.

In fact, let’s support spec-fic authors of colour and READ THEIR WORK! For all that I didn’t personally enjoy Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I think there will be folks out there who absolutely will, as evidenced by several rave reviews already.

So let’s get right into things. The prose in this novella is ridiculously, outrageously, unapologetically purple.

It is EXCESSIVE, y’all.

Part of me admires Khaw for committing so fully to such overindulgence. But overall, I have to be honest and say that I did not enjoy the writing in this novella. Why? For the very reason purple prose sucks: the flowery adjectives and over-the-top metaphors kept taking me out of the story, detracting more than they contributed.

(For example, I thought that the ohaguro-bettari at the heart of this story—and plastered across its INCREDIBLE cover—was too metaphorical, amorphous, messy for my tastes, and that goes for her yōkai minions, too. I get that this was probably a deliberate decision on Khaw's part, but it just didn't work for me. I'm not really a fan of storylines that devolve into chaos.)

Mind you, these things aren’t bad on their own. I love me an uncommon word, an unconventional turn of phrase. I applaud Khaw’s allergy to cliché (at least, in terms of her actual prose; see discussion of characters below for some qualifications).

But my issue is that it was just so. damn. much. Some of the flowery metaphors and weird words worked beautifully; some of them didn’t—like, at all. The book thus wavers between 1) a visceral vividness that engages all your senses, and 2) just plain distracting.

I think I could’ve given this 3 stars if I’d felt some degree of connection to the characters, but I just didn’t. Nothing But Blackened Teeth revolves around a friend group defined by their major beef with one another. We are never told explicitly about said beef, however, though it is hammered into you over and over again that they’ve incestuously all been in love or lust with each other at some point in the past, and now they all feel salty about it.

In all, it’s VERY hard to feel in the loop, and even more impossible to care about what basically amounts to petty squabbling between the friends.

Though Khaw’s prose itself wasn’t cliché, the characters ended up feeling like clichés. The flowery language imbued the book’s characters—and their many messy romantic entanglements—with a sense of canned melodrama more befitting a cringe-worthy soap opera than supernatural horror novella.

The casual rep was great, though. Cat, our narrator, is bisexual and Chinese, raised in Malaysia. Lin is also Chinese. Nadia is part Bengali and part Telegu, Faiz is half-Japanese, and Phillip is white (a fact that the others often rag on, which was pretty freakin’ entertaining).

Indeed, I thought the ending redeemed the novella for me; that was a nice inversion of tropes.

Bottom line: Nothing But Blackened Teeth was too decadently purple for me, but I would still absolutely recommend that you read this creepy story to make that call for yourselves.



Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book, but I could not get over the clunky language. It was as if the book had been translated from poetry by an academic with little flair for popular writing. I am a fan of language and imagery, but when they pull me out of the narrative to impress me with their cleverness or specificity, I find myself disengaging from the text altogether.

This was an extremely quick read! I love Japanese folklore and horror, so a combination of the two provided an enjoyable experience in the span of one evening. My only complaint: it was a tad predictable. This could be due to the fact that I widely consume horror movies, TV shows, and books.

The cover of this book pulled me in 100%. I wish I could say that I enjoyed the story the same. This is a quick read of 128 pages, and there were times when reading that I had high hopes for some literary scares, but ultimately, the story fell flat. For me, reading this story was like reading a movie tie-in novel to a horror film. As a movie, this story would definitely have some scares but the development of the characters left much to be desired. Khaw's writing is beautiful though. There are many passages that are lyrical and eloquent.

Although I was excited about this story, if fell flat for me. I did not feel a connection with the authors and the plot seemed to leap into the more suspenseful moments without any building. I was left reading back as if I missed things along the way but hadn't.

However, I could see where someone would enjoy this book. It deviates from classic tropes and forges new territory. There are cultural elements that I think many would find fulfilling and alleviate the Easter eggs in knowing them more intimately. I simply was not familiar with them but they left me wanting to do more research as they did seem intriguing.

"...apologies didn't exonerate the sinner, only compelled graciousness from its recipient."

Well, this was terrifying! I’m glad that characters in books are braver than I am because this way, I can live vicariously through them while tucked away in the safety of my own home!

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a fairly quick read & I whipped through this novella in just a little over two hours. The atmosphere is like something out of a dark horror film; think The Grudge or The Ring. There’s an abundance of descriptive prose which, at first, I had mixed feelings about. A few times, I felt it distracted a bit from the story but then I’d read a gorgeously penned paragraph & get the most vivid cinematic view in my mind which I freaking loved. The setting is just full-on spine-chilling; the Heian era mansion is itself a character, both eerily atmospheric with a darkly gothic vibe and a host of secrets just waiting to be unveiled.

There is an insidious and eerie feeling that begins from the very first page, not only does it draw you in to the absolute horror of what’s going on but the dynamics of the group are front and center, playing a large role in how this nightmare plays out. I had more than one ‘what the hell’ moment & had to face my own cowardice because I would’ve been gone with a slippery trail to follow.

Frightening, insightful, chilling and terrifyingly disturbing, this is a horror book for those who love the genre and I’d highly recommend it. I fully plan on devouring everything that Ms. Khaw has written.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth has a really interesting premise — a group pf tensely-linked friends plans to spend a few nights in a haunted mansion in Japan before a wedding between two of them. The characters were really, really well fleshed out in only about a hundred pages. The wiring was beautiful and descriptive, but at times I felt like it needed more punch to drive home the horror of it all. I felt like there weren’t enough spooky happenings until the very end. The climax was shocking, and well-done, but overall I feel like something was lacking and I can’t exactly place what. Still, this was a pleasant if vaguely unsettling afternoon read.

A group of friends come together to celebrate the wedding of two friends, except it’s at a haunted house that has ghosts of its own. The story follows Cat, who is recovering from depression, and the very complicated relationships between everyone in this friend group. The friends include Phillip, a golden boy, Faiz the nerdy groom, Nadia the bride, and Lin, Cat’s friend. Everyone has their own strained relationship and this getaway is testing it. The location they have it as does not help, it is said to be a haunted house where girls were walled up in and is haunted by the ghost of a bride waiting for her groom. Throw in alcohol, secrets coming out, and messing with the dead, and what we have is a short and thrilling ghost story. I loved the creepiness and atmosphere it set.The story was told from Cat’s point of view, but my favorite character had to be Lin, cuz boy oh boy did he echo my thoughts about horror movie rules and everyone knows you have to leave as soon as someone starts messing with the ghosts.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Ohhh my goodness what a trip. It always amazes me how some authors are able to pack so much into such a short tale. The setting was vivid and visceral, the characters felt like people you know, and the ghost story aspect of the tale was delightfully creepy. This one is going to stick with me for sure.

This is a book of astonishing beauty and originality and horror and I loved it. A small group of friends with complicated relationships and secrets and traumas meet for the wedding of two of them in a haunted Japanese mansion, where the images of yokai like tankui and kitsune, painted on panels, follow and cluster and watch what unfolds. And what does unfold is not unexpected, but told in new language: a ghostly bride demands company. Khaw's language is poetic without losing the edge of modernity: the ghost's first words are "like a sound carried on the last ragged breath of a failing record player;" a woman's "lipstick game as sharp as a paper cut;" knee-high ferns are "like vegetal cats." Khaw captures the intersection of the magical and the eerie: "the night stretched chandeliered with fireflies" inside rooms are "ossuaries: the books suppurating flat-bodied beetles." I could go on, but really what I'm saying is: go read this book. Even if you think you are not a fan of horror, or of fantasy, or of the drama of youth, go read. This is a treat for any reader.

Do you want to know a secret? I love being creeped out. I love when a book can make your skin prickle and the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I love the surge of adrenaline you get when you yank open a closet door or rip open your shower curtain because you just read a story that was truly scare-your-pants-off terrifying so now you’re certain there’s a monster lurking in those quiet, dark spaces.

So...a ghost story based around Japanese folklore? Sign me up. This story was fascinating and captivating as hell. At only 100 pages long, it’s technically a novella, but it certainly felt like a full-length novel. The writing is absolutely stunning and the world-building is almost surreptitious - you don’t realize how much you’ve learned about the characters and their back-stories and relationships until the end. I like to highlight passages of books that I find poignant or poetic, and by the time I was done with this book, I felt like I’d highlighted half of it. What a creepy, atmospheric, dark story.

I loved it.

I don't know if I've ever read a book so quickly after being approved for it on Netgalley! I've been eager for this book ever since it was announced (granted, that was fairly recently, but we're talking serious anticipation levels here!) and it did not disappoint! It's pretty short, even for a novella, and yet there's SO much packed into these pages. I found myself purposefully slowing down while reading it (despite being riveted and just wanting to hurry and read the next page) so I could really process everything fully. Every sentence in this novella does double or triple duty. There's so much world-building, atmosphere, nuance, and backstory, much of is implied through glimpses here and there, or pointed conversations referencing past events.

There's an incredible amount of history to the book, in more sense than one. Quite obviously, the story is set in a place with the weight of age: a Heian-era mansion. Let's be clear -- I'm not going to pretend like I knew what that was before looking it up. (I wish I did! But, alas.) For those similarly uninformed, "The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185." (Yes, my source is Wikipedia. I'm only a little ashamed.) But beyond the obvious setting, the characters in the group have a weighty history of their own. The mystery of unraveling precisely the nature of their tangled relationships with one another was a big part of the story's fun.

And I've mentioned this already, but it bears mentioning again because it was just done SO well. This book is incredibly atmospheric! With a story this brief, Khaw doesn't have time to describe every little detail of setting. Instead, they give us just enough to kickstart our own imaginations. I've rarely been able to imagine any story in as vivid of detail as NBBT. I think the part I noted with the most description was the feast the characters laid out midway through the novella -- and wow am I glad that was what Khaw put their description space into! I loved the mention of so many Asian dishes I've rarely -- or never -- seen in a book. And their casual banter incorporating their varying backgrounds (the half-Japanese character asking the others what a Japanese phrase meant and them being like DUDE WE'RE CHINESE, shouldn't YOU know?) made me laugh. (I'm Chinese diaspora, and that conversation was just... spot on.)

I do want to add that I've read a few of Khaw's pieces before (short stories and novellas) and it has taken me a bit of time to get accustomed to their style, which I absolutely ADORE now. Mostly, I think they're simply too smart for me. I can't read their books quickly (the way I, admittedly, read many books) as I miss things, because everything they write is so dense with meaning and described in such original, non-cliche terms. It takes my brain longer to process their sentences than it takes for most other books. So I just want to caution anyone new to Khaw's work that this story is one to be savored, not rushed through, even though you'll be desperate to flip through the pages!

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is sharp, raw, vivid, and -- as the name suggests -- full of teeth. Highly recommended.

Huge, huge thank you to Tor Nightfire for providing a free advanced e-copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was, unfortunately, disappointed with what I hoped would be a classic horror story but what ended up as more of an exploration of Japan and the Japanese people and culture. The author was seemingly most interested in waxing poetic about human characteristics and traits, and what inspires them....seemed awfully self-aggrandizing and quickly became boring.

Whoa! What a ride. Loved this short, creepy horror book. My one complaint is that I didn't know all the Japanese lore the author referenced, and had to continually look stuff up - which broke up my reading of the book - so a glossary would have been nice. Scary, creepy, and surprisingly gory!

Super creepy little horror novella, complete with a complicated group of "friends" constantly bickering and fighting staying the night in a totally haunted, old mansion, known for being built on the bones of a bride who took a maiden sacrifice with her for many years. Things get tense, they get weird, they get dark, and the cover is awesomely horrifying. Definitely recommend.

5 friends stay the night in a haunted house to witness their friends get married. Supposedly a woman's fiancee died on the way to their wedding hundreds of year ago and she was buried in the mansion along with other sacrificed girls. I was glad to read this on my Kindle because I kept looking up various Japanese terms such as yokai (supernatural spirits) or ohaguro (blackening one's teeth). It reads like a horror movie, drunk characters telling ghost stories in a creepy mansion but the Japanese setting makes it unique. The imagery was impressive and I could see the strange occurrences in my mind as I read. The only thing I disliked about the book was it's short length, I wanted to know more about the character's backgrounds.

Rating: 9.0/10

Thanks to the publisher and author for a advance reading copy of Nothing But Blackened Teeth for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a bloody grin with a twist of the knife. Khaw’s prose is electric throughout and powers the reader through a delightfully disturbing haunted house tale full of terrible people receiving their just due. What a perfectly vile Halloween read.

I’ll be the first to admit: the cover is going to haunt my nightmares for months to come. As soon as I saw it pop up on NetGalley, I just knew it was going to be an auto-read for me. Not having read any of Khaw’s previous works, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I know a few readers who absolutely loved her Persons Non Grata series from Tor.com so why not jump right in.

Khaw’s prose, while intimidating at first glance, is definitely one of the more polished feeling that I’ve come across and played poetically within the confines of such a disturbing story. Every sentence was like a hammer blow to the skull, driving deeper and deeper into your psyche and breathing life into these yōkai. Simply the thought of stepping inside this mansion with the history of it, let alone spending an inebriated evening within its walls… pass, bro.

I feel like the author has started a haunted house sub-genre here that I would love to see more of. This isn’t just a run-of-the-mill haunting; it is a bloody disgusting tale where the ghosts don’t have time for your BS and you better get to the stabby stabby. It is about watching horrible human beings completely crumble under the weight of their choices AND I AM HERE FOR IT.

This is a novella where you will whisper to yourself “No way… NO FREAKING WAY” over and over and over again throughout, and probably more so once you finish. If you want a hauntingly original tale with phenomenal prose, this is a no-brainer.

Wait a minute! Did I read the blurb correctly? Is this book about a wedding celebration at one of the creepiest, most ominous and terrifying place at Heian- era Japanese mansion built by the resting bones of a bride and remains of girls who sacrificed themselves to accompany her?

What a batshit, mind bending plot line!

After reading the blurb and taking a very long look at the impactful, haunted cover that may give you nightmares for the entire month, I simply screamed: I’m all in!

This is quiet brilliant Japanese folklore waltzes with fables full of metaphors and allegories meet mystery/ thriller genres! A realistic approach to mental illness and fractured friendship patterns.

It was hooking but I wish instead of stuck at the creative author’s mind who presents us lots of metaphors with embellished depictions, I’d like to see more action packed, moving story of the characters. The writing style was unique but it was also too complex and wordy at some parts. You want to focus on the mystery and events instead of philosophical approach between similarities of ghosts and real people’s way of handling things.

But I enjoyed the originality and the criticism of broken friendship and tense atmosphere which push me to read till the end at one seat.

I’m cutting some points because of unbalanced pace ( too slow with long metaphorical elaborations but some parts are too fast to absorb! )

Overall: I think the half star I gave because of this stunning cover and I’m giving my 3.5 starts to be rounded up to 4 heart pounding, claustrophobic, gothic, very disturbing, Japanese stars!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan -Tor/ Forge for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.