First, can I just say what an amazing cover this book has???! The artwork is beautiful and hecka creepy which is what drew me to this little horror novella in the first place. Whoever was in charge of marketing nailed it!

Overall I would rate my experience with this book as a 7/10. The mood and setting of this were excellently done. Who doesn't love a haunted castle in the woods?

I did not care for the characters and here is why I think that is: I am much more used to reading longer works of fiction. These give you more personal time with each character to puzzle them out. You get to find out their good and bad traits and weigh them against each other to establish how you feel about the individual. Here that wasn't the case. You get a quick over view of each characters traits and personalities and then they are all set loose on the house. . . or the house is set loose on them.

This isn't necessarily a flaw. Each character represents a sort of horror trope. They are the stereotypes of the characters you come across is cheesy and bloody horror films. Khaw's writing draws on these ideas and works to circumvent them. I love this. And the fact that she does this well is a testament to her writing skills.

However I am a reader that depends heavily on characters to find enjoyment in a book. If I don't necessarily like the characters then I am not going to enjoy the story much. This is a personal issue.

Overall, an incredibly well done story. Regardless of how I feel about the characters, I would 100% recommend this to fans of the horror genre. It is a relatively quick read (I devoured it in about two hours, maybe less) and leaves you with the perfect chill down your spine at the end.

3 star = "I liked it, but" Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a horror short that is just as creepy as promised by the cover blurb. I found it interesting and atmospheric, but I did have nits. The author obviously has an amazing command of the English language, but using the perfect word in a description only works if you aren't sending the reader off to find a dictionary, otherwise it just breaks the flow of the story telling. My other nit is that since I am not as familiar with Japanese mythology, I didn't really have a read image for a lot of the monsters that appeared in the story. Here a just a few brief descriptions would have helped me out. Nits aside, this short did do its job and I liked that one character acknowledges how much they all are acting like the canon fodder in a horror movie and that things twist those tropes around a bit.

ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley - this is an unpaid review.

This book could have been so good but the authors wordiness got in the way. I felt the plot was great...a group of friends go to a haunted mansion for a wedding. However, this book should not be called horror at all. There was nothing even remotely scary due to the authors prose. I liked the way the friends banter with each other but we never find out their backstories.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a horror novella about a group of friends meeting in a haunted mansion for a wedding.
So many things about this novella stood out to me:- the excellent writing- the strange premise- the complex characters and their relationships with one another

Cassandra Khaw brings an atmosphere and setting that sets up the horror aspect of this novel up well. Khaw also writes complex characters with complicated relationships that instantly drew me in and made me care about what was going on. Unfortunately as these factors started coming together as the novella progressed, it lost me a little. I can't tell if I just didn't respond to the way the characters and the horror started to mesh or if it was too much for the novella format. As much as I dislike this criticism, I really do think this novella would have been fantastic as a full novel. Even 100 more pages would have greatly added to how the story plays out. The character dynamics I really enjoyed got convoluted as the horror elements grew. I believe a longer format would have allowed these aspects to come together more smoothly. I also really enjoyed how the novella ends, but looking back, I feel like the process of getting there got muddled.
Besides thinking that Nothing But Blackened Teeth would be a little better if it were longer, this novella really was a fantastic paranormal horror with interesting characters. I'm looking forward to picking up some of Khaw's other works.

While I did quite enjoy this book, it's not one I'd recommend to everybody. The characters were insanely unlikeable which isn't inherently bad but this also is a horror novel, which combined, make it hard to find the right audience for. Horror books really thrive off of characters you love so you get invested in the book, but this novel takes on a different approach. I loved the atmosphere and setting and really enjoyed how creepy and 'wtf did I just read??' it got, but I don't know if I could blanket recommend this to everyone. You love horror and are looking for one that focuses more on the atmosphere than the characters? This is perfect!

This is an incredibly short book, but that made it no less horrifying. I found that I didn't particularly like or care for any of the characters, but I was still rooting for them. The story itself was fairly predictable in some ways, but it then took a much more dramatic turn and was much more horrifying than I expected. I've always enjoyed Japanese folklore, and so this novella was absolutely up my alley.

The most annoying thing about this story was that it's so dang full of metaphors, and instead of feeling poetic, it felt like it was trying too hard. Other than that, this book felt incredibly reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. If you're looking for quick, deep scares - this is it.

There are so many innovative novels that take place outside of English-speaking settings. These works can be smoothly adapted to accommodate the English reader, but often lose their unique voice in the process. Others may take a bit more effort for the reader, but are able to retain attributes of the original culture in which they were written. Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassanda Khaw is a quirky horror novel that strikes a nice balance. Paranormal aficionados, Faiz and Nadia want their wedding to take place in a verified haunted house, and a wealthy friend arranges the use of a Heian mansion for their nuptials. He flies the intimate group to Japan to officiate and explore the eerie house they have reserved. All the invitees are college friends hailing from various backgrounds and ethnicities who all study Japanese language and culture. The narrator is Cat, a young woman who had been recently released from a mental health facility. Through her eyes, the reader is given a knowledgeable, if unreliable, description of the events. The party begins with festivity, but resentments and enmeshed connections emerge that tests their loyalty as a ghost starts taking victims. Khaw supplies the reader with a Japanese folklore primer and a vocabulary that reflects their surroundings. Nothing But Blackened Teeth evinces a true sense of creeping confusion and dread, but with an undercurrent of disarming wit that provides a fleeting reprieve.

Thanks to the author, Tor/Nightfire and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Tor Nighfire, for the chance to read and review this book in exchange of an honest review.

In an Heian-era mansion, abandoned and haunted by a ghost bride, its walls full of the bodies of the girls sacrificed to keep her company, a group of friends decided to seek an adventure.
Nothing by blackened teeth is a brilliant and captivating haunted house tale, full of twists, secrets and lies and I loved every single page. Cassandra Khaw wrote a story impossible not to love and really captivating. I loved the characters, but mostly the ghost bride and it was so thrilling to read! I totally recommend this book, I basically devoured it!

This book horrified me in all the best ways. I got literal goosebumps! And the cover! Like a fever-dream nightmare come to life. I loved it all!

This was a horrifying little novella, and I mean that in the best way possible. Trigger warnings for body horror, but if you enjoy that this book is for you. Steeped in Japanese folklore, I learned a lot reading this. My only criticism is of the first half; it took a little longer to get going than I would have liked. I was ready to get to the ghost story and found myself annoyed with the interpersonal strife of a group of 20-somethings. All in all, a great haunted house story with a smashing ending. I'll definitely be ordering this for the store.

I had a hard time following the story and keeping track of the characters. There aren't many, but there's nothing to distinguish one from another. I didn't find this creepy or spooky at all. The story was confusing. This is a really short book but still didn't hold my interest at all.

This little novella packs a punch. In its 124 pages, it manages to incorporate complex friendships and relationships, an eerie setting with a horrible past, mistakes made, fears realized, and hearts broken. The discomfort and suspense build from the first page and climb to dizzying heights by the end. I had been anticipating this for months, and it did not disappoint. I bought a hard copy and the jacket art is stunning.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a short novella that is creepy and extremely atmospheric, but missed the mark for me on being scary or a true horror novella. The Japanese folklore was weaved excellently throughout. Despite other reviews that mention there wasn’t enough background, I found that context clues and some minor prior knowledge got me through just fine. However, the characters are horrible to read about and I had no interest in seeing any of them survive the night. I was disappointed that most of them did. While the prose could be magical in some places, it was laughable in others. Khaw attempted to be poetic and fluid in her language, but it was almost like she was trying too hard. There were some areas where it pulled me so far out of the reading because I had to really consider if it was worth it to keep reading. I think Khaw should have focused much more on the Japanese folklore and relied more so on the atmospheric tension that she built up, rather than the vapid, horrid characters she created and the overly flowery language she kept trying to use. It wasn’t my favorite read by far, but it was interesting enough around the folklore that I’m not unhappy that I read it.

Khaw's novella is a meticulously-crafted, terrifying story steeped in Japanese folklore. At only 125 pages, it is a quick and captivating read. The plot revolves around a group of horror-loving friends in their 20s who attend a destination wedding in a haunted Heian-era mansion, where the ghost of a bride buried beneath it still stirs. The characters are insufferable in the best way possible, and I was fascinated by the way their relationships unravelled as the story progressed. I highly recommend this book; it's creepy, gory, and full of twists.

I've adored Cassandra Khaw's writing even since running across These Deathless Bones. Fairytales twists are one of my favorite things and my lord, Khaw wrote a piece that was mesmerizing. I will read anything she writes simply because her prose is dark and haunting. The words wrap themselves around you and cocoon you in their lusciousness. I know a lot of people feel that her writing is overdone and almost showboating with big words and descriptions but I adore it.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth held such high hopes for me. Oh, it's gorgeously written and very on style for Khaw. The inclusion of Japanese folk horror was a bonus since it's a culture that I don't know much about. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the lyrical tone of Khaw's words, I didn't really enjoy the storyline. The characters were ridiculously unlikable and most of the characterization was them sniping at each other. For people who are or were supposed to be friends, it certainly felt more like hate writing than anything. Even for a novella, I want to care about the characters and I just couldn't. I hated all of them.

There was redemption at the end. Khaw finally gave me the gore and blood that I craved but it took too long to get there coiled up in all the bickering and immaturity of the characters.

I had a lot of trouble finishing this book, and considering it's pretty much a novella, that was very surprising. Based on when I downloaded the book and today, it took about a month to finish. I think I did not enjoy the author's writing style. It was overly flowery and with too many metaphors. That kind of language lends itself to a more Victorian setting than the modern one the book is set in. I think that is what kept giving me pause. I also found all the characters unlikable and couldn't figure out why they wanted to hang out together, This is especially true of the main character that had an issue with almost all the other "friends." This book left me with an overall feeling of meh.

I went and got this one for myself for my birthday, among others books I’ve been eyeballing, and I read it in a few hours. It was a nice change from my now normal 300+ page reading habit.

The story was poetically eerie. It packed a creep punch like no other novella I’ve ever laid hands on recently. This cute little hardback is one you can read cover to cover in one afternoon.

If you’re looking for a not so normal, urban legendy creep horror novella, this is it.

I saw mixed reviews on this, but as you all know I don’t spoil, so you may have to wait for my blog post on it to get the 4-1-1 on it 🙃

Horror makes me feel so creepy. I have been diving into new horror authors recently, with different backgrounds than mine, as means to get me hooked on unfamiliar culture and heritage. Cassandra Khaw reeled me in hook, line, and sinker. Since I'm a sucker for locked room murder mystery, this hit the spot.

5 friends - frenemies? - spending the night in a haunted mansion as a fun time before two of them were to married, I mean what can go wrong? I'm not familiar with the Heian period of Japanese history (794 and 1185) or the fairy tales and ghost stories that came out of that period, but that did not detract from the reading. Unreliable, flawed narrator, and pent-up grudges lead to an epic showdown.

Short and decidedly un-sweet, this novella was a good one to read under the covers, alone... or was I?

3.7/5 stars

4.5 stars.

Before Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I had read and loved Cassandra Khaw's short story These Deathless Bones, so I had high hopes for this one. I have to say that my hopes were met! Nothing But Blackened Teeth deals with horror tropes and fraught friendship drama amidst a haunted house story in a Heian-era mansion, and it deals with it well. It explored horror tropes while subverting them, and the descriptions were so incredibly vivid. I definitely recommend it, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

Full review here:
https://thefeministbibliothecary.wordpress.com/2021/11/14/book-review-nothing-but-blackened-teeth-by-cassandra-khaw/

There are two types of readers: those who love a poetic turn of a phrase and those who hate them. If you love them, you’ll almost certainly like this book.

If you don’t have any existing knowledge about the characters in this book, do yourself a favor and look them up. Learning about another culture’s take on ghosts was absolutely fascinating.

Although it wasn’t scary, this book did a good job of keeping my attention. The ending was perfect, too.