Unfortunately this was not the book for me. I enjoy thriller / ghost stories, especially ones based in different cultures lore, but Nothing But Blackened Teeth fell very flat for me.

I felt as if this book was a trailer made for a much larger book that I should have read. There are many great books that are very short, but you have to invest your readers. I was not invested in any of the characters, I hardly realized when something happened to one of them until after it did, and I don't quite understand the ending.

This book needed more to it and definitely didn't satisfy the horror story I wanted from it.

This is a Japanese horror novella about a group of friends getting together for a wedding in a haunted abandoned mansion.

I liked the story, but did not really feel for any of the characters. There was a lot of back-story of each of their relationships, which took away from the tension and scary situation that they eventually found themselves. I would have enjoyed more focus on the actual haunting and mansion.

I did like the narrator. She drew me in with her tone, set the mood and immersed me in the story.

I want to thank NetGalley, Cassandra Khaw and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

This was such a great horror novella. I loved the haunted house setting and the legend/story behind the house. It was hard for me to keep the friend group straight and who they were to each other, etc. So I think I'd have an even better reading experience a second time through. Highly recommend for horror lovers and haunted house setting lovers. The writing style and narration of the audiobook was perfect!

I listened to the audio-book. I might read the print book too. Different experience, you know? Story was scary, the writing was amazing, and it was a great listen 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!

I received this book as an audiobook ARC on NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

First off, be warned. This book is very spooky and it will mess you up if you aren’t prepared for a scary, haunted house story. You could probably guess from the AMAZING cover that this is horror, but the book is short. Read it on your lunch break or during the day rather than at night while alone in your home.

That being said, I really enjoyed this story. There are massive plot holes and not much character development, but it is fun and easy to read. I loved the writing and the atmosphere was fantastic. It also scared the pants off me.

This Japanese horror novella follows a group of five friends who reunite in japan for a destination wedding. The bride wants to be married in a haunted house, so they travel to a abandoned mansion from the Heian-era. Little do they know, a wedding was supposed to take place here long ago, but the groom died before the wedding could take place. The bride could not bear the groom’s passing and asked her wedding guests to bury her alive in the house's foundation. She would sacrifice a new girl every year to keep her company until she could find her way back to her groom.

This was the perfect way to start out my reading for the spooky season. I really enjoyed the scary imagery that was portrayed throughout the book. This exceptional horror novella is a mix of Japanese folklore and culture that includes haunted house elements. Well done, Cassandra Khaw!


Thank you to Macmillan audio and Netgalley for the ARC of thus audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth
by Cassandra Khaw
Pub date: October 19, 2021

Many thanks to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion..

Nothing But Blackened Teeth, overall, was just ok.. The author didn’t give us much to actually Like about the book. The characters weren’t very likable, The abandoned mansion where the main characters were getting married wasn’t likable At All, with its rotting walls, floors & contents. Cassandra Khaw did incorporate Japanese folklore throughout the story, that was a plus. I felt like the book was too short to have so much going on at once, making for a jumbled plot with tons of unanswered questions.
I did enjoy listening to this audiobook, the narrator did a very good job. I Would recommend this book to others with the hope that they’d enjoy it more than myself.
I’m giving 3.5 Stars to Nothing But Blackened Teeth

#NothingButBlackenedTeeth #NetGalley

The audio book's narrator was fantastic. It's a slow-paced storey that builds to a terrifying conclusion. There's a lot of character growth to witness. The storey makes me feel conflicted.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to review this spooky audio.

A group of friends in a haubted building seeking a thrill before a wedding. Murder, secrets revealed, friends turning against each other and a dead bride that won't rest! Great creepy narrator. My only complaint is I wish this was longer!

When your dream is to marry in a haunted house...be careful what you wish for.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is not long enough! I wanted to be trapped in that haunted house much longer because it was so creepy and perfect. Cassandra Khaw’s novella is a quick wild read. A group of friends rent a haunted mansion for a wedding and then have to deal with the consequences of that choice. Friendships are tested, secrets are spilled, and ghosts are brought to the surface. Read it with the lights on.

This novella was a wonderful treat! It was creepy with an unsettling ending. The character dynamics were very interesting and the writing made me feel like I was there with the characters experiencing the terror. But I felt that this wasn't enough. It wasn't scary enough and it wasn't long enough. I would have liked it if it the audiobook was an hour longer. Also the narration was exquisite.

NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH

This book is a fast-moving train. And if you don’t jump on right away, it’ll be over before you know it.

So, I’m listening along, getting right into the juicy parts of the story, and then it says

“EPILOGUE”

What??!!

Has this ever happened to you?

I don’t often look up the length of books before reading. I do not ever want to be dissuaded from reading a book based on the size. So, I didn’t notice this one was rather short.

NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH is a new release horror by Cassandra Khaw. It features a haunted mansion, a group of friends all with bad intentions, and a ghost bride. It was a lot of fun!

Such a great book to get you in a spooky mood!

I just wish it were longer. And that’s never a bad thing!!

Four Stars

Thanks to @macmillanaudio for this advanced ALC in exchange for my review!

This book will be featured in my October 2021 Women of Horror feature: New Releases
Friday, October 1, 2021
@undertheradarbooks_

Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing but Blackened Teeth was a splendid haunted house story, beautiful in its writing and horrific in its details. I loved the blending of Japanese history and folklore and the attraction of haunted spaces as desirable and dangerous destinations, but I felt the story took a sharp turn off the rails too swiftly for me to feel truly invested in its characters or their fate by the time they started to face their fears. Definitely an enjoyable read and one I’d recommend to fans of Japanese folklore and horror stories, but not one I felt consistently hit the mark in the ways I was hoping it would.

This is the perfect book to get into the Halloween spirit! It's hauntingly tragic and grotesque, but carries the moral lesson of what results when people over-indulge. The characters' relationships were well laid out, and it manages to avoid all the typical cliche tropes of the horror genre while cleverly addressing them.

I also think it was the absolute perfect length for a short ghost story. The plot kept right on moving and the suspense was built from the very opening lines--where we learn about our ever-suffering protagonist.

I think this book is definitely meant to be heard, and the narrator does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. If you need something that's just creepy enough to get you into the Halloween spirit, make sure to check out this intensely creepy ghost story.

What a delightfully creepy haunted house/Japanese folk horror story. This is very short so I don't want to say too much regarding the plot but the way that Khaw builds tension between the cast is so effective for creating a great atmosphere. I don't remember her spending much time on the physical descriptions of the setting, but the way that she wrote really transported me to this house with these people. And this friend group is so messy it is like watching a trainwreck and so hard to look away. It's actually something that I think could work well as a film. I had seen a lot of hype about this book, so I am happy to say that it did not disappoint. I am looking forward to reading more of Khaw's work.
I was able to listen to the audiobook and it was well produced and I think the narrator did a fantastic job.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the audiobook in exchange for review.

First, I would be remiss if I did not absolutely bow down to the power of this incredible cover art. It's gorgeous, arresting, and pulled me in to want to read it as soon as I could. Nothing But Blackened Teeth cleverly inverts your typical haunted house fare, with the cast of characters well aware of the lore of the place they have chosen to spend a surprise elopement getaway. This book definitely caters to horror fans like myself, as it plays with tropes such as the jock, the comic relief, the final girl, and subverts your expectations. The ideas of this book are fun and fresh, but unfortunately for me the language was so overwrought as to make it not an enjoyable read. The narrative took me out of the plot, as opposed to sucking me in and making me feel any sort of fear or sympathy for the characters. Perhaps too ambitious for a 2 hour horror novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth failed to stick with me in a meaningful way.

3.5/5 Stars

A group of 5 friends decide to take a trip to Japan together to visit a haunted mansion, where two of their friends wish to be married. This mansion is rumored to be the resting place of a bride, who was buried alive while waiting for her groom who never showed. As the night goes on, the friends quickly realize that they may have made a grave mistake.

The cover of this book is definitely what drew me in. I knew I needed to read it as soon as I saw it. This book is definitely spooky, with a creepy atmosphere, I will give it that... but at times the writing style was just too wordy and using too many metaphors for me to truly be immersed in the story. It slowed the pacing down immensely as I spent more time trying to figure out what the author was saying. I enjoyed that the narrator was unreliable, as she is implied to have just been released from hospital due to some form of metal treatment and she is also drunk for the majority of the story. I liked the exploration of this fractured friendship and how complicated it was now. I wish the book was longer so that we could have more of a backstory on these 5 and what got them to the point they were at in their friendship, but alas, it was only 128 pages.

Overall I found this a quick creepy read, but feel a little torn on how I was feeling by the end. I enjoyed the hunted house and Japanese folk lore portions of the story. Unfortunately, more of the story was about the group of "friends" that seemed to have all dated each other and their complicated history with one another rather than the strange happenings they were in.

As this was a novella I would have preferred less focus on the dynamics and history of who dated /slept with who and more of what the house and spirits where doing to kill or posses them.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

I was thrilled to recieve the audiobook ARC for nothing but blackened teeth and consumed the audio book within less than two hours. I realize now this was a big mistake on my part. Hear me out. This is a short Novella which, without having some understanding of Japanese folklore and history, had me feeling a bit confused by the references and resulted in me losing key aspects of the story. So, for anyone that is going to read this novella, I highly suggest doing a quick google or Wikipedia search of these terms before you begin:

The Heian period
YoKai
Tanuki
Tengu
Kintuse
Fusuma
Kappa Demon

Once I read up on the folklore mentioned in the story and became more familiar with the Heian mansion structure I went back and relistened to the story and found it much creepier and atmospheric than on my initial listen.
The narrator, Suehyla El-Attar did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. Overall I enjoyed this novella and look forward to reading more from this author in the future .

What a strange and creepy story. Perfect for the time of year made for spooky stories. Haunted house, dark forest, a cursed bride…a recipe for horror. The tension starts between the characters then develops with the house. So eerie. The narrator did an amazing job intoning they bizarre tone. I could listen to this every year on Halloween