So I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this book. I typically shy away from horror stories. Guts, gore, and viscera do not disturb me but I despise the jump scare, something peeking out of a darkened room kind of tale.
This is a ghost story. Five friends enter a crumbling Heian-era mansion intending to spend the night celebrating a wedding. They are drawn in by the shadows, dust, gloom, and malevolent atmosphere. Through the night their animosity, rage, jealousy are fueled and fanned by the ghosts around them and their own memories and perceptions of each other. Khaw keeps the tension high as the atmosphere darkens and draws from Japanese myth and legend to populate the house with a magnitude of terrifying creatures. Highly recommended for any fan of haunted house horror.

I couldn’t finish this book. The characters were interesting and the author did a great job creating tension, but the story just fell flat to me.

Very good and creepy but falls just short of being great. It’s a short novel and a quick read, I actually wish it had been longer and could have expanded on some of the story a bit.

This wasn’t for me so I put it down. I could not get myself to care about the characters or their back story. Half way in there were not many horror elements. Prose was beautiful though.

This book, really better described as a novella, is engrossing. Khaw is a master of horror and truly draws you into the world of the wedding party. A group of young friends decide to spend the night in a haunted temple where a young bride was once buried alive. The legend says that each year another woman was entombed alive to keep her company. This is the perfect place for a sleepover and a wedding, right? Steeped in Japanese folklore and horror this book keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it will end. Full of yokai such as ohaguro bettari, tengu, and kitsune, this classic horror tale will leave you with chills. Khaw is also not only a master of horror but a quintessential succinct author. Her prose is so precise, so well crafted its worth admiration as much as her storytelling. Her words fall like jewels from the page. Read it now!

Sorry to say I didn’t enjoy this very much. The atmosphere, the Japanese folklore, all INCREDIBLE. I know now how much I’m missing out on and plan to seek out more in this corner of horror.

But the characters… not one was likeable, interesting, or alluring. It felt like the reader is force-fed quick, drab backstory that doesn’t really contribute to the plot. The horror felt minimal and rushed, but that could be my own problem because I came into reading this assuming it was a full length novel, not a novella.

Best part of this for me was learning so much about Japanese horror folklore. So many new stories to dig into!

*thanks to netgalley for this ARC*

really good. loved the spooky setting and fast-paced feel. The atmosphere was so enticing and these characters were enjoyable to follow. Definitely get creepy and spooky. 4.5 stars!

I always love books that have a creepy horror to them and Nothing But Blackened Teeth did not disappoint. This little novella was everything I wanted and I cant wait to see what the author decided to do next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

You know that feeling when you read the first pages of a new book and you know that you are going to love it? That was Nothing But Blackened Teeth for me. 


I'll admit that I knew very little about Japanese folklore prior to reading this, and as a result, I found myself researching many of the supernatural entities and spirits mentioned throughout the story, which made it both educational and entertaining. The prose was beautiful, the characters were unlikeable in the best way possible, and there was a great deal of history woven into the story, however, I do wish it had been a little longer.

The author knows how to create an eerie atmosphere, but I didn't feel like there was enough build-up to keep me turning the pages as quickly as I would have liked. Right when I was beginning to get spooked, the action started, and then it was over. It happened so quickly I did not get enough time to really process everything that happened. Additionally, I felt that the friend drama outweighed the creepy aspects to the point where I was more focused on that than on the horror. I think it would have benefitted from digging a little deeper into the characters and some more exposition.

Perhaps I'm just being nitpicky because I really enjoyed it and I wish there was more. I truly could have read Khaw's description of just the setting for pages and pages, and as I sat there after finishing, I wished I could go back in for more.

Brooding and dark, Nothing but Blackened Teeth drew me in and kept me off-balance. Always on the precipice of scary, it never quite tipped over. Instead, it stayed an eerie book, one that has crawled its way into my head. I’ll be thinking about it for a long while, reliving bits and pieces of the creepy story.
Nothing but Blackened Teeth follows a group of friends who decide to rent a Heian-age mansion for an odd sort of wedding celebration. The thing is, they’ve heard it’s haunted. That’s the draw for them: they’re hoping to experience the otherworldly and the disturbing. Well, wish granted.

The story goes that originally a woman’s fiancé died on his way to marry her at the mansion. She decided to be buried alive so that she could wait for her husband like one does, I suppose. Women continued to be sacrificed, one per year, so that the buried bride wouldn’t be lonely. In all honestly, the origin story for the haunting is the part that I found to be the weakest. It just didn’t inspire that anticipatory shiver that I was hoping for.

None of the characters are particularly likable and at first, I found myself viewing them through the slasher-film lens. You know: this one will die first because they sleep around, this one next because they don’t believe in the danger, etc. However, such was not the case. The tropes became jumping-off points for complex, multi-faceted characters, each with their own flaws and fears. Half of the fun of Nothing but Blackened Teeth was watching the complicated relationships fray and slowly dissolve as the characters’ pasts caught up to them.

The story begins with Cat, a woman who is still coming to grips with an unspecified mental illness. It has affected her past and she is still in the midst of learning to cope with it. There’s Phillip, the charismatic and super rich sponsor of the mansion rental. There’s Faiz and Talia, the engaged couple. Cat and Talia have beef, and their issues with each other add to an already tense situation. Last, there’s Lin, who is a master pot-stirrer. It’s these tangled relationships and hidden emotions that really elevate Nothing but Blackened Teeth to the fascinating tale that it is.

Author Cassandra Khaw played with motifs of relationships and mental health in ways that felt a little reminiscent of Shirley Jackson (if Jackson had a penchant for gore). There were times when I wondered what was happening and what- if anything was being imagined by one character or another. Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a riveting book, perfect for fans of creepy tales with a little extra bite.

This book is the perfect mixture of cheesy 80's horror and all those bad reality TV shows where people start out as 'sort of friends'. Only to have relationships and levels of decorum devolve as secrets and betrayals are revealed. Right before the eyes of a drama starved public. Popcorn in hand, judgement and recriminations at the ready.

Only this time...
The house is an abandoned Hein-era mansion. And the audience.
Well...
That's where things get more than a bit creepy.
Try the restless spirit of the woman buried alive as a young bride. Her bones, along with those sacrificed to attend her making up the founding of the house.

The drama begins almost as soon as the book does. With some of the guests playing 'hot potato' with the knowledge of who had had affairs with the bride. And whether the proverbial 'beans should be spilled to the unsuspecting groom. Before the 'death til us part and all."
While our narrator gets acquainted with the spirit in question. And seriously starts to wonder when the 'and then there were none' countdown is scheduled to begin.

Insert plot twist here.
When after a game of ghost storytelling. The bride goes missing and there is a stabbing. All the while tensions continue to heighten. And arguments and jealous squabbles abound.

The ending almost seems a justification for the intrusion of the self absorbed and petty squad that this spirit has found herself hosting.
Along that vein...
This story is a lot less horror. And a lot more spiritually induced comedy of errors.
With the short and not so sweet format of the story serving to drive home the impact of its ending's very ironic punch.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. And an absolutely, incredibly terrifying book to read. I had nightmares for a week after I finished it but omg...this book is so beautifully written that no matter how terrifying it becomes you just can't stop reading. The word pictures she paints will stay in your mind for a long time and not just because they are so eerily creepy but because they manage to be both horrific and beautiful at the same time. This book was a scare-filled joy to read. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Scary, scary, scary. I googled a lot of the things mentioned throughout the book and found some creepy images that lent to the atmosphere of the story. I enjoyed the short format but wish we could have stayed in this haunted house.. forever!

Khaw is one of the brightest, most brutal voices around right now and this story did not disappoint. It's sharp and dangerous yet also charming and warm. I couldn't put it down, even though I felt awash with dread with every turn of the page. Quite possibly Khaw's best yet.

QUICK TAKE: THIS BOOK F*CKED ME UP, DO NOT READ AT NIGHT. WHY WOULD PEOPLE GET MARRIED IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. NO THANK YOU.

Fantastic read! The story was gutwrenching and beautiful at the same time. While sometimes the writing bordered on overly-flowery, the author's lyrical prose added an element of delicacy to an otherwise dark an unsettling story stepped in Japanese horror.

Wow Cassandra Khaw has a really brilliant way with words. No tropes or common similes here! An A+ horror story. I normally don't read short stories, but this was excellent. Bonus points for the awesome cover.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love horror with unlikeable protagonists, and this certainly fit the bill. The prose, the setting, and the brilliant way Khaw unfolded (or withheld) bits of the story were perfectly paced and relentlessly disturbing. Also, hooray for queer horror protags!

First of all, a big thank you to Netgalley for the arc of this book.

Khaw weaves an amazing lyrically creeping story.

Set in Japan we have five friends getting together for a surprise elopement in a haunted mansion.

I did not stay for the characters in this novella. They were shallow and frustratingly annoying. Which was probably the point and at less than 130 pages Khaw obviously didn't have the time to go into them as she would have with a full-length novel. But I still couldn't stand them.

I went in expecting a little more horror than I got due to overhyping on Tiktok.
The story was definitely more creepy than horrifying and the beautiful way that Khaw wrote did try and get the horror aspect some footing but it still fell short in most places. Lots of gore, which I find a lot of horror novels/movies try and scare you with but it's just gross for me. Not creepy or horrifying. Just gross.

I did love the ghost bride and the Yokai. The legend/myth, whatever you want to call it, about the ghost bride was amazingly creepy, a lot more creepy I think than what took place in the house save for a few scenes.

All in all, this was a quick, deliciously creepy read that I would definitely recommend you put no your Halloween TBR.

This short horror novella wins the award for the simultaneously most gorgeous AND horrifying cover. In fact, it is the cover that actually drew me to this book in the first place. As someone who is trying to read more horror books, I couldn't resist!

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is more of an understated book that I would have imagined -- and that's not a bad thing. Khaw's writing is lyrical and although there are plenty of horrifying moments (I won't be able to comfortably look in a mirror for a few weeks), I felt that this book was more about the total breakdown of this group of 'friends'. Tensions are high before the haunting begins, and its just a powder keg waiting to go off. This is the kind of thing I love in horror media (see: my love of The Thing and the incredible tensions between the group), and Khaw did a great job creating that high-tension atmosphere.

This book is tense, creepy, and has excellent horror imagery. It was a great read, and perfect for your Halloween TBR (but maybe keep the lights on).