I enjoyed the folklore aspect to this book, but what I didn’t enjoy is the characters themselves and their depressing bad attitudes. What I did enjoy was that the haunted houses’s viciousness. I only hoped that there was to be no survivors.
I say give it a read if you don’t need to get invested into characters and like some gore.

So creepy! Khaw is a master at building characters and atmosphere. After reading this, I had to go and devour everything she's written. I can't wait to read her next work. A new master of horror.

I think when it comes down to it, writing novellas and short stories that are compelling in a condensed amount of time is a really difficult skill to acquire and polish. I try to be nice to novellas that miss the mark because I understand how hard it can be, but there's only so much leeway I can give before a book turns out to be not worth the time. (At least novellas aren't much time to begin with!)

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a book about messy people making stupid decisions and reaping the consequences. Nadia has always dreamed of getting married in a haunted house, so when she and Faiz decide to tie the knot, golden boy Phillip rents a Heian-era mansion with a blood-soaked history of girls being buried alive for their venue. Cat, our main character and narrator, and Lin are invited along as well, but the night turns sour when the bride buried beneath the mansion's walls awakens and begins to stalk the thrill-seekers.

I think when it comes down to it, this is yet another novella that suffered from a lack of development due to page constraints. The characters were one-dimensional and fueled by their messy choices, and sometimes as if we couldn't remember their one (1) personality trait, Cat saw the need to beat these traits over our heads in flowery language. If I can't pick up that Phillip is a ditzy rich white boy at 80%, that's a problem with the writing. In a novella, every word is crucial since you don't have as much room to work with, and I felt a lot of space that could have been used to craft a more spooky atmosphere was wasted on telling instead of showing character traits.

Regarding the writing, I think this book would have benefitted from a consistent writing style and tone. Again, due to the condensed nature of a novella, switching from haunting, poetic descriptions to basically the complete opposite was a constant stream of whiplash. Cat is fresh from a suicide attempt and in-patient hospital stay, so as a dramatic depressed person I gave her a pass, but at some point, you go from Sylvia Plath to a middle grader's notebook when it comes to the level and quality of the prose. I value books where each sentence seems intentional and not a word is wasted, but here I was frequently taken out of scenes by Cat waxing poetic about Phillip's wonderbread behavior. In a horror story, tone and immersion are everything, and I did not end this book properly spooked, which was a disappointment!

If you are a fan of prose that edges towards purple and can overlook character development and quality to appreciate a very spooky setting and plot, you may enjoy this much more than I did! Fans of Japanese folklore will at least get a bit of a kick out of this.

The author worked hard to throw the reader off their feet and keep you disoriented but it actually felt more hastily pulled together than skilled technique. It also ended very, very abruptly. And I get it, killing off the white guy is a nice turn on the classic way of things. Maybe it was just my mindset when I read it but it really felt like it both rushed through too much and dwelled on other aspects far too often.

Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing but Blackened Teeth was one of the most buzzed about novellas in Horror circles from the intriguing and haunting cover and being one of the initial titles in the launch of Tor’s new Nightfire imprint. Based on the reactions I’ve seen, it is also one of the most polarizing titles of 2021. However, I absolutely LOVED Nothing but Blackened Teeth and I’m going to check out anything and everything Khaw publishes in the future.

Khaw puts their own unique spin on the haunted house genre in this terrifying tale inspired by Japanese folklore. Packed with plenty of haunting, hallucinatory scenes, I felt this novella was a breath of fresh air for this style of Horror. I love a good haunted house story and I was not disappointed with the eerie and frightening way Khaw unleashed the horrors they created on unsuspecting readers. Your enjoyment may vary, but I applaud the bold direction Khaw took in Nothing But Blackened Teeth. They write in a variety of genres and I already have The All- Consuming World in my TBR, but I can’t wait to read another straight-up Horror novel from Khaw.

A book that takes on Japanese lore I thought I'd like this, but overall it was too blah. A short story with a totally creepy and gory ending but it made no sense at times. I really thought the premise would lead to some disturbing and inventive scenes, but instead it's a lot of dull set-up culminating in some run-of-the-mill gore.

The cover terrified me and I was like I must read this. It was short and terrifying and I loved it. I think the cover alone definitely sells it!

This was a good horror story, short and easy to read/follow along with while listening to the audiobook.

I wasn’t a fan of Talia, as she was a major instigator in the turmoil that fueled the drama that ensued. Phillip wasn’t a favorite either. None of the characters were particularly like-able to me, but characters don’t have to be liked to be good.

This was an interesting take on a ghost story with using Japanese mythology and legend to fuel the story. I would recommend this book to those who want a short story with Japanese influence.

I found this book to be very well written and enjoyable except for the fact that the characters were mostly unlikable. This made a big difference in how I read it and really drove home how much I was rooting for the haunted creature to win! It was a blast to read and I will definitely recommend it.

Khaw's writing skills are so different that I had no idea of where this was going or where.....however; this book is the tale of a woman from the past SCORNED and out to get revenge. She does and when it comes it will really make you see the images of her and all of her goings on! I was so satisfied and glad that I decided to listen to it instead of read it. Highly recommend....warning: It starts out slow. Stick with it!
Richard

I was incredibly excited to get to this novella because of its haunting cover and ominous synopsis, and I'm quite shocked to see that it is rated so lowly on Goodreads. I quite enjoyed this novella, and I think that the author did a phenomenal job at creating a dark, and horrific, commentary on humanity: how the humans are the real monsters. It highlights how easy and almost innate, in nature, it can be for humans to act sinisterly when it comes to obtaining something that we truly want. The novella was gruesome, well-written, and vivid. The reason I deducted a star was because the ending was a bit rushed and wasn't really where I wanted the story to end; however, it's a novella... so I can't knock it too much for a speedy ending: it's meant to be short.

I think most people rate this novella poorly because of the unbearable characters... but, like... that was the point. I'd highly recommend you give it a shot with this in mind.

This was right up my alley. Love the historic Japanese setting and atmosphere. Chilling and engaging, what else can you ask for?

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't want to review a book that I didn't finish.

I really wanted to love this book. I thought the premise sounded amazing and the cover is stunning. Unfortunately it fell completely flat for me. I didn't enjoy the characters, they were quite annoying tbh, not people it was fun to spend time with. Then the story itself felt disjointed.

As much as I wanted to be consumed by this tale, I just could not get into it. I have it try after try but for a few months but every time I picked it up I just couldn't get into the story or the characters. I didn't mind the flowery writing and loved the atmospheric setting but it wasn't enough.

I wanted so badly to love this book. What an outstanding premise - five friends have a pre-wedding gathering in an ancient Japanese manor, full of ghosts and demons and legends to make your blood run cold.

But the characters, our narrator and her four friends, are all completely unlikable and unrelatable. They're juvenile, self-centered, ranging from completely obnoxious to utterly depressing, and the way they behave is so far outside the confines of normalcy that they cross the line into ridiculously unbelievable.

Add to this the author's staggering overuse of metaphor, simile, and prose so purple it's blinding, and the flow of the story is bogged down nearly to a stand-still. It feels like each page contains one pertinent sentence which the reader must pick out word by word from among dozens of flowery descriptions.

I know the author was going for atmosphere and perhaps a feeling of disorientation or confusion, but I feel like somewhere along the way they lost the plot entirely among the descriptive phrases and unfairly expected their readers to search it out for them.


The last third of the book is the best, where the action finally starts to outpace the adjectives, but by the time I got there I just didn't have it in me to care all that much what happened to any of the characters.

I was really looking forward to this novella cause I’m such a huge horror fan! Books, movies... you name it! Give it ALL to me! Lol. Unfortunately, this was kind of a letdown. You look at the beautifully creepy cover and you think you’re gonna get all the scares, but nope! That was not the case.

The biggest issue for me was the writing. It was pretty, but it got old FAST. The flowery writing was just too much for me! But thanks to this book I found out what the meaning of purple prose is 😆 and I also found out that I don’t like it 🙈 It was so over the top that it made me roll my eyes and just took me out of the story. All the similes and metaphors and abundance of adjectives... JFC! It was jarring when we would switch from the purple prose to the dialogue between the characters because it was just so vastly different.

Another thing I feel was impacted by the writing is the action and the horror itself. We were supposed to follow these characters as they traipsed through this haunted mansion, but the action was just hindered by the flowery writing. By the time the book got to the point—that the character was in danger—I had lost interest. And then the horror aspect also got lost amid all the similes and metaphors.

As for the characters, I didn’t like them. ANY of them. I didn’t understand the dynamic of this friend group... Has everyone dated everyone? They don’t even seem like friends... they don’t seem to even tolerate each other! The vitriol between Nadia and Cat? Holy shit! I just didn’t get it and I didn’t care for any of them.

So, yeah. I was not a fan. The writing was too much, I didn’t care for the characters, and the scares were nonexistent. There was some gore, but the book just wasn't scary. I feel like every aspect of the book was hindered by the flowery writing. It just didn't work for me. I did like the somewhat creepy feel of the house and the setting in general. But that’s it. Oh, I was also looking forward to some Japanese folklore, which we did get some of. But I wish it would have been explored more. And maybe explained more. Lol. There were some Japanese terms that weren’t explained that left me confused. And listen, I have been studying Japanese for over two years now, but come on! My Japanese isn't that good! 😆 Lol. But yeah, this was not for me. However, if you like flowery writing with only a touch of spookiness, then this might be for you.

Wow, sadly I had to DNF this one, even though it is only about 125 pages long! I couldn't get past about 30 pages. These characters are just shells, the dialog is so stilted and unnatural, the prose is so purple I don't think I'll be seeing any other colors for a while now. This could be creepy and some of the imagery almost got me there, but I really felt like this was a barely-there story outline with incredibly flat characters that the author was trying to fill out with over-the-top prose. I was constantly being taken out of the story by the writing style. I know that this got generally positive reviews, so clearly that's just a personal preference for me. When I read that the author is a scriptwriter it suddenly clicked why this is so bare bones. I'd love to see this concept in the hands of another writer who also wants to give it the full length novel treatment. Just not for me. I did actually purchase this title for my library because we had a patron request, but sadly it has only circulated twice since November of 2021. Hopefully there will be more interest in the future.

Spend the morning with this, it's a short read! I had a bit of a time getting into it (5 characters, unique setting) but once I figured everything out, I was all in. And it takes off quickly. So much horror! Loved it.

Gave 4.5 stars on Storygraph, recommended for horror lists.

As a fan of Asian horror novels, this is beautifully written. It's so sad and very spooky. A great, quick read for the season