I was granted audio ARC access to Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to whoever handled the audiobook approvals! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

This one first came onto my radar when YouTuber Daniel Greene made a "Gandalf banishing the balrog" joke at the cover reveal, because creepy, and then I joined the Spooktober readathon and found that one of my challenges was to read a horror with a black cover. Perfect! Challenge accepted.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a beautifully gory haunted house horror steeped in Japanese mythology that is sure to please fans of "can this friend group survive the haunted house?" type stories with a healthy dose of body horror. If that's your sort of horror, this one is quick, fun, and satisfying. If you're squeamish about body horror, move along, this one won't be for you.

I actually wish this one was longer. It does what it needs to do and wraps the story up neatly, but I think there was definitely room to draw out the suspense a lot more. That said, if a page of script is a minute on the screen, I suppose this one's the perfect length for horror films, and I definitely felt like this one could be cast and filmed for the big screen exactly as it is.

Hmmm... I don't think I liked this... It was very short (a 2.5 hour listen) and I guess it did it's job in telling a story in that short of time, but it just didn't really do it for me.
I did like the narrator, though!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this creepy-crawly audiobook. I decided to wait and listen to it at night and finished the whole thing in one evening. I had very strange and disturbing dreams last night, but it was worth it. This was a wonderful, bite size horror novel with a haunted Japanese mansion as the setting. I really liked it and will be on the lookout for more by Cassandra Khaw.

While I was excited to read this book, being a fan of ghostly horror and and intrigued by the setting, I sadly did not enjoy it. I listened to the audiobook, which had it's own issue in narration--the pronunciation of the Japanese writing in the book.

With regard to the story itself, I found the characters to be rather shallow and their motivations/personalities to be a bit overdone/overexplained. Additionally, I feel like this was one of those examples in which I'd rather be "shown" a character's personalities and history through interaction rather than "told" about them through overt internal narrative or description.

The setting was interesting and I did enjoy some of the description of the house/manor. However, the Japanese vocabulary seemed to be included for the sake of "being interesting" without accomplishing that goal. As a reader, I might have to google "yokai," etc in order to fully understand what's going on when that information could have easily been included in the book without detraction.

Further, some of the events in the book were too "convenient" and included perhaps too many different horror book elements in too quick succession/without enough development--the door where it wasn't the transformation/body snatching, the woman in the mirror...All good but perhaps too much.

Bottom line: Cool setting, great cover, not a great read. I would try another title by this author in the future.

Big thanks to Goodreads and Cassandra Khaw for the ARC in exchange for a review.

This story follows 5 people who book a night in an abandoned mansion, supposedly the burial grounds of a scorned bride to be. The group encounter some terrible beasties and spirits.

So.. I want to start off saying that I didn't hate the story, it was just hard to follow. There was A LOT of allegory, to the point I wasn't sure what was being described for detail and what was actually part of the story. By the end, I'm still not sure if there were any real ghosts and little beasties, or if it was all simile. Was the bride actually hanging out with them, or was it 'as though' she was part of their group?
I think the writing was very poetic and had an artists flair. It was actually beautiful how things were described, but at the same time it took away from the story when I tried to figure out if it was meant literally, or figuratively.

I'm giving it 3.5 because it was beautifully descriptive, and the cover is AMAZING!

Edit to add for the audio book review:

Big thanks to Netgalley for the Audio ARC in exchange for a review.
So, if you made it through my review this far, you can see that I got the physical book from a Goodreads giveaway, and then I also got the Audio ARC from Netgalley.

I read and listened to the book. I know a lot of people don't count audio books as 'reading' (ablest jerks) but I find that listening to a book can drastically change the way one imagines the characters and settings.
I enjoyed listening to the book better than reading it because my undereducated brain skims over words that I don't know, and of course, this being a book written from the perspective of a traditionally non English speaking culture, there are words and phrases that my mind just said "blahhhhhh" to while reading. Hearing the way the bride whisper spoke her language gave a lot more meaning and depth to what and how she spoke.

I bumped my stars up to 4 because the narrator was excellent and blended the large amounts of allegory into more distinct thoughts, rather than me trying to decided what was real or what was imagined. She gave the protagonist a deeper feeling, one a lot more tragic and darker than what my own mind conjured when reading it on paper.

This is a short listen coming in at about two and a half hours. This would fit into a busy housework day or a drive to a holiday destination. That is the one plus about this novel. The author is the narrator who understands cadence and timing. Those make up the two stars.
But why are the other three missings?
The first is that the writing is too wordy. Cassandra Khaw breaks up action by throwing in descriptions about characters are odd timing. She overdoes the descriptive words and throws in any Japanese culture related as almost to convince the readers she knows the culture.
The second star lost is because the story is so chaotic. When the action finally happens it's a mushroom-tripping mess. Typically Japanese horror is simple but very powerful. I don't mean the legends are simple but that the terror is achieved without a parade of ghosts. (This is my experience; that does not mean there isn't something else like this book already in legend.)
And three? I hated all the characters. They could all die and I would be happy. I had no desire for any of these people to escape; I was not invested in what happened to any of them.
Honestly, I would absolutely take those two and a half hours back and save it for the release of the new Fatal Frame game.

I’m a real scaredy-cat, so I braced myself for this book after hearing so many good reviews. And honestly, it lived up to the hype. The ghosts and horror elements were spot on, the drama between all the characters was relatable which made the story extra creepy, and it was gory enough to make me squeamish but not enough to stop reading. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that this gets adapted into a movie someday, so I can watch it in broad daylight, through my fingers.

I really enjoyed the narrator as well and thought she did a great job of bringing this creepy story to life.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I love a good haunted house story, and this exceeded my expectations. The narrator describes her environment with wonderfully crafted alliterations and with a haunting beauty. A fantastic Halloween read. I will be hand-selling this book!

Don’t judge this horror novella by its cover, as the creepy cover is the scariest part of this Japanese horror story.

Thank you @netgalley for the free digital copy. Based on the blurb, the cover, and my love for Japanese inspired horror movies, I expected to love this book. I liked it, but overall it fell flat.

The story lacked emotions, specifically fear! I never felt afraid, and the characters never really expressed any fear. For example—-when ABC gets XYZed, everyone is too calm. “Dang, that sucks about ABC, can you pass the Grey Poupon?” (*Not an actual quote.)

I love similes as much as I love cheesecake (which is a lot), but the author’s over use of them was like watching a Salt Bae video on YouTube—unnecessarily garish and ultimately resulting in a product heavily overpowered by one ingredient.

Overall, it’s an entertaining short story, just don’t go in hoping it’s the scary haunted house story it’s labeled as.

As creepy as it looks!!! Super short at just 2.5 hours (if one reads at regular speed) and it read a bit like a campfire tale. Just enough character development to be interesting with some really disturbing imagery!

I knew that this story was going to be creepy.....but holy crap! This story is just downright horrific! Awesomely horrific!

A group of "friends'' -- really people who used to be friends but have basically destroyed their relationships through growing up, poor decisions, and thoughtlessness. The cohesiveness of young bonds broken by adulthood and change. But, they are together again. To celebrate a wedding. In the weirdest venue ever -- a dilapidated, remote Japanese mansion with a haunting, creepy history. Nadia & Faiz celebrating their love. Peter performing the ceremony. Lin and Cat rounding out the party. Nadia has always dreamed of a wedding in a haunted house....and Nadia gets what she wants. But, the house also wants...and what it wants is dark and gruesome.

Wow. Just wow. This story is short, but it packs quite a supernatural punch in 100 pages. I could see this being a Japanese style horror movie. Wicked camera tricks. Black eyed spirits. Weird lighting and jerky movement. Perfect!

Great story! This is the first story by Cassandra Khaw that I've read. I'm definitely going to read more! Loved it! The cover art is perfect!

10/2/2021 - As I read my early review copy of this book earlier this year, I kept thinking how awesome this spooky bit of folklore based horror would be in audio format. So....I snagged an early copy of the audio book. OMG -- so awesome!

The audio book is just over 2.5 hours -- easy listening length. Narrated by Suehyla El-Attar, this is a great spooky story set in an abandoned mansion. Great job of voice acting. So glad I listened to this story after reading it. For whatever reason, horror stories hit harder with me when I'm listening to them.....sort of like listening to ghost stories around a campfire!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Macmillan/Tor-Forge. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

"A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends. But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt."

Received the audiobook ARC from Netgalley . This review will contain mild spoilers.

I really liked the idea of the description of the book, but I felt like the story was missing something. I didn't care much for any of the characters and it might have been the voice of the main character. I didn't feel any sort of connection or friendship between anyone and mostly everyone had be in a "romantic" relationship with each other in the past or present day. It was like everyone was on edge because they were all fake towards one another and always had passive aggressive remarks to say.

Regarding it being a horror story, the idea of the ghost bride is great and having her whisper to only the main character was exciting, because no one knew what was happening. I think it would have been a great story to have the game with the candles have more of a presence in the story to keep readers on edge with other scary stories. In general, I wasn't scared and having the characters mentioning their situation "is like a horror movie", but staying for no reason in the haunted mansion, just annoyed me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the free advance copy of this unabridged audiobook.

I was really excited for Nothing But Blackened Teeth. So excited! It started out very promising -- a group of frenemies (I guess that's the word?) convening in an old haunted house for a wedding. Sounds wild and fun... I'm ready, let's go! The story was filled with beautiful language and phrasing. The writing is gorgeous. But there's just... so much of it. The language was very wordy, and a lot to process at some points. I enjoyed the audio narration. The narrator did a great job differentiating between characters' voices. Speaking of characters, I have to say that I didn't find any of them particularly interesting or likeable. I thought the story focused more on the relationships between the characters and their backstories than I anticipated. There was less horror than I expected. But the real, true horror scenes were awesome. I think the author does a great job setting mood and building atmosphere. Overall, I wanted a little more out of this story. I want more horror. More mood. More dread. It fell a little flat for me, but I would still recommend it to any other horror fan. Worth checking out!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a copy of this unabridged audiobook

This was a delightfully visceral and terrifying short horror novel that was a unique mix of movie cliches and goosebump-inducing tableaus.

I am not very familiar with Japanese folklore and mythology, so I found myself constantly googling terminology, but this did not take away from the experience. I think if Japanese inspired horror is an area you are especially interested in, then you will find this one very captivating.

The writing was absolutely enchanting, I got lost in the prose and in the author’s imagination. While it could get clunky and overwhelming at times, the writing allowed me to fully immerse myself in the unsettling scenery. This book was rich in descriptors of all the senses and it was unflinching in its raw approach. Cat’s every experience (the protagonist) was explored fully in a way that makes the reader feel as if they themselves can hear the wind whistling around them and feel the crunch of dead leaves beneath their boots.

The other characters were where I struggled the most. As with many horror novels, every character was highly unlikeable, so when something startling happened I didn’t feel the emotional impact that I think was intended. The ending was a tad anti-climactic for me, it almost felt as if this was a first draft that didn’t totally get hashed out.

I just wish it was a bit longer and we got to understand a bit more about the character’s relationships. Cat was interesting but there was so much more to her story that we didn’t get to see. I think this may have been the author’s intention, to leave Cat’s past ominous, but I think if her past trauma was more solidly linked to what was happening at this haunted house, the twists would’ve held more weight.

Overall this was an interesting take on the exploration of grief, toxic friendships and the processing of trauma explored through the horror genre.

I honestly can’t even review this properly because I don’t know what the hell I read. I know there was a wedding party that wanted to get married in a haunted house (um, what?!), but this story felt like a very confusing fever dream. It lacked any sort of cohesion or point.

A horrific novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, is every horror trope you know should never be allowed but stupid millennials never listen to good advice. How (and why?) are these fools celebrating a marriage engagement in an old Japanese (haunted) mansion? And why are they trying out strange rituals that you just KNOW are going to bring the ghosts and ghouls?
A gory mess that ends in heartache, Nothing But Blackened Teeth is creepy from beginning to end. Perfect for my favorite upcoming holiday.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this audio e-arc.*

I really, really wanted to like this. Like, a lot. Perfect setting, amazing backstory, and the first chapter or so really grabbed me. But… then there were words. A lot of superfluous, overwhelming, and unnecessary words. I feel like the author had a bet with someone as to how many 25 cent words they could cram into a single sentence without their editor tearing their hair out. I wouldn’t have minded it if the placement was a little more elegant. I LOVE hearing and reading unusual or unfamiliar words in stories, and that’s one reason I enjoy audiobooks so much. But in this case, it felt clunky and obvious.

So, it’s a no from me, dawg, but other reviews are positive! So try it yourself, because it might feel right to you!

I received an audiobook copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I will not discourage anyone from reading this book. In fact, I will tell you to read it. It was just not for me. It was a bit scary and a lot gross in a scary way. A great read for Halloween.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth really confirms that short stories are not for me. The narration was excellent, and Khaw also writes well. However, I did not like this one at all as a horror tale but I could tell that there are some interesting social points made about class and race that should have been supported pr explored more by the horror element. It should have been longer, it had a good premise maybe it is a tale that needs to be discussed.

"And she gets lonely down in the dirt."

Okay first off, the award for one of the CREEPIEST covers ever! While I found Cassandra Khaw's style of writing amazing and beautiful, I found myself wanting more. The story eluded to some kind of trouble or trauma in Kat's past, but doesn't explain it further. I think that is my biggest complaint with this novella. It gave little tidbits to hook you in and then never explained them. This book definitely had some really creepy elements heavily rooted in Japanese folklore, which was fantastic. I would have loved more of the horror aspect with the dead bride. I will definitely be watching for future releases from this author and plan to read more.
Note: I received this book as a free early release audiobook from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated are completely my own.