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2.72 AVERAGE
2.72 AVERAGE
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In some ways, this book is good, and in other ways, this book isn’t.
The basic story is a group of friends, who don’t seem to like each other all that much, go to an abandoned Japanese mansion because one of them wanted to get married in a haunted house. The mood and the setting are what really sells this novella. Khaw’s description of the Heian mansion as well as the story associated with it are wonderfully spooky. You can see the setting in your mind. The mood too is captured wonderfully.
What doesn’t work, however, is the characters. The narrator, Cat, works well enough. A bisexual Chinese woman who is recovering from or still suffering from depression, Cat’s voice is perhaps a bit too much metaphorical at times, but she works as a character. The fact that she uses the Japanese names for the spirits without translation makes sense given her background (the internet is your friend people, at least for looking the spirits up if you do not know them),.The problem is that there is too much history between the characters that doesn’t get fully resolved or explained. And while this is true of life in general, it would have helped to explain why for instance Lin was there.
But the there is none of the characters, outside of perhaps Cat herself, is painted in a sympathetic or likable way, so when the fecal matter hits the fan, it is hard to really care what about what happens to whom. This also makes it a novella that you do not feel compelled to read quickly. In fact, it almost feels like it would have been a better book if it had been a bit longer, allowing for the supporting characters to be more than simply types.
Khaw’s writing style and her use of description that rivals the Victorians is a style you are either going to love or find overblown.
This last bit of the review is directed towards the publisher and not Khaw herself. Charging what comes at least 11 dollars and change (including tax) for an eBook version of a novella where the plot is somewhat predictable and the mood is the only thing going for it is a bit rich (considering you can’t pass it along to someone else). I get publishing costs and contractions. It isn’t so much the length, that’s on the reader to check before purchasing. And I gladly plunked down around 20 bucks for Rivers Solomon’s The Deep in hardcover. But if you are charging that much for hardcover or over nine dollars for an eBook, it better be worth that price. I did not find Blacken Teeth to be worth it.
It’s not a bad book, but it is overpriced.
The basic story is a group of friends, who don’t seem to like each other all that much, go to an abandoned Japanese mansion because one of them wanted to get married in a haunted house. The mood and the setting are what really sells this novella. Khaw’s description of the Heian mansion as well as the story associated with it are wonderfully spooky. You can see the setting in your mind. The mood too is captured wonderfully.
What doesn’t work, however, is the characters. The narrator, Cat, works well enough. A bisexual Chinese woman who is recovering from or still suffering from depression, Cat’s voice is perhaps a bit too much metaphorical at times, but she works as a character. The fact that she uses the Japanese names for the spirits without translation makes sense given her background (the internet is your friend people, at least for looking the spirits up if you do not know them),.The problem is that there is too much history between the characters that doesn’t get fully resolved or explained. And while this is true of life in general, it would have helped to explain why for instance Lin was there.
But the there is none of the characters, outside of perhaps Cat herself, is painted in a sympathetic or likable way, so when the fecal matter hits the fan, it is hard to really care what about what happens to whom. This also makes it a novella that you do not feel compelled to read quickly. In fact, it almost feels like it would have been a better book if it had been a bit longer, allowing for the supporting characters to be more than simply types.
Khaw’s writing style and her use of description that rivals the Victorians is a style you are either going to love or find overblown.
This last bit of the review is directed towards the publisher and not Khaw herself. Charging what comes at least 11 dollars and change (including tax) for an eBook version of a novella where the plot is somewhat predictable and the mood is the only thing going for it is a bit rich (considering you can’t pass it along to someone else). I get publishing costs and contractions. It isn’t so much the length, that’s on the reader to check before purchasing. And I gladly plunked down around 20 bucks for Rivers Solomon’s The Deep in hardcover. But if you are charging that much for hardcover or over nine dollars for an eBook, it better be worth that price. I did not find Blacken Teeth to be worth it.
It’s not a bad book, but it is overpriced.
dark
tense
fast-paced
This was so bad lol
It was like someone was trying to write a whole book for a grammar class on metaphors and similes. The very definition of telling not showing. I only finished it because it was so short. This book tried too hard.
It was like someone was trying to write a whole book for a grammar class on metaphors and similes. The very definition of telling not showing. I only finished it because it was so short. This book tried too hard.
Audible Audiobook/Hardcover
This needs to be read in book form as you listen to the audiobook. The voice actor pronounces everything as you’re looking up the words on google. I just listened to the audiobook at first & it wasn’t good enough.
I love the preciousness of the characters. It was one big toxic relationship & I was hoping more of them would die. I also love books that make me need a dictionary to get through (unironically.) Our main girl can see spirits & we’re taken on a ride of Japanese folklore.
The main couple plan to get married in a haunted mansion, at night. They all used to be ghost hunters or stayed in haunted houses or something. They are at a home where a bride had herself buried alive to wait for her dead fiancé to come home. Every year since then, a young girl has been sacrificed by burying her alive. They know their friend can see spirits, but they ignore her when she tells them they need to leave. They just stay around until everyone is keyed up & arguing & getting violent.
Most of them needed to die—well, at least two of them.
This needs to be read in book form as you listen to the audiobook. The voice actor pronounces everything as you’re looking up the words on google. I just listened to the audiobook at first & it wasn’t good enough.
I love the preciousness of the characters. It was one big toxic relationship & I was hoping more of them would die. I also love books that make me need a dictionary to get through (unironically.) Our main girl can see spirits & we’re taken on a ride of Japanese folklore.
The main couple plan to get married in a haunted mansion, at night. They all used to be ghost hunters or stayed in haunted houses or something. They are at a home where a bride had herself buried alive to wait for her dead fiancé to come home. Every year since then, a young girl has been sacrificed by burying her alive. They know their friend can see spirits, but they ignore her when she tells them they need to leave. They just stay around until everyone is keyed up & arguing & getting violent.
Most of them needed to die—well, at least two of them.
This book was dense. In the 128 pages, there must have been... four or five "filler" ("fluff") words...? Every single word of every single sentence is intense and very purposefully chosen, sometimes to the detriment of the plot; I had to read the entire book extremely slowly lest I miss something. The first dozen pages alone took me a few days.
Reading a raw, beautiful line like "More than enough calcium to keep this house standing until the stars ate themselves clean, picked the sinew from their own shining bones" is an incredible treat. Reading a line like that for every single line is an incredible nightmare. "Like infants or parrots, or maybe something fresh-born and wetly glistening, amazed to have larynx and lips, the zygote of a vocabulary." Like, please, I need a minute to breathe.
All of that being said, I think it would make an absolutely incredible film. I think stretching out and filling in the characters' personalities would be an incredible benefit to the plot. When that day comes, I'll be there opening night.
Reading a raw, beautiful line like "More than enough calcium to keep this house standing until the stars ate themselves clean, picked the sinew from their own shining bones" is an incredible treat. Reading a line like that for every single line is an incredible nightmare. "Like infants or parrots, or maybe something fresh-born and wetly glistening, amazed to have larynx and lips, the zygote of a vocabulary." Like, please, I need a minute to breathe.
All of that being said, I think it would make an absolutely incredible film. I think stretching out and filling in the characters' personalities would be an incredible benefit to the plot. When that day comes, I'll be there opening night.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced