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coffeespooncait's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Suicide
bibookworm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5/5 Stars: Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a horror novel that follows a group of people celebrating a wedding at a hunted house. This manor is haunted by a bride who was left waiting at the alter. Cassandra Khaw’s writing will you suck you in and have you devour this creepy book in one sitting. I loved the dark atmosphere of this book! I am slowly getting into horror and I recommend this book for anyone doing the same! TW: suicide, body horror, femicide, suicidal thoughts, self harm, and gore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Body horror
akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
When this book is good- it’s good. When it’s bad it’s mediocre at best. And unfortunately there is more bad than good.
There’s very little in the way of plot development or character development. And very little in the way of plot. I wanted to like this book so much but I just don’t. It’s not scary, it’s not compelling, the writing is nice but most of the characters are whiny- including our narrator Cat.
She is the epitome of Not Like Other Girls + the pinnacle of Tumblr Depression. Is Talia rude as hell? Yes, but Cat is so judgemental of her it’s insane. Faiz begins as a semi relatable and sweet guy but just becomes unbearable once the story begins to ramp up. Lin is the most bearable but that’s also because he has the least personality of the bunch. While Khaw has a talent for writing it’s wasted on this story. It reads like a first draft which is a shame because it could be really spooky. The “sacrifice” they make is really well written, and I enjoyed the emotions of it. But also it was way too meta. Like we know Cat is bi, and she’s supposed to die first, we know it’ll “subvert our expectations”. The minute a piece of horror work becomes too “clever” I clock out.
Too bad the characters suck, the writing is pretty juvenile, and the pacing is way off.
Edit: after reading a few reviews I have changed my mind. This book is worse than I thought. I think I wanted to love this book with its creepy cover and title, but the ending is so dumb. Everything about this book is dumb. Khaw’s writing although beautiful in parts is so fucking bloated. They have clear skill and talent- so use it!!! Also I hope they fire their editor.
There’s very little in the way of plot development or character development. And very little in the way of plot. I wanted to like this book so much but I just don’t. It’s not scary, it’s not compelling, the writing is nice but most of the characters are whiny- including our narrator Cat.
She is the epitome of Not Like Other Girls + the pinnacle of Tumblr Depression. Is Talia rude as hell? Yes, but Cat is so judgemental of her it’s insane. Faiz begins as a semi relatable and sweet guy but just becomes unbearable once the story begins to ramp up. Lin is the most bearable but that’s also because he has the least personality of the bunch. While Khaw has a talent for writing it’s wasted on this story. It reads like a first draft which is a shame because it could be really spooky. The “sacrifice” they make is really well written, and I enjoyed the emotions of it. But also it was way too meta. Like we know Cat is bi, and she’s supposed to die first, we know it’ll “subvert our expectations”. The minute a piece of horror work becomes too “clever” I clock out.
Too bad the characters suck, the writing is pretty juvenile, and the pacing is way off.
Edit: after reading a few reviews I have changed my mind. This book is worse than I thought. I think I wanted to love this book with its creepy cover and title, but the ending is so dumb. Everything about this book is dumb. Khaw’s writing although beautiful in parts is so fucking bloated. They have clear skill and talent- so use it!!! Also I hope they fire their editor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
spacecaits's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
thestylishreader's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Body horror, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, and Sexual content
sarah984's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This novella had some cool concepts, but it felt like it was setting up a slasher and didn't follow through. Why go out of your way to make the characters so awful and talk about slashers all the time if only one person is going to die?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, and Vomit
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Suicide
tadasborne's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide and Self harm
j_squaredd's review
This prose is… not for me. It’s way over written and all of the obscure words sound forced, not like something the author naturally uses. Also, please just use said or do away with dialogue tags most of the time. Said is not dead, folks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
madarauchiha's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️
Sometimes an author can throw you into a pre-established worlds and things reveal enough to make sense to you. This novella? Not really.
It's like one character said along the lines of 'you're the X character, I'm the Y character, this is a horror movie and thing will go according to horror tropes.' That's it, that's the depth of the characterization. And while the characters were pretty unlikeable, I don't think that was on purpose. The MC is sad. Talia is a cunt. Phillip is a white. Faiz is getting married and I guess is in love with Talia. I think there's another one, not sure? Lin? Lee? Whatever.
Diversity. The MC is bi, it comes up exactly once, so don't expect much explicit bisexuality plot. There's one white man, the rest chinese, japanese, unknown asian background?.
I think the main problem is that the MC is unlikable. The rest of the characters are uninteresting or unfleshed out. So I'm left without someone to relate or root for. Because of that, there is no horror and no tension. I cannot care what happens because there's nowhere to invest my interest.
Why are they friends? Not sure. Apparently some have romantic history together and I suppose once a friend group has that and has been around long enough you simply feel obligated to have them at your wedding?
I do understand this isn't, like, a hero's journey. It's a single night of trauma and we're not going to see growth or whatever unless there's '1 year later' kinda time skip. But like, that's kinda the issue. Nothing really changes, nothing happens, we remain in the same place we started in. Albeit, witha ghost bride now haunting us. I guess because we burned down her mansion? But like... why would she? From the stories, she'd be cishet and interested in cishet men, right? So why is she haunting the bisexual woman? Also, is that not a thing in Japanese folk lore, that fire is enough to cleanse tainted ground and ghosts?
Why WAS there a wedding, and in a haunted mansion? The disconnect is bizarre. I assume talia the cunt is japanese? Why else would she want to have a wedding in a haunted japanese mansion? I half though there' be a plot twist wherein Talia The Cunt specifically invited the MC to this haunted place in order to get the ghosts to kill the MC. But no, we're just here. At a haunted mansion. Sure. I guess I shouldn't think too hard about it. The author sure didn't.
[but no really why did these people who were rich enough to rent an entire haunted mansion PLUS the lands it is built on to have a wedding? Did the two families really sign off on not attending their children's wedding? Are you telling me these japanese/asian families did not loudly object to being cut out of a wedding? A WEDDING? Really.]
The writing was ok. It was a lot of metaphors though. They just weren't cohesive enough to manufacture tension or atmosphere. It felt like it was trying and fumbling every step of the way. I don't think there was much horror. Like sure some scenes had a paragraph of 'gross rotting decay stench!' but it's never built upon.
The pacing was wild. We're whisked from place to place and then oh, it's the end.
The ending. The... end? Oh, ok. So that happened. At no point reading this did I stop and wonder if it would be a successful escape, who would survive, could the ghosts be appeased in the way the story has set up. It suffered the pacing problem of scenes being skimmed over to focus on the next portion, without letting the story breath.
The very last part of the ending bothered me. It felt like the author didn't have confidence to let the story conclude naturally. Tacking on abut what if the ghost bride still haunts us? Even though we literally did the ritual correctly, got the correct result, and nothing was implied that the ghost bride would suddenly continue haunting us.
Other people have mentioned Junji Ito and Haunting of Hill House. Which I think is insulting. Other than being japanese, being horror, and having impossible spatial interiors, there's very little comparison. The Blame! manga also is japanese and has horrific unreal spatial depictions. It would be ridiculous to place that manga and this novella in the same venn diagram, much less the same league. None of the above should be compared or linked to this novella. They're really not similar, and it's deeply misleading to say otherwise.
I think the author is talented and skilled. I think there is something to this story that can be wrought into a more cohesive story. I would read other stories from this author. It's just unfortunate that this novella doesn't quick hit the mark. I have read other works of this author and there is some great stuff. Just.. not this one. It took me 24 minutes to read it, so like not much of an investment.
content warnings
minor murder, suicide, live burial, drugs, homophobic q slur, homophobia, insects, body horror, vomit,
medium medical content, mental illness, grief, confinement, infidelity, blood, excrement, unsanitary,
major alcohol use, body horror, unreality, drugs weed, violence, gore, murder,
Sometimes an author can throw you into a pre-established worlds and things reveal enough to make sense to you. This novella? Not really.
It's like one character said along the lines of 'you're the X character, I'm the Y character, this is a horror movie and thing will go according to horror tropes.' That's it, that's the depth of the characterization. And while the characters were pretty unlikeable, I don't think that was on purpose. The MC is sad. Talia is a cunt. Phillip is a white. Faiz is getting married and I guess is in love with Talia. I think there's another one, not sure? Lin? Lee? Whatever.
Diversity. The MC is bi, it comes up exactly once, so don't expect much explicit bisexuality plot. There's one white man, the rest chinese, japanese, unknown asian background?.
I think the main problem is that the MC is unlikable. The rest of the characters are uninteresting or unfleshed out. So I'm left without someone to relate or root for. Because of that, there is no horror and no tension. I cannot care what happens because there's nowhere to invest my interest.
Why are they friends? Not sure. Apparently some have romantic history together and I suppose once a friend group has that and has been around long enough you simply feel obligated to have them at your wedding?
I do understand this isn't, like, a hero's journey. It's a single night of trauma and we're not going to see growth or whatever unless there's '1 year later' kinda time skip. But like, that's kinda the issue. Nothing really changes, nothing happens, we remain in the same place we started in. Albeit, with
Why WAS there a wedding, and in a haunted mansion? The disconnect is bizarre. I assume talia the cunt is japanese? Why else would she want to have a wedding in a haunted japanese mansion? I half though there' be a plot twist wherein Talia The Cunt specifically invited the MC to this haunted place in order to get the ghosts to kill the MC. But no, we're just here. At a haunted mansion. Sure. I guess I shouldn't think too hard about it. The author sure didn't.
[but no really why did these people who were rich enough to rent an entire haunted mansion PLUS the lands it is built on to have a wedding? Did the two families really sign off on not attending their children's wedding? Are you telling me these japanese/asian families did not loudly object to being cut out of a wedding? A WEDDING? Really.]
The writing was ok. It was a lot of metaphors though. They just weren't cohesive enough to manufacture tension or atmosphere. It felt like it was trying and fumbling every step of the way. I don't think there was much horror. Like sure some scenes had a paragraph of 'gross rotting decay stench!' but it's never built upon.
The pacing was wild. We're whisked from place to place and then oh, it's the end.
The ending. The... end? Oh, ok. So that happened. At no point reading this did I stop and wonder if it would be a successful escape, who would survive, could the ghosts be appeased in the way the story has set up. It suffered the pacing problem of scenes being skimmed over to focus on the next portion, without letting the story breath.
The very last part of the ending bothered me. It felt like the author didn't have confidence to let the story conclude naturally. Tacking on a
Other people have mentioned Junji Ito and Haunting of Hill House. Which I think is insulting. Other than being japanese, being horror, and having impossible spatial interiors, there's very little comparison. The Blame! manga also is japanese and has horrific unreal spatial depictions. It would be ridiculous to place that manga and this novella in the same venn diagram, much less the same league. None of the above should be compared or linked to this novella. They're really not similar, and it's deeply misleading to say otherwise.
I think the author is talented and skilled. I think there is something to this story that can be wrought into a more cohesive story. I would read other stories from this author. It's just unfortunate that this novella doesn't quick hit the mark. I have read other works of this author and there is some great stuff. Just.. not this one. It took me 24 minutes to read it, so like not much of an investment.
content warnings
minor murder, suicide, live burial, drugs, homophobic q slur, homophobia, insects, body horror, vomit,
medium medical content, mental illness, grief, confinement, infidelity, blood, excrement, unsanitary,
major alcohol use, body horror, unreality, drugs weed, violence, gore, murder,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Drug use, Violence, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, Confinement, Infidelity, Excrement, and Blood
Minor: Murder, Suicide, Drug use, Homophobia, Body horror, and Vomit
listen this is pretty much the entire book summarized. If you don't want to get spoiled, don't click on this. If you do want to know what happens, but don't want to read it, go on. Click that bitch.perpetualpages's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
CWs: intoxication; references to suicide; death, blood, some gore, and graphic description of injury; and violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol and Death
Minor: Suicide and Sexual content
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