Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

14 reviews

vivaciousvaleska's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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wrensreadingroom's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0


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spadedigsbutts's review

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

2.75

A book that was fun to read for the visual language and descriptions, but was much weaker elsewhere. 

The main conflict is essentially a dysfunctional friend group's issues being exacerbated by a ghost haunting when they were already at the breaking point. Like in most horror media, the cast is pretty unlikable and are mainly defined by their relations to each other, without much nuance independently. This is a normal convention for this scenario in the horror genre, but I wish characters had more arcs or at least more detailed interpersonal relations than "x slept with x once" as the few details we do get just don't have much payoff in the book.
Most characters feel like they start and end the same, which may partially be the point considering it's a super toxic friend group, but it does leave you up in the air when it just comes to an end without much of a huge conclusion. If you read it hoping for some sort of character resolutions, you won't get it.

If you came for a cool japanese influenced haunted house story where interpersonal relationships come to a tragic head, you unfortunately really don't get that. I wish we'd had more time to develop things in the book as while the writing style is lush and detailed, the actual set elements and characters are flimsy. A good read for a bus ride or waiting at a doctor's office, but not much out. I doubt I'll ever reread it.  

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traa's review

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dark tense 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

4.0


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peachani's review

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dark 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

2.5


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pizzaisjesus98's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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nixieba25f's review

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


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jjjreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25


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lilybear3's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I wish the story had lived up to the title and the cover art.  I had a lot of issues with the writing and the characters.  

I felt like the writing was trying too hard to be profound and have those memorable one-liners.  Nothing interesting/scary happens until halfway through the book.  The story up until then had revolved around the friend drama (it doesn't stop there, it's constant to the point of annoying).  For me, lack of communication in a story makes me furious so the lack of realistic dialogue wasn't great.  For example,
Why didn't Cat yell at Faiz, "if you cut your heart out, you will die and you won't get to be with Talia"?  Basic commication avoided.
 

Onto the characters:  they are insufferable.  The only one I sort of cared for was Lin.  The ending was not what I would've liked. 
Killing Phillip to get Talia back was a horrible trade offer, she was not worth saving.  While I'm here, I did like how the yokai hung around the characters, that imagery is very cool
 

None of the characters were connected to this environment, so we had a group of tourists/non-native Japanese go to the house for funsies because she wanted to get married in a haunted house.  It just doesn't make sense, even for a fictional story.

I had no expectations going into this, the cover made it look scary and eerie but there was so much drama between the friends and not enough spooky that I lost interest quickly.

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