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gem114's review against another edition
dark
medium-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
3.0
I don't normally pick up horror, but I enjoyed this book. It was almost too short, but it didn't feel rushed. I listened to the audiobook, and I felt a little lost at times with the various names used to refer to the ghosts/spirits. Other than that, I enjoyed it as an audiobook and would recommend the format. The narrator did a great job, and overall, it felt like you were being told a spooky story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Suicide attempt
rorikae's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
In 'Nothing But Blackened Teeth,' Cassandra Khaw weaves a Japanese folktale with the story of five acquaintances celebrating an upcoming marriage.
A group of five acquaintances, including one couple, rent an abandoned Japanese mansion out in the middle of nowhere. But they don't know about the story that rests in the house and the buried bride who will do anything to bring others down with her.
Khaw crafts an intriguing tale that brings a Japanese folktale and weaves it with the personal drama of the characters staying at the mansion. We get to slowly learn more about each character though I found that they were never established enough to fully care for the characters. They are wrapped up in their faults to the point that they fail to be as redeemable as they should be.
This story definitely has its horrifying aspects both in the nature of the characters and in the folktale come to life. I found that these flashes of horrific moments were less impactful than they could have been because there wasn't enough lead up to the punchier moments. This may have been impacted by the shortened length of the story.
My favorite part of the novella was Khaw's writing. It's incredibly evocative and visceral, which does heighten moments of horror. Throughout the story, the imagery was one of the highlights.
A group of five acquaintances, including one couple, rent an abandoned Japanese mansion out in the middle of nowhere. But they don't know about the story that rests in the house and the buried bride who will do anything to bring others down with her.
Khaw crafts an intriguing tale that brings a Japanese folktale and weaves it with the personal drama of the characters staying at the mansion. We get to slowly learn more about each character though I found that they were never established enough to fully care for the characters. They are wrapped up in their faults to the point that they fail to be as redeemable as they should be.
This story definitely has its horrifying aspects both in the nature of the characters and in the folktale come to life. I found that these flashes of horrific moments were less impactful than they could have been because there wasn't enough lead up to the punchier moments. This may have been impacted by the shortened length of the story.
My favorite part of the novella was Khaw's writing. It's incredibly evocative and visceral, which does heighten moments of horror. Throughout the story, the imagery was one of the highlights.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, and Gore
Minor: Mental illness and Confinement
madarauchiha's review
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
โค๏ธ ๐งก ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐งก โค๏ธ
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.melaniereadsbooks's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC of this book.
When Cat gets invited to a Heian-era mansion in Japan for a friends' elopement, she is immediately wary of the past the mansion has and feels the darkness lurking in the corners. This doesn't stop her college friends from exploring it, but it quickly turns into a horror story.
This novella was so atmospheric and perfectly creepy. There were so many hard-hitting lines that made me pause to really think. It honestly gave me chills! This is the perfect read for October or anyone who loves a good scare!
Pub Date: Oct 19, 2021
When Cat gets invited to a Heian-era mansion in Japan for a friends' elopement, she is immediately wary of the past the mansion has and feels the darkness lurking in the corners. This doesn't stop her college friends from exploring it, but it quickly turns into a horror story.
This novella was so atmospheric and perfectly creepy. There were so many hard-hitting lines that made me pause to really think. It honestly gave me chills! This is the perfect read for October or anyone who loves a good scare!
Pub Date: Oct 19, 2021
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement
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