Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Nothing But Blackened Teeth

I got this on a discount at the Barnes & Noble cafe. I got the quality I expected. I love the prose and the use of Japanese tales. But for a horror book, it wasn’t very scary. The first two thirds of the book are boring, until it gets gruesome at the end. Maybe it’s because the story was so short, but the characters were very underdeveloped and flat. They were pretty much just archetypes.

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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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mikki_9's review

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dark emotional medium-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? Yes

3.0

This book is poetic with lots of sophisticated words, and I think that made it difficult for me to get drawn into the action. Nothing really felt scary! I’m usually really jumpy, but nothing scared or shocked me in this story. Cat seemed really interesting and I’d like a whole book about her, but none of the other characters made a lot of sense. I really like the ending though! Everything from when they offered Phillip’s body to the ohaguro-bettari on was pretty good.

I don’t read or watch almost any horror, so I’m probably not the intended audience either lol

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nialiversuch's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.0

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inkdrinkers's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is f*cked up.

Five friends travel to an ancient Japanese home to watch their two friends get married. The home is, of course, incredibly haunted. Body horror, blood, ancient rituals, and Japanese folklore creatures ensue.

This was a rec from a friend and I have to say I enjoyed it far more than I initially expected, especially the audiobook! As a horror novel, I think it's paced well and deals with the mixture of folklore, friends, and interpersonal relationships well. You have a lot of backstory to cover in a short amount of pages between the five main characters and the way they act around each other and how it interacts with their "relationship" with the spirit haunting this house.

I will echo what a lot of other people say, this book is absolutely filled to the brim with flowery writing and if that isn't your thing, you're going to loathe it. There were enough similes and metaphors in here to make a university writing professor curse and set the entire book on fire. These aren't good characters either, they're 20-somethings, selfish, and pretentious. But I think it adds to the fact that all these horrific things happen to them in the span of a few hours. It feels like the equivalent of taking a chance on a low rated horror movie on Netflix. You know you're not getting a masterpiece - but, damn, you're going to be entertained for a few hours.

All over, four stars. I've read a lot of bizarre haunting/possession books but I think this one does it well and has characters that, while insufferable, make the logical decisions. I would recommend this to people who (like me, hi) enjoy watching horror/thriller movies that might not be the best, but are still incredibly entertaining in their own right. Pick the audiobook if you'd like a fast-paced one that makes you turn to your phone in horror when the next gory moment happens!

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