Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

41 reviews

andyandnormski's review

dark reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

What I enjoyed: The setting was well done. It felt fairly isolated and ancient, somewhere where you definitely would feel helpless in a dire situation. The imagery for the bride when she made her official appearance was well executed. It felt eerie and surreal. I just wish the bride

had a wider impact on the story as it felt she was hardly in it for being on the cover.

What I didn't enjoy: The characters needed more time to develop. I had a rough idea of personalities but I felt like there needed to be more detail on why some of them hated each other so much. There needed to be more reasoning why everyone but Cat, the main character, was so quick to pure rage. And when I say quick, I mean quick. They would change their emotions and disposition towards each on a whim, sometimes within the same sentence and with no reason other than "this person makes me irrationally angry just because." I feel like a lot of the issues I had with the characters could have benefited from the story being longer.

I'm glad I read this. It was recommended on booktok. That being said, I'm not sure if I'll keep my copy or not. It's a decent story, but it left me wanting more detail and more scares.

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quynn's review

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dark medium-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

3.25

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melhevingham98's review

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dark 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? Yes

4.25

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ldipkin'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? It's complicated

2.0

There were some descriptive passages in this that were genuinely great, but the characterisation of the group did not endear them to me, the solution to the haunted house issue seemed rushed and like it came out of nowhere, and the numerous meta references to horror media didn't really add anything to me. I do thin Khaw has what it takes to be a good horror writer but I really felt disappointed by this one because I didn't find it scary at all, and their characters were so intolerable it made me root for the ghost/house. That being said, the paragraphs focusing on the setting and sense of place were lush and wonderful, and I liked the focus on Japanese yokai and folklore - in that it was a fresh take on monsters/ghosts, one that we don't see much in horror writing.

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bibliophilecrocodile's review

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adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The story is about five acquaintances (let's call them that) who visit a supposed haunted house so that two of them could get married there. Yeah one of the character's childhood dream was that "she wants to get married in a haunted house."
Well obviously they aren't alone, they have an ghost of a girl there who lost her husband-to-be just before their wedding ceremony and so she decided to be buried alive so that she can be waiting in that house when her husband's spirit comes home.
Well then stuff happens which you'll have to read this book to know what's it about.

Umm well I was really damn excited for this one. My favorite parts were where the characters called out horror movies for always killing off the queer characters. Now to how I felt about the rest of the book.
I'm obsessed with myths and Japanese myths are one of my top favorites. I loved the yokai parts in the book, but the book was too short and felt too rushed to me? I don't know, the comedic parts didn't work for me. I saw a lot of reviews saying don't read this book at night and stuff, and I was like so damn excited to be spooked and well, yeah, disappointment was all I got. It's probably my problem, nothing wrong with the book as it's written really beautifully but I just had some expectations which were not met, clearly my fault. But I'm still sad, I was so damn excited for this one.

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