Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

75 reviews

beanaroni's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

I really liked Khaw's prose but I think that the story could've benefited from another hundred pages or so. the ending wasn't what I expected, nor hoped, it would be, and it came far too soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Confinement and Mental illness

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

bijou3owl's review

dark sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

readingmushrooms's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Mental illness, Grief, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity

vivaciousvaleska's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Violence

samanthalw96's review

tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcohol, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit and Infidelity

wrensreadingroom's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Cursing, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

sjxco's review

dark 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

3.0

The prose is beautiful, but the story overall didn’t quite unsettle me as much as I thought it would. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Gore, and Blood

spadedigsbutts's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Classism, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

Minor: Confinement and Misogyny

readsbymoonlight's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

Shitty friends who all hate each other act like idiots in a haunted mansion. I enjoyed the writing style, setting, and Japanese folklore but that’s about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Blood, Death, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Mental illness

davinmotion's review

dark sad 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? It's complicated

2.0

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and if it’s a good example of her I think I’ll avoid reading another. It’s barely coherent; I frequently lost track of what was happening and every time I tried to like a character they would somehow become worse than before. Why the author bothered mentioning the main character knew Japanese and then refrained from explaining anything alludes me. I can’t remember if she even said what a yokai was besides peppering the word on almost every page near the end. This book would have at least had style if the incoherentness was intentional in the lead up to the desperation of a climax, but it starts just as bad as it ends. This would have been better if it was shorter, more polished/tighter, and part of a collection of other short stories. There’s a fun idea in here but I personally think this was not finished to its full potential. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Alcohol

What the absolute fuck of an ending. I think this is worse than saying, “it was a dream,” because it was not only less satisfying but the attempt at giving the characters a little more depth felt like a Hail Mary to make us feel for Phillip, when I think it’s obvious he’s the only one we can feel for since he died in such a brutal and unnecessary way. Skin is an organ you dipshits, just a small sliver of that with your other bullshit ingredients and this could be over! Faiz was all gung-ho about cutting out his heart when he could have cut off his pinky finger and solved x3 offerings at once. No death. Done. I won’t even start with that last offering. I can’t imagine Talia and Faiz staying together after this though. Who would want to stay with someone that murdered their friend to save you?