Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

25 reviews

serenityfound's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

4.5

Jesus fucking Christ. I read a lot of horror and not even House of Leaves fucked me up, so believe me when I say this one is intense. Poetic and fascinating....and intense.

The audiobook is beautifully read. I would recommend either doing it in one go or only stopping at chapter breaks. There is almost a spoken word poetry quality to it that makes it tough to put down at random places & pick back up smoothly.
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librarymouse's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This novella is beautifully written and disgusting. It seems I've developed a penchant for finding books that fit that description as of late. Cassandra Khaw's writing style is very immersive. That being said, the story feels like it finishes too quickly and I want to know more of the characters than what we're given. The initial pacing of the novella feels like an introduction to a far longer work, and we are thrown into the story without necessary context. It does well for setting an uncertain tone and pulling the reader's along with the characters in their interpersonal disputes, but the lack of resolution is unsatisfying.
To reiterate though, Cassandra Khaw's writing and the depth of her world building was enrapturing, and I would have happily read 500+ pages of this story.
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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense 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

3.0

Nothing But Blackened Teeth chamou minha atenção pela capa, em seguida a sinopse despertou meu interesse, pois terror no Japão é um dos meus favoritos. Porém a novela deixou a desejar. Os personagens são desagradáveis. A protagonista em particular julga todos a seu redor, não que as pessoas a seu redor, seus “amigos”, são exatamente pessoas boas. O grupo de personagens é composto de os noivos Nadia e Faiz, Cat (narradora e protagonista), Phillip e Lin. A atmosfera é excelente para um terror, a antiga mansão japonesa no meio do campo, o folclore da região dão ao contexto o clima certo para a história. No entanto a autora fez a escolha de estilo sobre substância, infelizmente, e muito do terror se perde na tentativa da autora de escrever de forma simbólica e rebuscada gerando situações em que eu me perdi no que estava acontecendo e gerando frases que fazem pouco ou nenhum sentido. O enredo era bastante promissor: Uma mansão da era Heian está abandonada no Japão, suas fundações repousando sobre os ossos de uma noiva e suas paredes repletas de restos mortais das meninas sacrificadas para lhe fazer companhia. É o local perfeito para um grupo de amigos em busca de emoção, reunidos para celebrar um casamento. Phillip, um jovem rico conseguiu permissões para que ele e seus amigos passassem a noite na mansão como presente de casamento para Nadia e Faiz.  Uma noite de comida, bebida e jogos rapidamente se transforma em um pesadelo enquanto após um desaparecimento os relacionamentos são testados. E a noiva fica solitária lá embaixo na terra. 

Na teoria a história deveria ser excelente, mas os “relacionamentos testados” são quase não existentes. A impressão é de que os personagens foram forçados juntos e não escolheram estar ali. Existe particular vitriol contra o personagem Phillip, o único branco, bem de vida, com tendência a querer ser certinho.
Em dado momento se levanta a possibilidade de Phillip ter algo com Nadia, noiva de Faiz, mas isso não é confirmado ou negado em texto. Phillip em vários momentos tem impulsos heroicos e quer fazer a coisa certa, mas os personagens ao seu redor, inclusive a narradora, encaram ele e todas as suas ações com descrença e vitriol. Phillip acaba por ter o pior final do grupo (assassinado de forma cruel por Faiz que se encontra alterado devido ao desaparecimento de Nadia e a presença da “Noiva fantasma”) e mesmo assim há pouca empatia no grupo por seu fim. Me pergunto se isso é alguma espécie de metáfora já que Phillip é o estereotipo do personagem irritante por ser a representação de um grupo opressor: branco, heterossexual, metido a herói. A intriga foi boa, apesar de ser diluída pelo texto desnecessariamente complicado. Gostaria que “a noiva fantasma” figurasse mais na obra, assim como os Yōkais que apareceram na casa, eles estavam lá e sim exerceram influência, mas não tiveram grande participação, infelizmente, se limitando em grande parte a observadores da tragédia que o próprio grupo de humanos estava gerando.
  A lógica ficou difusa, mais uma vez devido a escrita desnecessariamente complicada e “floreada”. Ao final houveram elementos que gostei bastante, o clima, a localização, as criaturas do folclore japonês, além de momentos eficientes de terror, mas a escrita e os personagens absolutamente desagradáveis me fizeram não aproveitar a obra em sua totalidade. Dou 3 estrelas. 
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oddreads_nicolestins's review

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

3.5

I really enjoyed Cassandra's style of writing overall, aside the seemingly constant barrage of f-bombs from the characters. I honestly disliked all the characters except Lin; he was the least chaotic and the most sensible of everyone involved. I don't want to give away spoilers here, but basically the plot is 90% of the characters bickering and fighting amongst themselves. Lots of hemming and hawing over what they will or won't do. 8% of the book is cringe relationship drama and physical descriptions of Phillip (I'm still wondering, why?). 2% of the book mentions the ghost(s) and their menacing presence. In the end, it was quite the mess, but surprisingly Khaw wrapped it up very neatly (rather rushed if I might add).
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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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atlas_shruggs's review

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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? Yes

2.0

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its2early4this's review

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dark tense 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? No

2.0

This book was more disgusting than scary. While the author did a good job of describing the scenes, the prose got so bogged down in said descriptions that the pacing was off. There didn't seem to be much build to the climax, and there was no feeling the the story, despite sad and horrific things happening to the characters. All-in-all, not a fan. 
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lavenderdrops's review

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

2.0

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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faeriequeenlauren's review

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

4.5

“After all, isn't that the foremost commandment in the scripture of horror? They who are queer, deviant, tattooed, tongue-pierced or other must always die first.”

This was sooo good! Beautiful prose throughout and there are so many quotable passages from this book that stuck out to me. This book takes your typical horror story if the group of young naive 20-somethings who vacation at a haunted house looking for the ghosts they’ve been told dwell there and turns it on it’s head. It’s still the same story in ways, but this book tackles grief, the complexities of adult relationships, and so much more in such a short time.

When the thing happened, my jaw dropped. I was expecting something crazy, but I was still shocked by it. Highly recommend for horror fans, or those into the disturbing and macabre, otherwise, it may be a bit too horrifying. Great for spooky season and a short read. 

Overall this slapped. 
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thewereraven's review

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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

1.0

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