Take a photo of a barcode or cover
julieanarchy 's review for:
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
by Cassandra Khaw
Picked this up on a whim from the library I work at because of the cover and how short it was. I didn't know anything about the author beforehand or what the book was about, so I really didn't have any expectations for this. Well, after finishing it, I'm really not sure what this book is trying to be. Is it a spooky Japanese folk horror story, a slow-burn character-focused horror story, or a satire on horror tropes? I'm genuinely not sure what Khaw was going for here, but the tones clash so much for me and it was hard to enjoy the experience at times.
I think if you're going into this book expecting a scary story that's going to keep you up at night, you should look elsewhere. The ghost figure depicted on the cover was the only thing that felt remotely scary. I'm going to mention the tonal whiplash in this book a lot, but there were some "horror" elements in this that just came across to me as funny and I don't know if that was intentional or not.
Like I said, I'm not sure if this book is meant to be a satirical story commenting on horror cliches or not, but the thing this story seems most focused on is building these characters and their relationships between each other. This brings me to one of the biggest complaints about the book: the characters. I don't think I liked I single one of them. Phillip is constantly described by our protagonist, Cat, as a bit of a tool and a womanizer who has had all of their success handed down to them by his wealthy family. Talia is portrayed as just a constant b*tch throughout the whole book, especially to Cat. Lin is just an annoying comic relief and he even states this himself. Faiz is just there. At least he's a good friend to Cat, who is the only one who feels a bit sympathetic, because she was depressed at some point I guess(?), but she also seems to just butt into people's personal affairs way too much and as the narrator seems to describe most of the other characters in a negative manner. Every character also seems to have some kind of beef with one or more people in the group. Cat hates Talia, Talia hates Cat and Lin, Lin hates everyone except Cat, etc. I'm not sure what the reader is supposed to like about this group of characters. If it's satire, I don't think it came across that way at all.
The satirical moments seem to only be spoutted out in dialogue coming from the self-proclaimed comic relief Lin, who addresses the situation in the "Don't you watch horror movies?" fashion that feels just as cliched as any of the tropes this character mouths off. I'd be ok with a satire on horror cliches if it was actually funny. Most of the attempts at humor in this come off really forced and they just remove you from the scene completely. Satire on story tropes is fine, but I often feel that the best way to address tired tropes is to not do them at all.
Overall, this book just felt unfocused. I really wanted to enjoy it, but it was really hard not to get pulled out of the book through its tonal shifting. I'm glad it was a short read though. I finished it in a little over 2 hours, so if you're still curious about it then I'd say it might be worth a couple hours just to see what you think about it. Although, in that time I could watch a horror movie with these tired cliches and probably enjoy it more.
I think if you're going into this book expecting a scary story that's going to keep you up at night, you should look elsewhere. The ghost figure depicted on the cover was the only thing that felt remotely scary. I'm going to mention the tonal whiplash in this book a lot, but there were some "horror" elements in this that just came across to me as funny and I don't know if that was intentional or not.
Like I said, I'm not sure if this book is meant to be a satirical story commenting on horror cliches or not, but the thing this story seems most focused on is building these characters and their relationships between each other. This brings me to one of the biggest complaints about the book: the characters. I don't think I liked I single one of them. Phillip is constantly described by our protagonist, Cat, as a bit of a tool and a womanizer who has had all of their success handed down to them by his wealthy family. Talia is portrayed as just a constant b*tch throughout the whole book, especially to Cat. Lin is just an annoying comic relief and he even states this himself. Faiz is just there. At least he's a good friend to Cat, who is the only one who feels a bit sympathetic, because she was depressed at some point I guess(?), but she also seems to just butt into people's personal affairs way too much and as the narrator seems to describe most of the other characters in a negative manner. Every character also seems to have some kind of beef with one or more people in the group. Cat hates Talia, Talia hates Cat and Lin, Lin hates everyone except Cat, etc. I'm not sure what the reader is supposed to like about this group of characters. If it's satire, I don't think it came across that way at all.
The satirical moments seem to only be spoutted out in dialogue coming from the self-proclaimed comic relief Lin, who addresses the situation in the "Don't you watch horror movies?" fashion that feels just as cliched as any of the tropes this character mouths off. I'd be ok with a satire on horror cliches if it was actually funny. Most of the attempts at humor in this come off really forced and they just remove you from the scene completely. Satire on story tropes is fine, but I often feel that the best way to address tired tropes is to not do them at all.
Overall, this book just felt unfocused. I really wanted to enjoy it, but it was really hard not to get pulled out of the book through its tonal shifting. I'm glad it was a short read though. I finished it in a little over 2 hours, so if you're still curious about it then I'd say it might be worth a couple hours just to see what you think about it. Although, in that time I could watch a horror movie with these tired cliches and probably enjoy it more.