Review: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Hedwig's World

Apr 29

'But the interior didn't smell like it'd had people here, not for a long, long time, and smelled instead like such old buildings do: green and damp and dark and hungry, hollow as a stomach that'd forgotten what it was like to eat'

I wonder if someone professional took a look over the years I came out of academia and examined my mental state via my reading taste, what they might say. I solely read horror and non fiction for the year after my degree and slowly went back to SFF so it always feels like a step back to something familiar. Nothing But Blackened Teeth was exactly that but still, very spooky.

A group of thrill-seeking friends in search of the perfect wedding venue plan to spend the night in a Heian-era mansion. Long abandoned, and unknown to them, this mansion rests on the bones of a bride, and its walls are packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

Their night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare, as the house welcomes its new guests. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

This was a bit hit and miss for me. But it was still an excellent novella that tapped all the right buttons for me and was satisfyingly unsettling despite the length. The story follows the perspective of Cat as she arrives at this abandoned mansion with her two friends, a couple named Faiz and Talia, the rich friend paying for it all called Philip and their absent one Lin. It becomes clear very fast that Cat is recovering from a traumatic event and that this group all have at least history with each other. Or at least unresolved feelings from them, romatically and emotionally.

Always a good hinge to base a story on, group of misfits who are messy with a fascination with ghosts and the more folkloric side of that. My main problem with this group wasn't anything to do with that or the kind of plot. My main issue with this one was the dialogue. So you have a shorter format to work with, you need to get to the point quicker and Cassandra Khaw is great at that. But you have to cut through a lot of dialogue before the story gets there. None of these characters conversations or comments really flow in my opinion and when they start to talk a bit more naturally it takes a sharp turn again into being stilted. I usually don't take much notice of dialogue myself but it was hard not to with this one being a novella.

Now for the good bits! This is gory, disgusting and so creepy. The scares are uncanny, there are yokai, Ningyo, oni, kitsune (the very very scary kind) and so much more I likely missed. There is a discomfort in Cassandra Khaw's descriptions, the tension toward the middle of the book and a real sense of you can't escape. I felt to a point that I wasn't quite picturing a lot of these things right as they happened but I kinda loved that? It lended the horror a more otherworldly feel. I can't conceptualise some of the more eldritch creatures but isn't that why we put them in stories to scare us? Because they are beyond human understanding?

I think this is still a worthwhile read for the intense feelings of dread and the format it follows. Short horror works a lot better most times than short SFF in my tastes and this is one that stands out. The characters are still very solid, there is mentions of them not all being straight or white as well, confirmed on page bi characters too. So it is good, I just wasn't a great fan of the way they spoke to each other. Thanks for checking in guys! Happy reading!

Comment