Hello! Here we are, with my first review of a book I sped through in just a few hours today. It’s also the first horror book I have ever read (more of a short story, but it still counts). As such, I may not be as well aware of the common tropes and things of horror books, but I do get the general things included in the topic heheh. Anyways, let’s get on to it.
The main summary of “Nothing But Blackened Teeth” by Cassandra Khaw is; a group of five (can’t really call them friends, more like just a group of people that know each other) spends the night in an old mansion in Japan. It’s mentioned that the group often does ghost-related activites, so they go to this mansion on the purpose of seeing the supernatural (as well as to hold a haunted house wedding). And, well, without going into more detail, that is what they get. From further on here, there will be spoilers for anyone concerned about those.
TW: Horror Elements, Violence
The premise of the story is pretty simple, and with very short word count, I guess there is only so far that the story can go. But let me just start from the top.
The writing:
This is the one category that, for me, this book excels in. The details, most of the narration, the folktale lore, all of that is great in this book. I enjoyed the writing style, even with its hyperfixation on voice details and inflection (something I haven’t seen in a book yet). Especially towards the beginning there is a lot of focus on the tone and way that characters speak. The pacing is good, the ghosts don’t appear until halfway through (which is great), and the ghosts’ lore is great too. Usually I hold that every good book should have that one phrase that you pause over to reread, and this book hosted a count of one sentence for me, which isn’t particularly good, but it’s not the worst as it’s difficult to have those moments in the first place. As far as the writing goes, 4 out of 5. (This doesn’t include dialogue however, as I will get to that with characters).
The story:
As I said, I’d say it’s a pretty simple premise. A ghostly wedding, a group of not-friends, a haunted mansion full of Japanese folk spirits. It’s interesting, but not too complex.
The characters:
This is by far the most disliked part of the book, as I witnessed on the reviews that I looked at afterwards. Personally, I couldn’t agree more. None of these characters are likeable and the only thing I can sympathize with is the main character’s boredom and weariness. There’s a ton of bickering, a ton of pointlessly mentioned drama and scandal, just a lot of pretty stupid conflict.
So yes, if you dislike a lot of drama between unlikeable characters, this isn’t a good book for you. (Edit: Originally I went into detail of the drama, but with the character list it gets a bit exhaustive, so I’ll just skim it to that).
Another aspect that is pretty bad and a result of bad characters is that the dialogue sucks in some areas. My least favorite part: One character tells the main character that they need to leave because she is bisexual and he is “comedic relief” so therefore they would be killed first once the haunt begins. While I understand that this is a reference to the fact that they are in a book and in media these groups of characters are often killed first, just mentioning it outright was…not really funny like I suppose it’s supposed to be. And then there is an aspect where the rich white character dying first is supposed to be a spin on the fact that haha it didn’t happen like it often does- the least likely character (according to media) died first and only. But a character of color killed him and that’s the reason why he died??? Not really a straightforward message to send. If you really wanted to flip the tropes, make the white rich guy die of supernatural causes. Also, he isn’t really portrayed as being a bad guy in any way that would cause anger so the other characters look pretty odd(?) He does punch another character in the nose at some point, which I believe would be a good instance to show his hidden violence underneath all this facade but then it’s immediately turned and pointless when that other character just outright kills him from anger, so…
Sorry, that was the only more detailed tangent I went on, heheh.
Final conclusion:
This is less “Nothing but Blackened Teeth” and more “Nothing but Petty Arguments”.
The ghostly nature is great, but it is overshadowed by terrible conflict between a bunch of characters.
I will mention that my favorite part is that in the end, after they cover up the killing, they just become facebook friends that never see each other besides notifictaions online, so that’s great.
Would I recommend? No, but I would mention I read it.
SaltwaterJanuary 