Nothing But Blackened Teeth
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3.2 • 75 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Award Finalist! • An Indie Next Pick! • An October LibraryReads Pick! • 2022 RUSA Reading List: Horror Winner!
Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.
It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding.
A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested.
But the house has secrets too. 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.
Effortlessly turning the classic haunted house story on its head, Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions.
Also by Cassandra Khaw:
The Salt Grows Heavy
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A secret wedding in an ancient, haunted mansion—what could go wrong? Young Malaysian couple Talia and Faiz travel to an ancient Japanese manor with three friends for some creepy, undercover nuptials. Talia’s a ghost geek and the place is supposed to be haunted by a centuries-old would-be bride (among others). The vibe is spooky right from the start, but once the wedding party’s messy history with each other starts mixing with freaky supernatural events, the terror really kicks in. Cassandra Khaw achieves a brilliant mashup here, blending a dysfunctional family drama, an old-school ghost tale, and graphic pulp fiction into one smart, chilling horror story. Add some Japanese mythology and a few nods to classic horror films, and you’ve got a brilliant novella we never wanted to put down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A famously haunted Japanese mansion is the wedding venue of choice for an adventurous couple in this hair-raising novella from Khaw (These Deathless Bones)—and the local spirits are not the only obstacle to marital bliss. Five childhood friends with a metric ton of baggage between them fly to Japan to witness the union of two of their own—but old hurt and stubborn grudges cast long shadows within their group, and the social drama takes center stage, even as an ohaguro-bettari, the ghost of a bride buried beneath the palace centuries ago, demands a sacrifice for hosting them. When the modern day bride-to-be is taken hostage by the spirit, the remaining friends are left to piece together the offering she demands while facing their own grievances head-on. Khaw's prose oozes dread as malevolent creatures from Japanese mythology swarm the pages and the characters' interpersonal relationships crash and burn. Horror readers and folklore fans will find this tale of terror to be brutally satisfying.
Customer Reviews
Mid
Anticlimactic ending, book should have been longer, the whole story felt rushed. Reading this book felt like I was watching a recap of a movie or something. It also was not scary and the use of yokai felt completely random with no explanation.
Fantastic, eerie & beautifully written
Stunning prose, so descriptive and creepy. Loved this! I was reading it so tense that when my dog barked I literally shrieked!!!
This book was nonsense and a wasted of time.
Reading this book legit gave me a headache. The whole book is just the MC making analogies about every little things the other character said or did. There’s is almost no mention of the ghosts/antagonist. It’s all just the MC rambling or interacting with the other characters and their personal drama. The book seemed rushed and shouldn’t even be considered a horror book. You can’t tell who’s talking while reading and If you’re not already familiar with Japanese folk lore, you’re gonna be lost. I am and was still going “huh?”. It’s not something I’d pick up again.