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 wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. 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.

Title: Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Author: Cassandra Khaw

Genre: Cultural Horror Novella

Paperback: 128 pages

Publication Date: 10/19/2021

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Language: English

ISBN: 1250759412

ISBN-13: 9781250759412

My Review

This Japanese cultural horror novella is a hauntingly sharp stab of a read. In embellished prose, yet so stark with horrific elements, it is most expressive from the radically piercing cover to its livid content.

A handful of young adult friends are heading for an all-expenses-paid trip by one of them, as a gift to two of them who are getting married. Friends since school times, their group dynamic is complex due to some relationship baggage and former relationship contention.

Their destination is an abandoned imperial palace as the backdrop for the occasion, a once favored venue for beautiful weddings. There is a dark story though that surrounds the place that is built upon 206 bones for every year of the past 1000 years.

When the friends arrive and explore the 2 story palace and its many rooms, the voice of an ancient ghost lures them to play a game the ancient samurai played once to see who was the bravest.

“In one room sat terracotta monks, head weighted with an ancient regret. In another, dolls with mouths lacquered black. In another, books, or at least the corpses of books. The volumes were mulch, eaten by insects, infested; edifices, turgid with egg chambers, writhed from the rot. “

This leads them to The Hitobashira ritual, the deciding factor on how this game will go. The question is, how does this fit in with the planned wedding, and what have the ghosts in mind for these friends.

A poetic approach to horror makes this cerebral modern haunted house story a feast for the senses.

***

I fell for the cover first - that’s all I can say. Secondly, I was intrigued by the Japanese lore and the old haunted, imperial palace.

This novella reads very modernly and the reader is thrown right into the friend's dynamic. The travel from A to B, in this case, the arrival at the palace to the climax of the story accelerates steady and is very character-driven.

The writing is vastly embellished with expressive prose and I enjoyed this a lot. The author does not hold back on gruesome details, yet it doesn’t feel terrorizing or overly gruesome.

If you enjoy that bit of sizzle and crack in your horror reads, this might be to your taste.

Enjoy

*Quotes taken from an uncorrected proof

I received a digital copy of this novella from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

All opinions are my own.

Thank you.