Rating: 2/5
*I was gifted a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I really had high hopes for this book, the concept sounded great. Unfortunately, it just absolutely was not for me. It was fine, but it was ultimately lacking things that I look for in a horror novella.
Summary:
“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.”
This book is absolutely screaming for exposition. And not exposition regarding the group dynamic. I basically only got group dynamic, what I wanted was something to add some meat to the plot, to explain what was really going on. I wanted plot exposition, maybe some more added to the folklore. As it stands, we don’t learn anything about the “Ohaguro bettari” if you don’t look it up on your own. Felt a bit disappointing. I’m somewhat familiar with some of the Japanese folklore mentioned through other things (I.e. Anime and manga), but if you’re someone who has no familiarity at all with these concepts, then it may be an oversight not to offer some more details within the book itself. This book does open the door for people to do their own research, but I prefer authors to outright tell me about the folklore they’re referencing. Does that make sense?
The atmosphere was muddy. I was never too invested in the story because the horror aspect of the book was so totally skewed by the relationships of this “friend” group. Spoiler: they all pretty much hate each other, and I don’t like any of them either. The anger that I felt reading about their group dynamic, diminished the horror aspect of the book entirely for me. I feel like anger has a way of trumping fear, so when your reader gets angry, they may tend to be less afraid. At least, that's what happened when I read it. Quite frankly, I sincerely did not care for the characters. I found them all to be supremely unlikable. There’s little suspense when you’re not emotionally invested in the characters. How can I care about the horror and the risk when there is no attachment? The risk is in the ability of the reader to attach to the characters and I sincerely did not care what happened to any of them.
This book felt like a vehicle for the writing itself. Like the focal point of the book was the sharp, well-written words and not the story itself. Don’t get me wrong, I thought that Khaw really had a way with words. Sentences were snappy and well-described. Things were all visceral, through the description alone. There was amazing horrific imagery. The efficacy of the description and Khaw’s impressive writing is the sole thing that saved this from being a One-Star read.
I just wish that I had gotten plot development and less character development. Is that weird? I feel like with a book this short, particularly horror, the plot itself has to be strong. You don’t care too much about the characters, you care about what happens. Especially since the boo is so short, it is important to get the the scenery and exposition established, to really drive home any fear instilled in the reader. You don't always have a lot of time to develop characters and group dynamics with such a short story AND write an effective horror story. So much energy was spent fleshing out the characters (even though the characters themselves felt two-dimensional) that the plot was lost. It was choppy and ill-explained. It was a lot of assuming that the reader understands Japanese folklore, rather than outright telling the reader what it is (I would argue many of us aren't overly well-versed in Japanese folklore).
In all, it just was not for me. I wish that it was. I liked the creative backdrop for the story and the introduction of Japanese lore into the Western book market. This book itself just fell flat for me. I am interested in seeing what Khaw comes out with next, hopefully something more long form. I really did think she had an impressive way with words. But this book wasn’t it for me. Thank you so much to Tor Nightfire for sending me an advanced copy! Even though I didn’t like the book so much, I am still very grateful! If you guys are interested, as it is a quick, spooky read, then I encourage you to read it yourself and develop your own opinion! Nothing But Blackened Teeth is available as of today (October 19, 2021), wherever books are sold!
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