Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Everything on paper told me I would love this story. The cover and the synopsis of teens going to a haunted mansion and spooky things happen/ghost bride kills them off one by one, cliche, but really drew me in. I thought I was in store for a fun read but unfortunately this story really missed the mark with me and left me feeling disappointed.

The characters are not relatable and, frankly, just unlikable. They argue nonstop through the story which really kills the mood. I marked the book to notate the chapter when things start to really pick up and it seemed like the story was moving into the meat and potatoes but the flow is interrupted nearly instantly after beginning to set a creepy tone.

We don't get enough back story on these characters to really develop a relationship with them. We get hints to a troubled past with our main character but ultimately what triumphs is the incestuous relationship between the friend group and the drama that spawned from that. Each person has slept with each other and it is the source of all of the bickering. I'm not really sure why these characters are friends to begin with. What I think what causes it to suffer is just how little we know about them. They've all known each other since 16 years old but it doesn't feel like it. It made it hard to care when anything bad happened to any of them.

Khaw's writing style may also just not be for me. I was not a fan of the interrupting of dialouge and how much detail went into describing minor things. The yokai on the walls came up way too often and I wasn't sure if by bringing them up as often as they were meant they're actually doing what is being described or if it was the main characters imagination. It would have been fine if every once in a while it was used to really emphasize a room, or something in the room, but it's nearly every paragraph and I found it disruptive to the point I started skipping these descriptive paragraphs entirely near the end of the book. It wasn't used where it mattered, such as describing the bride.

The drops of Japanese terms also felt odd as they're mentioned but not described as if suggesting you should know those words.

spoilers

The bride really takes a backseat which was a shame. The friend group and their drama is ultimately the focus of the story. The only character death isn't by anything supernatural or scary, but by one of the friend group. There is a touch of atmosphere being built but it's instantly squashed by more drama. While the “book part” felt spooky the “ritual” and needing to do it felt shoehorned in and then rushed over once initiated. The story of the bride never once featured a ritual and being the book was blank I assumed it was the part of the one character's imagination/break down but it ends up working for some reason. I found this so odd as it was never previously established that any rituals happened in the past connected to the bride or her wedding. There is backstory about sacrifice where girls are buried alive, which does happen to a character, but this ritual to save that character just felt so out of place.