nothing but blackened teeth by cassandra khaw

“She’s still waiting for her husband-to-be. She has studied Japanese and translates the term for her friends-mostly of Chinese ethnicity apart from Phillip, who is white-and tries to explain the meaning behind it. Domesticity as interpreted through the lens of the demonic.Ĭat can hear a whisper throughout the house-Suenomatsuyama nami mo koenamu-and figures it’s from the fallen bride who haunts the premises. Every wall in the building was lavish with corroding artwork of the yokai: kappa and two-tailed nekomata kitsune cowled like housewives, bartering with egrets for fresh fish. Though only two stories, each floor spanned at least twelve rooms and several self-contained courtyards, its symmetries united by ascetically decorated corridors. Phillip is in on the plans and what starts as a kitschy getaway turns into something more sinister, starting with the house. The house plays a central part in the story and unbeknown to most of the friends, Talia and Faiz are planning a surprise elopement there. Nothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Khaw (Tor, October 2021) The book is short and is marketed as a novella, but Khaw’s rich prose compensates. This is the premise of Cassandra Khaw’s new novel, Nothing But Blackened Teeth: it’s just as spooky as it sounds. Since then, young women have been taken on an annual basis by the bride to keep her company. What’s more, Phillip rents out a haunted Heian-era mansion that houses a jilted bride who insisted on being buried alive in the foundation of the house centuries earlier.

Phillip flies them, along with their friend, Lin, first class tickets from different parts of the world, including the United States. Talia and Faiz, two of the friends, are engaged and want to relive their teenage stunts of visiting haunted houses in Kuala Lumpur. I'm guessing that out of the 128 pages, 28 was story.Cat and her friends are in Japan for a long weekend thanks to their high school friend, Phillip. I love my descriptions, but there is a limit, and this book went way over it, making it seem as if the vivid descriptions were the plot while the 'ghost story' was just a minor thing. It was tiring listening to this, and had I been reading, I would've stopped. Kudos to the author for taking the time to find at least one, but most of the time three or more descriptives for a man's face, his hair, or the color of something, the texture, etc. The only sentences that do not have a description is the dialogue.Įven though most of these descriptions are really vivid, creepy, and amazing, there are too many and they buried the story. There is limited backstories for the characters, but a tad bit more about the house and the 'haunting', but the story itself is hidden underneath layers and layers of descriptions. Five friends who love ghost stories rent a mansion with a dark history of a wedding gone bad because two of those friends want to wed in a haunted house.

Nothing but blackened teeth by cassandra khaw