Nothing But Blackened Teeth

Written by Cassandra Khaw

Narrated by Suehyla El-Attar

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250829900

Cassandra Khaw

CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and the Bram Stoker Award-winner, Breakable Things. Other notable works of theirs are The Salt Grows Heavy and British Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist, Hammers on Bone. Khaw’s work can be found in places like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Tor.com. Khaw is also the co-author of The Dead Take the A Train, co-written with bestselling author Richard Kadrey.

Reviews for Nothing But Blackened Teeth

[Edwin LeBron · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book was pretty good,
I like how I was kind of thrown in the middle of someone’s life. All the characters seem to have well established backgrounds but there was only focus on a few… which is cool don’t get me wrong, but when I got to the end of the book…it just felt unfinished. Maybe that was the takeaway the author wanted.

[Haley Prager · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A quick read! A truly terrifying and beautifully written haunted house.

[Charles Jones · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The concept was very interesting, but the execution was just “Meh”

[Selina Cooper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very different kind of story. Pretty creepy, but Very Well Written. Author is excellent with words and with stringing sentences together. Something that I think must be listened to more than once, as it takes a while at first to understand what is going on! Narrator is fantastic!! ☺️

[Rizki Novianti Utami · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Actual rate: 2.5/5 ?. This is why my parents always told me to choose friends wisely. The characters are not lovable and they have complicated relationship with each other. The horror element is not scary at all. I expect this book will bring up more japanesse culture not just like mention for decorating the story.

[arwhit0815 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I wish I could take back the last several hours of my life. I don’t mean this review to be rude but it’s just my honest opinion. It was bad. Like what did I just read bad. Zero plot or character development and then out of nowhere something mildly upsetting happens and then it ends and during that mildly upsetting moment, the characters just sort of moped around like they could care less anything was happening. It was just weird. And then it ends. Ot ended before it really even began. The use of dramatic metaphors, similes, and overall literature to try and really drive a vision home was just terrible like a 5th grader was trying really hard to sound like a sophisticated adult. The fact that zero time or effort was spent developing a connection to the characters certainly didn’t help because I just simply didn’t care what happened to any of them. Literally nothing happened in this book. I only finished it so I could feel like I had the right to write a review. Please don’t waste your time and read something else.

[Chris Dockens · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author has a good grasp of her writing skills, however, it feels like she just ran out of things to say, and ended it very quickly.

[preciousreads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am torn between feeling as if this was too short but at the same time this length makes sense. Tragedy strike quick and true ??‍♀️and leaves you reeling and this is what happening to these characters. I highly suggest everyone to choose the audio instead of reading this one for better enjoyment.

[AkiraReign · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My full review is over on goodreads but here's the tldr:
This short horror story definitely has a lot of potential and some great imagery. But it also feels like it'd be more at home in a short video game format.

[Sarah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

?
⭐⭐⭐/5
A short read. My 2nd read of May and another one that was way too hyped up (in my opinion). I did enjoy the story just thought it would be more.

[Amber Nelson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this! It was an easy read. Not too complex but nice to pass the time.

[Alex Torres · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book came highly recommended, but it was just ehh to me. It’s a campfire story embellished by pretty words to describe it.

[Rhiannon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written and hauntingly descriptive. A pleasure to have listened to.

[Laurie Grauer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pros: the writing style was beautiful, both in the descriptions of the house and the feelings KAT was describing. Also, points for using Japanese demonology and diverse characters. Also, the narrator was excellent in the ways she drew out certain words - I will deff look for more of her work. The rest….was kinda eh. The dialogue was as cliche as the characters. They were all two dimensional horror archetypes and I just didn’t care if any of them survived. Honestly, I was surprised and disappointed that so many of them did.

[3wingzblack · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The first half is solid, a good setup. Unfortunately the last half feels rushed, to me, and the pay off left me feeling unfulfilled. A bit too self-aware just of it’s own premise, but worth a one and done read.

[Nohemí González Guzmán · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very entertaining book. The plot is extremely simple and fun and although the ending felt a bit flat, I did enjoyed the experience overall.

Sadly, the art of the book cover ended up being far better than the contents inside.

[RichardKevinWilson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was NOT expecting what went on to go this wrong!! For such a quick and short Novella length book, this was great! Now I am not one for reading a Japanese ghost story; no. I would rather just pull up a Japanese horror movie on Netflix or some other streaming service.....but this was a most definitely messed up ghost and revenge story of a woman scorned and out to get her revenge! Read it!.

[Evie Seo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not for everyone, as not everyone will appreciate the slow burn and oddness of this book, but definitely a worthwhile piece of horror for some!

[Melissa Andrade · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Needs more work because some characters were pretty not thought out and we just needed more scares.

[Zsofia Hanko · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The story got lost in the infinite number of similes used.

[Anja Henriksen · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Weirdly unemotional and immature characters not fitting the unfolding scenario

[Armanda Smith · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the most boring and pretentious novels that I've ever read.

Every other sentence is a metaphor or simile. Literally. I don't know if the author was trying to increase her word count or if she just isn't a good writer. The book read like a short story written by an edgy teenager for a high school Creative Writing class.

The protagonist is unlikable and uninteresting. Her friends are dull, boring, and unlikable, as well. I'm not even sure if they can be called friends. None of them seemed to like each other. That's another problem with this book. There was way too much focus on juvenile drama.

There was no suspense. There were no scares. I was expecting an atmospheric horror set against a rich tapestry of folklore. Instead, I got...whatever this was. I wouldn't even call this a horror novel. I've read Goosebumps novels that were scarier, better written, and had better character development. If I could give it zero stars, I would. I would only recommend this novel to someone I don't like.

[Alexandra Jane Welcome · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Just horrible. The cover is the only good part. Don't waste your time.

[Bo Ul · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Pretentious and boring
Every character is a jerk and unrealistic

[Lou · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had high expectations book, but it turned out to be not as awesome as I was expecting. It’s a fast read, and it’s entertaining, but not amusing.

[chy-chy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Am I missing something? I heard so much praise for this short story and so was thrilled to see it available on Scribd. But I must say that this short story was completely undeserving of the hype it received. Of course this is all just my opinion, but I found the characters to be very unidimensional and their central conflict was so childish. I know they’re a group of 20 somethings, but the envy and jealousy seems more fitting for a group of 12 year olds. I also felt like it was unclear whether we were able to trust Kat as a narrator since the images she sees are not reported or even commented on by any of the other characters. One positive I would give is to Suehyla El-Attar who reads the audiobook. I saw lots of people comment negatively about the abundance of similes and how the prose was sometimes so verbose that it bordered on senseless, but I didn’t notice this at all and I imagine that’s thanks to Suehyla El-Attar

[sprocketeer · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a trying read. The writing is so pretentious that it’s hard to form a connection with the story itself. Life’s too short to slog through layer after layer of linguistic pomposity and unsympathetic characters. The core of the story is dark, tragic, haunting…but overshadowed by all the rest.

[Sarah Dunham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite. I felt like it could have had more suspense, more fear. It needed fleshing out. Would have helped if i had known more about the yokai before reading.

[PyraPoison · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Five 20-somethings who are life-long friends but also don't really like each other spend a night in a haunted mansion in Japan and things happen pretty much as you'd expect they would.

It was refreshing to see multi-racial characters in a horror who weren't just there to be the token POC death. That said I was expecting more for the horror element as neither the cause for the original haunting or rituals since made much sense beyond it being ~spooky~ and I didn't care for any of the characters enough to be invested in their fates.

[A Name · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Terrible 80's/90's horror film + gothic Malaysian folklore = This book.
It had so much potential and even when I thought of it in a more meta/parody horror, the characters still did the most infuriatingly asinine things that killed the vibes.