Reviews with content warning for Schizophrenia/Psychosis - Nothing But Blackened Teeth

“After all, isn't that the foremost commandment in the scripture of horror? They who are queer, deviant, tattooed, tongue-pierced or other must always die first.”

This was sooo good! Beautiful prose throughout and there are so many quotable passages from this book that stuck out to me. This book takes your typical horror story if the group of young naive 20-somethings who vacation at a haunted house looking for the ghosts they’ve been told dwell there and turns it on it’s head. It’s still the same story in ways, but this book tackles grief, the complexities of adult relationships, and so much more in such a short time.

When the thing happened, my jaw dropped. I was expecting something crazy, but I was still shocked by it. Highly recommend for horror fans, or those into the disturbing and macabre, otherwise, it may be a bit too horrifying. Great for spooky season and a short read.

Overall this slapped.

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I was excited by the premise, but Nothing But Blackened Teeth gets bogged down by its crutches, trying to cover unlikable characters and a lagging plot with self-referential metacommentary that goes nowhere.
Cat is unlikable by design, but the novel's attempts to explain her behavior as part of her mentally-ill bisexual dark heart character with references to her past self-harming and suicidal behavior are never given much emotional depth. She claims she's trying to be better, to be with her friends, but none of this is ever supported by the characters or their behavior.
The side characters are one-dimensional, their increasingly unnecessary flavor text forcing them into Cabin in the Woods like Horror character trope boxes. Phillip is the hero/athlete, Fiaz is the nerd/scholar, Lin is the Fool, Talia is the Whore, leaving Cat the Virgin. It's overdone and lacks depth (in the epilogue we get more reasons why Phillip was a decent guy than literally anywhere else).
I did enjoy some of the horrific imagery, the yokai in the walls following them, some of Cat's fugue passages about the house were atmospheric and original, and I really enjoyed the growing obsession and even fondness Cat seems to have towards the ohaguro-bettari, it was the most intriguing part of the novella, and it fades into the background.
The plot becomes entirely contrived once they discover that Talia has been stolen by the ohaguro-bettari, with the whole "there must be a book" thing. It felt like a lazy attempt to give them some third-act goal, with no support to make it work. There's a lot of handwaving about the house having some sort of influence on them to be more horrible, violent people, but again, it doesn't go anywhere, and there's no justification. Cat wonders if they're some kind of entertainment of the yokai, and I'd love for that to be explored more. For there to be any real worldbuilding at all, instead of focusing on the vapid and petty drama of these characters.
The pacing overall is off, because there's no real plot direction that isn't forced.
Overall, I thought Nothing But Blackened Teeth had good bones, but no real foundation for a visceral, scary story.

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