Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Nothing But Blackened Teeth

I really enjoyed Cassandra's style of writing overall, aside the seemingly constant barrage of f-bombs from the characters. I honestly disliked all the characters except Lin; he was the least chaotic and the most sensible of everyone involved. I don't want to give away spoilers here, but basically the plot is 90% of the characters bickering and fighting amongst themselves. Lots of hemming and hawing over what they will or won't do. 8% of the book is cringe relationship drama and physical descriptions of Phillip (I'm still wondering, why?). 2% of the book mentions the ghost(s) and their menacing presence. In the end, it was quite the mess, but surprisingly Khaw wrapped it up very neatly (rather rushed if I might add).

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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.25

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lilybear3's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

I wish the story had lived up to the title and the cover art. I had a lot of issues with the writing and the characters.

I felt like the writing was trying too hard to be profound and have those memorable one-liners. Nothing interesting/scary happens until halfway through the book. The story up until then had revolved around the friend drama (it doesn't stop there, it's constant to the point of annoying). For me, lack of communication in a story makes me furious so the lack of realistic dialogue wasn't great. For example,

Why didn't Cat yell at Faiz, "if you cut your heart out, you will die and you won't get to be with Talia"? Basic commication avoided.

Onto the characters: they are insufferable. The only one I sort of cared for was Lin. The ending was not what I would've liked.

Killing Phillip to get Talia back was a horrible trade offer, she was not worth saving. While I'm here, I did like how the yokai hung around the characters, that imagery is very cool

None of the characters were connected to this environment, so we had a group of tourists/non-native Japanese go to the house for funsies because she wanted to get married in a haunted house. It just doesn't make sense, even for a fictional story.

I had no expectations going into this, the cover made it look scary and eerie but there was so much drama between the friends and not enough spooky that I lost interest quickly.

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dustghosts's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

girl help the horror recs are letting me down

+ when it wasn’t too forced, the writing— particularly figurative language and sense descriptions— could be quite beautiful
+ i loooove a horror story with house-as-character, and there were times when this came off particularly eerie. i wish this had been pushed a little more, given depth, something more complicated than

moldy books “tricking you” into (or just letting you get away with, depending on how you interpret this) killing an old friend against whom you have a grudge

+ i do think khaw captures a certain kind of former-to-forced friendship really well in this group, with twisty histories between them and palpable built up resentments

o the author often uses Japanese words and terminology that will require non-speakers to do some research. i don’t personally think this is a con, but other reviewers have mentioned it and it is worth being prepared for. not everything has to be made easy for an english-speaking audience.

- none of these characters, however, come across as particularly likeable, complex, or clever, nor do they have much development for better or for worse— and I think you need at least one of those if you want my investment. instead they all seem pared down to the most basic of their traits, and the descriptions of those wind up feeling repetitive, like we’re rarely if ever learning anything new about the characters— just finding new ways to describe the same traits that our narrator has only disdain for.
- bizarre treatment of mental illness here— the POV character has had a struggle that reads true-to-life and is still dealing with the repercussions of that in a way that’s a little painful (not necessarily in a bad way) and similarly realistic. but the way that

the rest of the characters seem to fall apart in an abrupt mockery of ~madness~ at the climax of the story is kind of wild and doesn’t feel well-justified or true.

- pacing is a problem. at times it drones (I found it really difficult to get into), at times it skips forward too fast, at times it seems unmatched to the urgency of what’s actually happening in the scene.
- I would like to give some benefit of the doubt that some of this has to do with characterization of the narrator (cat is someone who considers herself smarter than most of the people in the room, while at the time still being a little discombobulated and learning how to person again). however. overall, I think it could have used another editing pass— often the writing seems staccato, too many half-sentences and incomplete thoughts stacked against each other. when it isn’t that, it’s often overly verbose to the point of being inaccessible, hard to parse, metaphors made too specific so as to be ineffective (distracting or abstracted, vs evocative).
- while the length made this an easy read, combined with the pacing issues, it also made everything from the climax to the end feel stilted— either too easy or not as impactful as it could be given some room to breathe. the “front” of the book feels heavier than the meat of the haunting, like we’re being set up for the characters to face something much more challenging and frightening than what actually happens.
- to that end? I feel that the resolution was too easy, too loosely-justified, and honestly a bit too blasé for what could have been the tragedy of it. and that has to do with aaaall of those other flaws. in general, the book doesn’t have any real concept of hierarchy of information— what’s important to the writer, the characters, the house, or to the reader?

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thewereraven's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

1.0

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andyandnormski's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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

1.0

What I enjoyed: The setting was fine for what it was. It felt isolated and ancient, somewhere where you definitely would feel helpless in a dire situation. The imagery for the bride when she made her official appearance was decent. I just wish the bride had a wider impact on the story as it felt she was hardly in it for being on the cover. It felt like she stood stonefaced in the corner while all the other characters got into an ugly screaming match.

What I didn't enjoy: The characters needed more time to develop. I had a rough idea of personalities but I felt like there needed to be more detail on why some of them hated each other so much. There needed to be more reasoning why everyone but Cat, the main character, was so quick to pure rage. And when I say quick, I mean quick. They would change their emotions and disposition towards each on a whim, sometimes within the same sentence and with no reason other than "this person makes me irrationally angry just because." I feel like a lot of the issues I had with the characters could have benefited from the story being longer.

All in all I regret purchasing this in hardcover. It's genuinely one of the worst books I've ever read.

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vaniavela's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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