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A review by readingwithcoffee
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
dark
emotional
sad
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
0.25
The book is incredibly misogynistic to the only other woman in the book who’s also the only other woman of color which you think given the premise of the book and murder bride ghost and the fact she is the bride, the protagonist Cat’s misogyny and projected malice to her (and frankly every other character as well) will be confronted but instead it never is and various issues between the two never get confronted and the bride attacked by a ghost of murdered bride is somehow barely a presence in a book that built up into internal personal conflict by insulting her the entire time both u. The protagonist mind and to the other characters the second she’s not in the room (but don’t worry Talia the bride is somehow the “fake” passive aggressive woman here for trying to be civil to her grooms mentally unwell friend during HER wedding who does everything to try to prevent it but acts and so does the book like she is horrible and the aggressor because god forbid a character doesn’t like the protagonist.)
Also all the Meta commentary/break the forth wall is incredibly bad and is showing not telling and trying to force the horrible plot along hamfisted (which is a shame bc when the story is trying the protagonist like the sun the solar systems revolves around the writing is fairly good) especially when the only other character who really does this is a fifth character who isn’t funny but self declares himself the comic relief that’ll die first or second when he’s not funny he’s just very cruel and hypocritical and his presence at a wedding of people he can’t name doesn’t even make sense if he only cares about a woman who barely got invited as well and it’s never addressed how he he clearly has a pattern of sexism if he was horrible to talia the entire time especially when she was in danger, abandoned cat when she was suffering, and his wife is only brought up by other people-yet isn’t brought up when he tells another man to abandon his wife?
It feels like the book reward narcissist cruel behavior because it presents the protagonist as always right even when she’s clearly in the wrong and as if it’s too much for her supposed best friend who stopped her from suicide to ask her to be literally just a decent person at his wedding she invited herself to? And again bending over backwards to have the non Japanese character know more then the Japanese man while also kinda over randomly bringing up the white man’s race to say he’s so privileged when Asian characters saying it are established as rich, are more dehumanizing of the woman of color they’re not friends with (and there’s a contrived love triangle) and again the two men who both happened to reject the protagonist are punished by the book and presented as deeply flawed when they’re dramatically kinder and more compassionate then the protagonist or her friend and literally explicitly established as saving her life which makes the book lack any real moral compass or coherent theme. Like the man who possibly lost his wife to a brutal death gets no sympathy for breaking down over it but the book has the protagonist say she’s not weak because she didn’t cry over another person dying which screams thinking real men don’t cry is somehow feminist if women (or men) don’t express basic decency and compassion??
The novella also brings up race weirdly to have the Chinese character say why would he know Chinese when the half Japanese man doesn’t when his again so close friend that’s studied Malaysian studied Japanese art and is kinda racist in multiple ways an assumption? Or even saying the queer character dies first in horror when that’s not even typically true versus the black character but there are no black people and it reads hypocritical and whiny for the characters to want to enjoy a characters money (especially when they are also clearly upper middle class) but also use it? Especially for a book that tries to confront Eurocentrismo for how it punished the white man it made into a caricature of American white privileged with class and blond hair and even a quarter back for all that it is a book that doesn’t really explore or do anything with undead Japanese woman, Bengali bride who both feel like anticlimactic props for the protagonist who screams not like other girls to punish the groom and white guy for dumping her when again she explicitly states they saved her life. It’s just odd how aware of race the book wants to be when it does not care about the brutalized women of color in the book beyond the development of the protagonist who does not gain any self awareness and scream not like other girls the entire time. Even her bisexuality screams shoe horned it and as a feminist felt squeezed in to pretend the protagonist isn’t as centered around male attention and desirability as she clearly is.
The book had such a cool premise and good writing at parts like when the ghost “laughed as if someone had told her the joke that killed god”. But the plot is so badly written and frankly the lack of themes that If exist incredibly sexist is what kills the book and predictability of a not like other girls protagonist always being right even when she’s a grown woman bullying another woman at her own wedding
Also all the Meta commentary/break the forth wall is incredibly bad and is showing not telling and trying to force the horrible plot along hamfisted (which is a shame bc when the story is trying the protagonist like the sun the solar systems revolves around the writing is fairly good) especially when the only other character who really does this is a fifth character who isn’t funny but self declares himself the comic relief that’ll die first or second when he’s not funny he’s just very cruel and hypocritical and his presence at a wedding of people he can’t name doesn’t even make sense if he only cares about a woman who barely got invited as well and it’s never addressed how he he clearly has a pattern of sexism if he was horrible to talia the entire time especially when she was in danger, abandoned cat when she was suffering, and his wife is only brought up by other people-yet isn’t brought up when he tells another man to abandon his wife?
It feels like the book reward narcissist cruel behavior because it presents the protagonist as always right even when she’s clearly in the wrong and as if it’s too much for her supposed best friend who stopped her from suicide to ask her to be literally just a decent person at his wedding she invited herself to? And again bending over backwards to have the non Japanese character know more then the Japanese man while also kinda over randomly bringing up the white man’s race to say he’s so privileged when Asian characters saying it are established as rich, are more dehumanizing of the woman of color they’re not friends with (and there’s a contrived love triangle) and again the two men who both happened to reject the protagonist are punished by the book and presented as deeply flawed when they’re dramatically kinder and more compassionate then the protagonist or her friend and literally explicitly established as saving her life which makes the book lack any real moral compass or coherent theme. Like the man who possibly lost his wife to a brutal death gets no sympathy for breaking down over it but the book has the protagonist say she’s not weak because she didn’t cry over another person dying which screams thinking real men don’t cry is somehow feminist if women (or men) don’t express basic decency and compassion??
The novella also brings up race weirdly to have the Chinese character say why would he know Chinese when the half Japanese man doesn’t when his again so close friend that’s studied Malaysian studied Japanese art and is kinda racist in multiple ways an assumption? Or even saying the queer character dies first in horror when that’s not even typically true versus the black character but there are no black people and it reads hypocritical and whiny for the characters to want to enjoy a characters money (especially when they are also clearly upper middle class) but also use it? Especially for a book that tries to confront Eurocentrismo for how it punished the white man it made into a caricature of American white privileged with class and blond hair and even a quarter back for all that it is a book that doesn’t really explore or do anything with undead Japanese woman, Bengali bride who both feel like anticlimactic props for the protagonist who screams not like other girls to punish the groom and white guy for dumping her when again she explicitly states they saved her life. It’s just odd how aware of race the book wants to be when it does not care about the brutalized women of color in the book beyond the development of the protagonist who does not gain any self awareness and scream not like other girls the entire time. Even her bisexuality screams shoe horned it and as a feminist felt squeezed in to pretend the protagonist isn’t as centered around male attention and desirability as she clearly is.
The book had such a cool premise and good writing at parts like when the ghost “laughed as if someone had told her the joke that killed god”. But the plot is so badly written and frankly the lack of themes that If exist incredibly sexist is what kills the book and predictability of a not like other girls protagonist always being right even when she’s a grown woman bullying another woman at her own wedding
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, and Classism