Not my thing.

How can you see that cover and read that title and NOT want to give this book a try?

I got fooled so you don’t have to.

I will openly say that horror books are not my forte. I usually hate them, but a fellow librarian I respect really enjoyed this, so I wanted to give it a shot. Turns out yep, I do not like horror novels.

This book has a pretty easy premise to buy into. A group of twenty-somethings go to a supposed haunted house for a wedding, but then oh no, it really is haunted! It’s a great, simple premise that you think would have the ability to go plenty of places, but for me, it all fell flat.

I don’t need to like characters in order to enjoy the book, but Jesus Christ everyone in this was so goddamn insufferable and I have no idea why they were all friends. They are all banging or have banged or want to bang, which should add more tension to the novel as people pair off and the threat grows, but instead I just wanted most of them to die already. They were such awful and annoying people I was cheering for the supernatural elements.

I don’t know how a book that’s under 150 pages felt LONG, but this one succeeded. I kept checking to see how many pages I had left because it felt like it was taking forever even though it was a novella. It does read as very creepy and menacing, so I’ll give the author credit for that, but the use of metaphor and super descriptive language went from being a cool trait to overdone very quickly for me. There was some cool stuff in this, but the downbeats had me so down, I found it hard to enjoy.

Great premise, great title, great cover, but not at all something I would recommend to a friend.

Title: Nothing but Blackened Teeth
Author: Cassandra Khaw
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781250759412

Three Descriptors: Intense, Haunting, Uncomfortable

Read Alikes:
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Slade House by David Mitchell
Locke & Key by Joe Hill
The Guest List by Lucy Foley