Book Review: Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ by Cassandra Khaw was released in 2021. It is a short story which follows a group of friends who have trespassed on a haunted mansion in Japan to look for ghosts.

The story follows Cat and her friends, who decided that they wanted to get married in a haunted house; except this particular haunted house is being haunted by an angry, bereft woman that was buried alive under the floorboards, waiting in the home she was supposed to marry her beloved in, and subsequently losing him in an accident on his way to the altar.

The woman’s story is heartbreaking, and her spirit refuses to leave the mansion until her beloved returns to her. Young women have been sacrificed to her to satiate her bloodlust and rage in the past, but she still haunts the walls of the mansion. This woman, who Cat refers to as ‘the ohaguro-bettari’, a Japanese monster without a face, just a mouth, full of blackened teeth, had been haunting her manor for generations, hungry and desperate for a meal.

I liked this story, I felt like readers knew enough about Cat and her friends to assume, through Cat’s disdainful narration, that the outcome of the group’s encounter with the ohaguro-bettari left a lot to be desired, especially since the legend of the woman who had died there, dying on her wedding day, waiting for her husband, was actively being mocked by the friends, who sought to host a small wedding on the manor.

The fallout was predictable, but the conventional inevitable was cushioned through a snarky, sardonic and sometimes solemn narrator’s voice cutting through and truly encapsulating how she feels about what happened. I thought Khaw’s use of character was compelling, and made the story much more captivating than some of her other works.

If you’re looking for a ghost story that keeps you thinking, I’d wholeheartedly recommend you giving ‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ a go! It’s short, punchy and raw in the most angry, poignant way!