Book: Nothing But Blackened Teeth
Author: Cassandra Khaw
Publication: Out Now
In some ways, this book is good, and in other ways, this book
isn’t.
The
basic story is a group of friends, who don’t seem to like each other all that much, go to an abandoned Japanese
mansion because one of them wanted to get married in a haunted house. The mood and the setting are what really
sells this novella. Khaw’s description of
the Heian mansion as well as the story associated with it are wonderfully spooky. You can see the setting in your mind. The mood too is captured wonderfully.
What
doesn’t work, however, is the characters.
The narrator, Cat, works well enough.
A bisexual Chinese woman who is recovering from or still suffering from depression, Cat’s voice is perhaps a bit too
much metaphorical at times, but she works as a character. The fact that she uses the Japanese names for
the spirits without translation makes sense given her background (the internet
is your friend people, at least for looking the spirits up if you do not know
them),.The problem is that there is too much history between the characters
that doesn’t get fully resolved or explained.
And while this is true of life in general, it would have helped to explain
why for instance Lin was there.
But the
there is none of the characters, outside of perhaps Cat herself, is painted in
a sympathetic or likable way, so when the fecal matter hits the fan, it is hard
to really care what about what happens to whom.
This also makes it a novella that you do not feel compelled to read
quickly. In fact, it almost feels like
it would have been a better book if it had been a bit longer, allowing for the
supporting characters to be more than simply types.
Khaw’s
writing style and her use of description that rivals the Victorians is a style
you are either going to love or find overblown.
This
last bit of the review is directed towards the publisher and not Khaw herself. Charging what comes at least 11 dollars and
change (including tax) for an eBook version of a novella where the plot is
somewhat predictable and the mood is the only thing going for it is a bit rich (considering you can’t pass it
along to someone else). I get publishing
costs and contractions. It isn’t so much the length, that’s on the reader to check
before purchasing. And I gladly plunked
down around 20 bucks for Rivers Solomon’s The Deep in hardcover.
But if you are charging that much for hardcover or over nine dollars for
an eBook, it better be worth that price.
I did not find Blacken Teeth to be worth it.
It’s not
a bad book, but it is overpriced.
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