The plot premise was promising, but much like the characters, it devolved pretty quickly after the first chapter or so. Actions the characters took did not make any sense and I genuinely kept wondering if maybe I was missing a chunk of the story here and there, as if perhaps my ARC was messed up or something, but sadly, I don't think it was.
I found the slow sort of disintegration (?) of their mental states as things in the mansion got progressively more intense completely sudden and it did not flow at all with the story.
These characters had so much baggage between themselves that there was absolutely no time for this book to cover even half of it. I get that this is a novella and there's not really much time to explore character dynamics and development, but this story desperately desperately needed it. Since the characters are a central focus of this novella (or so it appears), let's start with them. The main problem for me, I think, is that this is set up as what seems to be a character-driven horror with some interesting character dynamics an plenty of baggage, but it was written more as a slasher with less focus on characters and instead a focus on shock, some gore, and some vivid, descriptive writing (which was really nice on its own!). Outside of that, however, I pretty much hated everything else about this book. I also did really like the 'lore' of the mansion and the atmosphere Khaw evoked by sharing it amidst the crumbling ruins of the mansion and the many creepy elements of it.
I loved the Japanese folkloric elements and I actually think Khaw did a great job of incorporating those and sharing them in her story. Nothing But Blackened Teeth takes place in Japan in an old, rotting Heian-era mansion. Maybe this book just didn't click with me, but regardless, let's talk about this book a bit. I don't really know how it happened and I know so many readers who have really enjoyed and/or even loved this book, but something about it just did not click with me whatsoever and I'm perfectly happy to consider that it's a 'me' problem and not a book problem, but you can decide that for yourself if you choose to read it. This is a very difficult to review to write and I really didn't even want to write it because, if we're being completely honest with one another, I really disliked this book. Nothing But Blackened Teeth was a very promising horror novella that I'd been anticipating for quite a while, and unfortunately it was. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
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