Title Nothing but Blackened Teeth Series --- Author Cassandra Khaw Cover Art By Samuel Arraya Publisher Nightfire - 2021 First Printing Nightfire - 2021 Category Horror Warnings --- Main Characters --- Main Elements Ghosts

A gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists.

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends brought back together to celebrate a wedding.

A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationshps are tested.

But the house has secrets too. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

I don't usually read ghost stories, they tend to leave me looking over my shoulder, especially as I go to the bathroom at night (heaven forbid I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror in the process). But the cover somehow caught my eye at the library. Japanese folklore is fascinating and I just couldn't resist. At least it was a novella so it would be short! I planned to read it Halloween night, then decided that I didn't want to have nightmares, so just in case I read it a few days before, on a bright and sunny afternoon (with a black cat sleeping on my bed to keep me safe, hehe).

It was not quite as scary as I thought it would be, though remember, it was bright afternoon and not dark night while I read it. It's a tale of four seriously messed up people, why they call got together for a wedding when they pretty much hated each other, or were at least awkward with each other (the protagonist has dated all three guys, and being bisexual it was within the realm of possibility that she could have dated the one other girl too, but didn't). So as they are sorting through their confusing pasts and antagonistic feelings towards each other, they decide to hold a wedding at a haunted Japanese mansion, where a bride was buried alive when her husband to be died before they were able to get married. But the dead get lonely down in the dark dirt and want companionship, every year another girl was buried alive...but it is never enough.

Things obviously escalate, whether through the messed up relationships of the characters or by the influence of the dead girl, but honestly, she didn't need to do much other than set everyone's nerves on edge, the characters did the rest on their own. The fact the illustrations of kitsune, kappa, oni, etc on the walls came to life and followed them around, watching their meltdowns, was a nice touch. And of course the overal feudal Japanese atmosphere adds to the spookiness, especially for a North American reader. The bride is both beautiful and terrifying, in a way that only Japanese horror can be.

And the bit I found the creepiest was perhaps that it really felt like it was the house, almost more than the bride, that was doing the haunting. The characters kept discussing whether they should leave or not, but in the end, I doubt that they really had much of a choice, the house wasn't going to let them go until they finished what they started.