A Book A Week

What are you afraid of? As October comes to an end, we celebrate the one night a year where ghouls and goblins are actually welcomed. As I set out to celebrate Halloween this year, I decided to listen to one more horror audiobook. Knowing my love for all things horror, the fine folks at Macmillan Audio sent me a review copy of Cassandra Khaw's new ghost story Nothing But Blackened Teeth. I was happy to accept it and listen to one final spooky book for the year. With a gothic setting in a faraway land, a group of characters with a multitude of secrets, and a chilling legend of a ghost, it was easy to fall under the spell of Khaw's work. 

A group of five young people has gathered in the most unlikely place imaginable to celebrate the pending nuptials of a couple in their midst. The thrill-seeking quintet has forgone the usual wedding venues in favor of an ancient Japanese mansion, long abandoned to the past. As if the setting isn't creepy enough, the legend of its history certainly takes things over the top. Years ago, a bride-to-be was buried beneath the home left to eternally lay in waiting for her missing husband. She's said to have haunted the building ever since. Throughout history, multiple women have been sacrificed to keep the bride company. As the group begins their stay in the mansion, their own personal histories begin to come to light, waking the sleeping bride. Her pale face has no features beyond the dark black teeth that peek out from her mask. A haunted smile welcoming the newest guests. 

In Nothing But Blackened Teeth Cassandra Khaw weaves a traditional haunted house story through the lives of five friends grappling with their personal love and loss. I loved the way that Khaw's legend of a lonely bride mirrored the hope and heartbreak of the present-day characters, both coming together into a new kind of nightmare. The audiobook is narrated by Suehyla El-Attar whose voice perfectly captures both the quiet intensity of the character dynamics and the more propulsive horror elements that drive the plot. Oddly though, I found myself more invested in the plight of the book's monster than the people living through the terror. Khaw doesn't delve much into their past, electing to have much of their motivations remain hidden. The monster, however, is given a full back story that reads like something out of a tragic historical legend. With the brief length of this work, all of that amounts to a story that promises something more impactful than it actually delivers. Still, the unconventional setting and truly scary monster are more than worth the price of admission. 

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 43)