Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a horror novella steeped in Japanese folklore. Part of the story is told in eloquent, sometimes overdone prose, while other parts use modern speech, including cursing, especially the F-word.

It's told from the perspective of Cat, the main character in the story. She's talked into joining four of her friends in a creepy old mansion in Japan for a wedding. The trip and house rental was arranged and paid for by the wealthy Philip, who thinks nothing of doing such things on a whim, in this case without letting Cat in on why: the wedding is for her best friend Faiz and his fiancee Talia. Rounding out the group is Lin, who brings a large spread of food and alcohol to help celebrate the nuptials.

There are vague hints and snippets of information to lead the reader to understand that this group has a past history of exploring haunted places together and that, at some point in time, their dynamics had gotten strained with Cat going through some type of mental breakdown, which she's only starting to overcome. Talia is not a fan of Cat, since at one time she had advised Faiz not to rush headlong into the relationship that's grown into this upcoming marriage. She holds a grudge and didn't really want Cat to be part of the wedding party, to relent only when Faiz and Philip convince her that Cat seems to be the most sensitive to the spirit world and Talia has her heart set on getting married in a haunted house.

The hints don't stop there. Philip and Talia may or may not be having an affair. They certainly used to be an item, though Faiz seems to be unaware of that. Lin may or may not have been romantically involved with Cat before her breakdown and his newly married status. Certainly he seems to have been invited because of her and to round out the numbers. Cat feels beholden to some of these people, which was confusing to me, even though it fed the tension that's clearly there with regard to her fellow companions. They were always there for her, she feels, but I don't believe that they ever were.

I found all this background vagueness offputting and, beyond feeling sorry for Cat and being frustrated that she's easily manipulated by her so called friends, I really didn't engage with or care about a single one of these characters. We don't even know why Cat may have needed them to be there for her. What went down back then? We just don't know and the author doesn't seem interested in telling us.

According to lore, the mansion houses the remains of a bride who asked to be buried alive when her husband-to-be never made it home for their wedding and, each year, a new girl has to be buried alive in the walls and sacrificed to the house to keep the bride happy. Talia is ecstatic to hear the history and hopes to contact the spirits to join in on her upcoming nuptials but, as the evening progresses, Cat starts hearing a voice and realises that it's not going to end well. Of course, with the tension building the more people drink, nobody except Lin wants to listen to Cat.

The ghost, an ohaguro-bettari, is really cool, being a female yokai similar to the noppera-bo but with a gaping mouth of blackened teeth. The cover art is nicely done. However, I had to look up a few terms that the author didn't explain because she seemed more interested in fashioning eloquent prose. Some of this is well worded, especially with regards to kitsune and other spirits who close in on the living characters and mentally suffocate the group with terror as the story progresses.

On that note, I'll stop, since this is a short book and I don't want to give everything away. I liked parts of the story, especially the Japanese folklore. However, I had problems with it too, especially with regards to the ending, which I thought was a bit of a cop out. I certainly wasn't a fan of the modern characters, their conversations and the vagueness of their back stories. The F word is certainly overused, in my opinion, and, if you're offended by swearing, this might not be the book for you. ~~ Dee Astell

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