Macabre Fascinations in Cassandra Khaw’s “Nothing but Blackened Teeth”

This week’s post will be a short one, partially due to time constraints in my schedule and partially due to my not having too much to say about this book. I’m left with the same dissatisfied emptiness I was met with upon finishing Mexican Gothic a few months ago, which saddens me, as I think there is a lot of potential in both narratives. 

Khaw’s take on a haunted house story is objectively very interesting, with a group of twenty-somethings shacking up in a mansion with a horrific history of death in honour of their (weird) friend’s wedding. Khaw’s body horror is incredible, and I found their treatment of human sacrifice and the raw desperation that can arise in a panicked group think to be well-rounded and believable. 

Although Khaw’s writing spins fascinating webs between traditional folklore and contemporary drama, the obvious lack of editing throughout the novel distracted from their intermittently stunning prose. Their descriptive work ranged from poignant and memorable to distracting and heavy-handed, which for what is essentially a novella, was manageable but would have made a longer narrative difficult to follow. 

If you’re looking for a short novella that gives a good shock of body horror and don’t mind deciphering the circular prose, then give it a go! Otherwise, there are other, better-edited and somewhat more haunting tales to scratch the itch for a haunted house novel.