Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a 2021 horror novel by Cassandra Khaw. Five people, friends since their school years, get together in an old mansion for a night of drinking, games, and celebration. Neurotic Cat, handsome and popular Phillip, the loving couple Talia and Faiz, and the jokester Lin meet up to celebrate Talia and Faiz's wedding in an abandoned Heian-era mansion in a remote area of Japan that has dark secrets buried in its walls. The friends themselves may have plenty of skeletons in their closets. Will the ghosts do them in, or will they be at each other's throats first?
This work contains examples of:
- The Ace: Phillip was voted "Most Likely To Succeed" seven years in a row in school, according to Cat. He's handsome, popular, charming, and rich, and each of his "friends" hates him for it, the the point where they barely seem to grieve his death.
- Accidental Murder: Subverted. Faiz insists that killing Phillip is an accident and immediately has a breakdown, and the ghost certainly seems to have been making matters worse on purpose, but pretty much nobody buys it, given the years of pre-existing resentment and jealousy. At best, it's an accident he courts (he certainly could've made sure he wasn't holding a knife, for one thing).
- Alpha Bitch: Talia is extremely nasty, and makes no effort to hide the fact that she doesn't want Cat on the trip at all. She claims it's because Cat tried to break her and Faiz up when they'd only just started dating, but it's implied that Cat has had serious mental health episodes in the past. Talia still assumes that Cat did this out of jealousy and malice years later. She even lashes out at Cat when Cat correctly guesses that Talia didn't mean it when asking about Cat's well being.
- The Blank: The ohaguro-bettari, or the bride's ghost has no facial features except for a widely-grinning mouth with black teeth.
- The Bully: Talia is very nasty to Cat and Lin, but her nastiest rant to them happened when the ohaguro-bettari had replaced her, so she might not dislike him and only dislike Cat.
- Buried Alive: Legend says that the Heian mansion had the family's daughter buried alive beneath it after her groom-to-be died before their wedding, and that other girls were sacrificed over the years to keep her company.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Talia hates Cat for trying to break her and Faiz up at the beginning of the relationship, and even years later seems to be convinced that it's because Cat wants Faiz for herself. Cat is insistent that this isn't the case and states that while she and Faiz did briefly date, there was little chemistry between them.
- Damsel in Distress: Talia is spirited away by the ohaguro-bettari and spends most of the last third of the book missing in action as the rest of the characters try to get her back.
- Downer Ending: Phillip is dead by Faiz's hand and sacrificed to appease the ghost. Though everyone else made it out alive, they are traumatized, their relationships are probably fractured beyond repair, and the ohaguro-bettari might still be haunting Cat.
- Fiery Cover-Up: The survivors set fire to the mansion to hide the fact that Faiz killed Phillip and they desecrated his corpse.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Cat herself, thanks to her mental health issues and a Noodle Incident in which she tried to break up Talia and Faiz when they first started dating. She acknowledges that nobody but Lin really wants her there because they like her and are only putting up with her presence so they can pretend that things are okay.
- Genre Savvy: Discussed and played with. When supernatural events start happening, Lin insists on staying together with Cat, reasoning that since she is bisexual and he's the comic relief, they both run the risk of getting killed thanks to the usual horror tropes. Cat herself muses over the story's structure and how even though the characters are aware of the way horror stories go, they are still helpless to keep from falling into the behaviors that will doom them.
- Haunted House: The mansion that the five friends spend the night in is allegedly haunted by the ghost of the young woman who was buried alive beneath it, as she waits for her groom to return.
- Hypocrite: Talia is very defensive of her relationship and doesn't want Cat at the wedding because years ago, when the relationship had just started, Cat seemingly tried to break her and Faiz up. She assumes this is because Cat wanted Faiz to herself, but it's implied to have been the result of her poor mental health. Still, she casually does and says things that make Faiz very insecure primarily in the form of behaving flirtatiously with Phillip.
- Karma Houdini: Faiz kills Phillip in a fit of rage and everyone else desecrates his corpse in order to appease the ohaguro-bettari and save Talia. They get away with it. Cat even gets her life back together, and if Cat occasionally seeing the ohaguro-bettari in the mirror isn't because of her mental health, it means that burning down the mansion did not exorcise the spirits haunting it.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When the ohaguro-bettari finally appears and kidnaps Talia, everyone else reacts to it, but Cat seems extra aware of the mansion's evil aura and the ghosts' presence even before that. It's not clear to her or the reader whether she is really sensitive to the supernatural or if her poor mental health is playing a part in it.
- Noodle Incident: Several things in the friend group's past are alluded to but never fully explained, including Cat's breakdown and implied suicide attempt, an incident in which she tried to break up Talia and Faiz's relationship, her childhood friendship with Phillip, and Lin's wedding to an unnamed girl.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Lin identifies himself as such, and he is in fact the first person to make jokes and lighten the tense mood between the various members of the group. Deconstructed somewhat in that he is clearly doing it as a cover for the strained relationships and his own role in them, and he shows himself to be surprisingly cold-blooded in his willingness to abandon his friends to their fate.
- Pulling the Thread: Cat realizes that Talia has been replaced by the ghost when said character comes back into the room via a "door" that is actually a sliding screen with no hinges.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: The ohaguro-bettari appears as a young woman in antique wedding garb with no facial features save for her mouth and long, stringy black hair.
- Tempting Fate: Maybe having a wedding in an isolated mansion said to be haunted by the ghost of a bride-to-be who’s eternally waiting for her own wedding is a bad idea? Just a thought.
- Wight in a Wedding Dress: The ohaguro-bettari is a classic Japanese yokai, said to be the spirit of a young woman who died on or before her wedding day. She appears as a specter in traditional wedding garb, with no facial features save for her toothy mouth.
- With Friends Like These...: Even before the horror starts, relationships between the five friends are strained at best due to past events in their lives. As soon as the trouble really starts, Lin has no compunctions about urging Cat to leave the rest of the group to their fates, and Faiz and Phillip eventually get into a fight that leaves Phillip mortally wounded.
- Yōkai: An assortment show up throughout the novel but only the ohaguro-bettari plays a major role, antagonistic or otherwise. The rest only spectate the events and it's not entirely clear if they're really there or just figments of Cat's imagination.
