#Spooktober ‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ by Cassandra Khaw

About the book…

A group of thrill-seeking friends in search of the perfect wedding venue plan to spend the night in a Heian-era mansion. Long abandoned, and unknown to them, this mansion rests on the bones of a bride, and its walls are packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

Their night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare, as the house welcomes its new guests. 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.

Published by Titan on October 19th, ‘Nothing But Blackened Teeth’ by Cassandra Khaw, is a 128 page novella which has intentions on consuming your conscience; pick it up, thinking it is a short ,sharp, shock, may be a decision which you come to regret because, trust me, this tale lingers…

The fusion of Western privilege and Eastern aesthetics creates a melting pot of cultures which are both misunderstood and misappropriated by the five protagonists. Ostensibly there at the behest of the narrator, Cat’s partner Phillip, they, Faiz and Talia (the betrothed) and acquaintance, Lin, have hired a Japanese mansion for the celebratory occasion of Talia and Faiz’ wedding.

Cat is the first person narrator who puts you into her intimate mind set, following a trauma, a grief, or other unsubstantiated-to begin with-period of  mental health difficulties. She doesn’t really want to be in Japan, but at the same time, she feels a connection to the concept of hauntings, especially the tale of the doomed bride in waiting whose remains are said to be concealed in the foundations of the building. It is said that this unnamed maiden decreed that, on hearing that her groom died on route to the ceremony, that she will wait for his ghost to arrive, and was buried alive.

The night they spend there, feasting and eating, is conspicuous in the consumption, almost cannibalistic devouring of each other’s company as they eat the wedding feast, skirting and sparring over their shared history, waiting for Lin to arrive. The descriptions of the people, the mansion, they stories they tell, are so very rich that they border on viscous, you feel that as you read, the story is becoming a part of you.

As the veil parts and the layers of their shared history is peeled back, the atmosphere becomes thickened and soured by Cat’s glimpses of a female figure whose facial features are hidden behind a torrent of hair, all that can be seen are blackened teeth…and the haunting whispers of the phrase-

”Suenoatsuyama nami mo koenamu’

They search for the most appropriate room to tell ghost stories in, playing the game ‘Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai’, or, ‘A Gathering of One Hundred Candles’. As the name suggests, a hundred candles are lit and, one by one, the group tells a ghost story then blows out a candle at its conclusion, until the room is dark.

And here, if your skin isn’t already crawling up your bones and all hair isn’t standing to attention, Cass really goes to town on all your senses.

The prose is so dense, and yet so very necessary, she manages to laden sentences with menace and subtext, with a paucity of word usage that belies their intention.

For example, consider the menace behind this startling, and short line-

‘He exhaled, tectonic in its release’

The writer manages to do more in this slight volume than many could do in a doorstopper of a novel, and without minimising the effect of the tale. Consequences to actions, dissociation of identity and gender versus what is supposed to expected of you, are all examined through the mirror of love, unrequited love, and how long you would be prepared to wait for the one you believe is yours. The juxtaposition of love, and horror, is explored through the appearance of the ghosts, versus the 5 very real people who spend the night in the Heian mansion.

Who will make it through the tales without flinching, and when there are no candles left?

And if there is a ghost who has waited eternities for her love to arrive, will she let them all go?

Is it a romantic notion, the idea of someone who would join in the afterlife the person she believes is hers, or is all she has achieved exemplified by her presence trapping this man to her bitter fate?

I could not stop thinking about Cat, and her stories after I finished the e-arc, and pondered long and hard how to put into words, the effect that this novella has had. It is a visceral attack on all senses and yet, despite being deeply disturbing, is also deeply moving. I love how questions of belonging , by these people who have so much money and yet are rootless, exemplifies the social mobility of modern society, versus the spiritual emptiness. And in the space between them both, spirits are free to wander and claim them as their own.

The notion of someone, so obsessed by the concept of love that they die for it, and are buried in the building, is inherently disturbing and calls to mind the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker, whilst the body horror is worthy of Clive Barker and Hieronymus Bosch. That is in no way to suggest derivation, more a mark of quality in the way that the horror is described so vividly with this undercurrent of pure terror.

The practice of ohaguro(dying your teeth black) is detailed here

It provides context as well as a contrast between the pale white skin and blackened teeth, as well as enhancing the menace-who could resist a ghost whose very teeth, the one substance in the body that is so difficult to penetrate, have turned black? It is such a striking and effective image as well as showing that the investment of time that she put into preparing for a wedding which never came, and also, to my mind, staining a substance which is harder than bone, is a dedication that haunts me.

I feel that this story has opened its mouth wide, and devoured me as much as I consumed it. It lodges somewhere inside my rib cage, and I am strangely okay with it lurking there.

About the author…

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer and an award-nominated author. Her short fiction can be found in publications such as Tor.com, F&SF, and Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Links-http://www.cassandrakhaw.net/

Twitter @casskhaw @TitanBooks