Well, Happy Holidays, everyone! :D
I spent my Christmas Eve happily eating Mexican rice and doing a bit of pleasure reading, for once. Having done one degree in English Lit and working on another, pleasure reading had become naught but a memory of the past. Like, what even is reading for fun? Even now, I’m pushing away readings on my possible thesis topic for this.
I regret nothing.
Anyway, on a recent trip to Barnes & Noble with my cousin, I picked up several books. Among them a copy of Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw, which was wow. It’s pretty short and can be a quick read, depending on your reading speed—took me around four hours, with small breaks in between.
I’m still confused.
It’s a short tale about a group of friends in an Heian-era Japanese mansion, where a woman who was engaged to be married was abandoned at the altar. Her husband-to-be died along the way. She requested to be buried in the foundations of the home—alive—and then a girl was sacrificed to her every year to keep her company. A thousand years later, these thrill seeking friends come together to celebrate a marriage and then chaos ensues. You’re treated to lots of infighting between a group of friends and the secrets they refuse to speak of juxtaposed against a literal (or not) haunting.
These group of friends are all assholes, really. Oddly enough, the only person I felt bad for was the person at the end (which I won’t name because spoilers or whatever), which is weird because I love what that narrative choice did with what Khaw set up. Either way, I would honestly hate hanging out with any of them, but that does not detract from the story. You take your hate and you continue on because the story is fascinating.
The book is very visceral, I think is the best description. A lot of descriptions of the body. Khaw does not shy away from the gore-y metaphors, even when they stop being metaphors1. That being said, while I can see why some of the blurbs call it disgusting, it was not too much to handle? I am notoriously sensitive when it comes to gore and this did not completely traumatize my delicate sensibilities or whatever.
For a reader primarily familiar with the Western Contemporary horror film tradition and the European Gothic, the novel seems both familiar and yet not. There are those concepts and depictions that bleed through, obviously; however, there are many references to Japanese legends and hauntings, yokai, and other rituals, concepts and tropes which were unfamiliar to me. I had to have google handy to just be able to know of some of the references—I doubt I understood them all. For example, I had to look up the ohaguro-bettari, which was one of the most significant from the symbolisms and imageries of the novel. That alone allowed me to navigate the meaning of this novella that seems busy trying to confuse you.
Personally, that is part of the appeal, that the narrative is disorienting to a reader such as myself, but that the narrator also disorients you, forcing your to question things. The main character cannot be trusted, and that is important.
Also important is the way that the horror movie tropes play out in the story, as it is, for lack of a better word, wild. You go in expecting some similarities because the narrator sets them up for you, but as the story unravels, so do the tropes, and with them, your expectations. I could knit a blanket with the thread of my expectations, tbh. The narrative culminates in a surprisingly horrifying ending that you still cannot trust because of the unreliable narrator, who, to be fair, is trying very hard to be truthful2. Additionally, the idea of a sentient house that is trying to consume you is also rather common if horrifying trope, but the way that it is presented here just hits hard.
Nevertheless, I am confused. I will stop being confused soon, but there’s a lot happening in the novella and I don’t want to be pejorative of the narratives because I truly did enjoy it! I’m just not sure as to the messages—yet. I will get there.
The story reads very gothic. But I feel like stories about hauntings and, specifically, haunted houses cannot read as anything but gothic3. That being said, if I were to teach this, I feel like it would pair wonderfully with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (even if it’s a bit on the nose, as the basic skeletons of both narratives are pretty similar). I feel like it might also connect well with Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, as there’s a lot to mine when comes to the metaphor of a haunting, despite the latter shifting away from haunting at the end of the novel. The Yellow Wallpaper might also be a good choice, as both deal with unreliable narrators and mental illness.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth deals heavily with what has been buried being unearthed; the flipping of roles, the manifestation and projection of trauma, and interpersonal conflict made real—all of these are common enough in literature that this novella can parallel a lot. I’m at the point where I’m just throwing other stories and novels at it, lmao.4
Anyway, if you have several hours to kill, I definitely recommend reading this novella. While not a typical holiday read, it is a very good way to pass the time.
There’s lots of comparisons and descriptions of body functions and the effect on the human body that can fuck with you a little.
I will say that, Cat is trying very hard to be sincere. Truly.
Especially to a reader who is primarily familiar with Western media and literature.
Literally any novel that engages with the haunting of trauma would work lol. Maybe even some demonic possession and/or witchcraft stories could also work. (Morrison’s Beloved, Ghivan’s River Woman, River Demon, and Daniel Jose Older’s The Book of Lost Saints come to mind. Although full disclosure, I have yet to fully read these texts lol).
Summons demon in Spanish is an apt meme 😂
And I love the living house trope bc at the root of all haunting stories is that element of trespassing/wth is you doing lol