Nothing But Blackened Teeth

I wanted a bit more from this. That being said, I realize it's a novella. It goes down very easy. It's a fun piece of weird fiction. The cover is gorgeous; like, my favorite cover of the year, basically. I want this artprint.

Anyway. Looking at the criticism of this book, I get it, but I'm fine with how things are. How many litfic books are about friends who all actually hate each other? I feel like it's a common trope. But this one, we get hints of the background, which makes me want to know more. We get just enough to know why things are strained. And we don't get any direct explanation of the Japanese terms in the book. Which I don't mind at all. I can look it up. And I did look up the term ohaguro-bettari; as I had inferred, it basically means, “Nothing but blackened teeth.” Anyone who watches subtitles can figure stuff out on their own.

Now, as for the writing. Wow. I mean, gods. There were some sentences that were so lovely that I could have cried.

I'm looking forward to the other novella of Khaw's I have now. Honestly, I want more from the Blackened Teeth world. I want to know what adventures they had.