Nothing But Blackened Teeth

...if it weren't so rushed, didn't use such flowery, "intellectual" language, and actually delivered on the promises made by the description on the back. The story, itself, was intriguing, but it had absolutely no room to breathe. There were promises of secrets being exposed and none of them were really that scandalous or fully explained the tension between the characters. While it was kind of nice to read a book in a couple hours, it could have used another 100 pages to bring the story, the folklore, and the characters to life. I think, in my opinion, the most offensive thing was the repeated use of words that the average reader would need to stop and think "what does that mean again?" or google to understand what's being communicated. A pretentious bid to sound intellectual when simpler words should have been chosen to quickly convey a point, a feeling, a thought. It broke immersion in an, otherwise, decent (if poorly researched) story. On the other hand, the word choices did, ironically, highlight the insufferable personalities of the characters. MILD SPOILERS: none of the exposed secrets were remotely scandalous and left you just wondering "why are they still associating with each other? Do they really not know anyone else?" What kind of "ennui", exactly, landed the narrator in a psychiatric facility? Also, how did they all know each other from high school, but grew up in Malaysia with one random rich white dude from New England? Huh? More background was needed to help us understand why these people are together. Anyway, it could have been a fun, fast-faced, self-aware horror tale. But, it wasn't.

The book was extremely rushed, the premise could have been good but it was going by so quickly it became confusing, over and over again. The dialogue was unnatural and didn't make sense half the time. I couldn't even tell if any of the characters liked each other, at all. I'm only two-thirds through the book and not sure if I even want to finish or not.

Terribly written. Terribly researched. No development whatsoever. Do not recommend.