I didn't start this blog to bad mouth books, and I know one person's trash is another person's treasure, but I guess it's inevitable that if I'm going to write about my reading journey, there are going to be books that are the literary equivalent of taking a wrong turn and ending up in a landfill.
This is one of those books.
I grabbed Nothing but Blackened Teeth on a whim because it was on sale for five bucks at my local Barnes & Noble. I'd seen it recommended here and there, and I thought the cover looked fantastic. To be fair, I still think the cover is great, but now I can't help but feel like it tricked me into reading a story with virtually no other value.
This novella is a classic example of how to overwrite and underplot a book. It's about a group of "friends" who spend the night in a haunted Japanese mansion to celebrate an upcoming wedding. I say "friends" because the characters all seem to hate one another. And with good reason: not a single one of them is likable. By the end, I hoped they'd all die. Also, plot wise, that's pretty much it. Strange things happen, of course, and there's a ghost, I guess, but the few twists aren't surprising or exciting. Most of the book is nothing but a string of nonsensical metaphors and the purplest prose you've ever seen.
Don't get me wrong, I love good writing, but only if it also makes sense and adds to the story. In this case, the only thing the writing did was constantly remind me about how clever the author thought she was.
Maybe that's your thing, but it's definitely a no from me.
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