October 15, 2025 • 26 mins
When a group of friends trek to a historic haunted house for a wedding, what could go wrong? The answer is explored in Cassandra Khaw's work Nothing But Blackened Teeth.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
And I never told your prediction by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And for this month's book Club of October, we are
coming in with a horror fiction for our spooky time
of the month. I feel like, yeah, and of the
year whatever, all the years, all the months, this season,
it's just spooky right. This is written by Malaysian author
Cassandra Ka and the title is nothing but Blackened Teeth,
(00:43):
which I know is a very strong Asian folklore. I
don't know if it's Japanese alone, because I've definitely seen
Korean versions of this, Chinese versions of this, Filipino versions
of this, so like obviously, but like this is set
in Japan. Just an FYI, have you heard of this before?
We talked about this legend before.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
We did talk about this legend before. It was a
long time ago, though.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, you come back and visit some of these legends.
And just a quick reminder, yes, this was released in
twenty twenty one, So spoilers ahead because we're going to
talk everything about it. Because this is a very short book.
So if you want to take a second, take a
couple hours, read pause here and come back. So This
book was released in twenty twenty one, and a lot
of professionals praise this book. We got like Stephen King
(01:29):
coming in and talking about how much he loves it,
and so many others. But I will say there seems
to be a lot of back and forth when it
comes to like peer reviews, and I think it has
something to do with it being a novella. What do
you think any.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think it's that, and I think it's also and
we'll talk about this. I really enjoyed it, but the
ending is quite abrupt, at least that's how I felt like.
It was like, oh, Okay, that's the end. And you know,
you know a lot of people really like a good Yeah,
here's the ending, it's closed, and this was sort of, hey,
(02:07):
it's over, and I guess it's the Yeah, Yeah, that's
what I That's what I'll say. I would also say
that some people, from what I was reading were just confused,
which I understand. But I think I had a lot
of horrors like that where you're kind of a little
(02:28):
it's meant to be a little confusing or unsorrying, or
you don't know for sure what's happening or what's reality.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I think you're right, and we're gonna we're gonna
give a review at the end of the book. And
it is a lot, but it is very short. It
is very short novella. The writer herself is not new
to this horror life. She has several several books that
are horror related to people. Love also was a part
of the horror video game genre. Yeah, she helped with
(02:58):
many pretty big ones as well as help written and
I think there were like several narrative driven horror that
you would enjoy. So she is not new to this, yeah, y'all,
just so you know. But yes, so this is a
novella that puts a lot in a very small book,
(03:20):
very few amount of pages. So let's go ahead and
jump into it. So we meet the main protagonist, Kat, who,
along with several high school friends, come together to see
the e littlement of Talia and FaZe at a haunted
Hayan style mansion in Japan. Turns out, Phillip, a rich
friend of the group, put this fancy trip together for Talia,
whose dream has been to get married in a haunted place.
(03:42):
And I feel like Japan is appropriate because it's scarce
that of me.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, it also made me laugh when I read that,
because I was like, yeah, how have I never thought
of this idea? Getting married?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Is your dream to go get married?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
But I just think that's a I can see people
wanting to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, let's do this. The four have come together through
some tumultuous times. They all were involved together somehow very
intustuous group. Cat dated Phase in a high school but
they never even kissed. So that we find out Philip
had relations with both Kat and Talia, and at one
point Kat tried to break Phase and Talia up, and
(04:25):
because both of them seem to be miserable and arguing
all the time, Talia really hates Cat for that. Yeah right,
oh yeah, like that, like it's not in the same
but then she really can't stand her. So Kat at
one time seemed to have needed some hospitalization due to
mental health issues. We're never told exactly what, and though
she has now she is now better, she's still struggling
(04:47):
with some things, including maybe hallucinations. So as they all
explore the home and talk a bit about the past,
like how Fays didn't know that Talia and Philip had
dated before they got together, or if Philip would say
anything about that, that seems to be very big, hush
hush secret type of thing. Talia also makes it known
that she didn't want kat there but had to because
(05:09):
Faize and Philip wanted her there, so she was invited,
and also we learn about a bit about this house.
The legend goes that as soon to be bride fiance
was at the mansion waiting for her future groom to
get married, but before they could, he died, leaving her
heartbroken and mourning, so she vowed to remain there waiting
for him, being cemented into the walls again waiting for
(05:33):
his return, and to keep her from being lonely, they
sacrificed the young girl to stay with her every year,
which seems like a red fly that they should have
listened to that legend, especially because they're like, well, so
we don't want sign papers because we don't need even
pay patrol. That's two big signs.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, that's a big sign.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah for sure, just saying later, Lynn joins the party.
He is the fifth He's the funny, culinary one, also
the one that got married in a very fancy wedding
and lives in Manhattan. He is very obvious to the
fact that he was only there for Kat, who apparently
had a relationship with her as well, Something Something As
(06:14):
the night continues, Talia suggests the game, in which they
tell one hundred scary stories and blow out a candle
every time they do to see if anybody flinches. Apparently
it's a Samurai thing, which I don't think it's true,
but hey, who knows. As the night ends, Cat volunteers
to tell the last story of a young woman of
the house, and while she's doing so, she sees a
(06:35):
young woman throughout the night with black and teeth who
kept saying the same Japanese lines about being on a mountain,
being alone, waiting, and as Kat is saying the story,
she sees the young ghost woman and says it out loud,
and Talia goes to chase after this ghost woman and
their face and Philip and Kat all warn her not to,
(06:57):
but she runs and Faz and Philip follow behind. Lynn
warns and forces Cat to stay behind, talking about the
different scary movie tropes with the fact that they are
most likely to die. Cat raises the point that Phase
and Philip have been there for her when Lynn wasn't,
and then Lynn even got married without telling Kat, which
seemed like a big thing. Again, A lot of things
(07:17):
got glossed over very quickly. They were like okay, okay, okay,
And all the while they wait and suddenly Talia pops
out of nowhere, like essentially a wall all of a
sudden the door, saying that I had to come and
see what she found. And after a lot of back
and forth, they go with her to a room where
she's donning a veil and wedding clothes. And by the way,
Philip was supposed to getting them married. I can't tell
(07:38):
is he actually a priest or is he pretending to
be a priest? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I thought he was pretending to be a priest. Okay,
but I mean I guess even if he was actually
a priest, it still had an air of him kind
of putting on airs, like there is something about it
that felt a little like your ears over selling this
little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Too much, a little too death does protest too much.
But Kat knows something is wrong and tries to leave
and tries to get everyone to leave, when Lynn just
his Talia. I thought that was interesting, Like not the
reaction I thought, but okay, And she is revealed to
be the ghost bride who speaks in Japanese. After Phase
(08:24):
has a meltdown and they all go to see if
they can find a solution. They find a book, because
you know in all the movies, they find a book
that Phase reads it, though the rest of them they
can't see anything. It's blank pages. But yet he sees
something about the corners, the Four Kings, some body parts,
some blood, some cumb okay. After some arguing and back
(08:46):
and forth, tensions rise and Philip is murdered by Phase,
disemboweled essentially. I don't know what kind of knife he had.
At this time, they decided to go ahead and complete
the instructions with an organ. Philip's organ Fai has discovered
and Talia appears out of nowhere, and as she does,
Philip dies like his last breath happens right there. They
(09:08):
all leave and they all tell the same stories to police,
to parents, to everyone. They drank too much. The house
caught on fire and Philip wasn't able to get out.
Soon after the funeral and after they all leave, they
all dressed apart. Talia, unable to get past the trauma
that she is, ends up being hospitalized. Kat going back
to school for finance kindom stuff, and that's the end.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Of the story.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So what was your review of this book.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I really enjoyed it. It wasn't at all what I
expected based on the summary, but I did enjoy it.
I like a good creepy haunted house setting, right right,
that's classic. I liked the kind of the horror, kind
of the classic traditional horror with your kind of newer horror,
(10:07):
because there was an air of it that at first
felt it might be a slasher kind of because you know,
you have the character they like they're gonna die because
they don't believe in this, or they're going to die
because you know X y Z. So that was fun.
And just kind of the playing with the tropes and
mixing those two kind of older horror versus newer horror,
I thought was really fun. And you know, like the
(10:28):
trope of a friend group who has all of this
trauma and actually apparently doesn't really like each other in
a lot of ways, like that was very apparent. The
whole bride thing, which I've seen in a lot of horror,
was interesting, and the imagery was very I thought, very disturbing.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So yeah, that was a good loss of imagery.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
MM hm, yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I enjoyed it. I think it's very short. It is
very short, it is very abrupt, which is what happens
with most novellas in general. But I think a part
of like what I did love is it also played
on that trope we're talk about trips in a minute,
but like is this real? Isn't real? Is she seeing
things or isn't she seeing things? That narrative, which has
been more fun narrative, like it was always there, it
(11:17):
was never there type of conversation. Her seeing the body
stacked as if their brick or there would being the
structure of the house was interesting. The Japanese conversations that
come in between the fact that yes, they do have
like a comedy relief, but not. I was very confused
about this dude coming from the US with all of
(11:39):
the food.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, I was like, this wedding situation, you imported cheeses?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Can you do this? I don't understand what are we
talking about here?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
But then also like yes, the obvious distand between Talia
and Kat. I didn't know where that was going. I
didn't know if that was a central plot, and it
really wasn't. I guess the relationships were like kind of
the plot the house was the sixth main character. Obviously,
I don't know. I don't think I gave it the
time and feel to imagine the house. I needed to
(12:15):
do better, Like it was definitely what I imagined a
traditional Japanese home, but at the same time, I was like,
it's a mansion, so I wonder what that means on
that level with all of the artifacts and like figurines
that that we talk about, Like this is one of
those that you need a good two or three lessens
or reads read through is because you're like, what did
(12:37):
I just miss? What did they just say? Like the
adding of come the ingredient was odd. I was like,
huh yeah, okay, interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I mean that's also that's a classic trope too
of the as you said, the finding of the book
and you've got to get these things.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, those things. I'm like, that seems like an odd
thing for a virgin bride waiting for her. Okay, you
know what you do, you maybe this is what it was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The sacrifice was Philip this time and not a bride,
but he was seen as like the a prize in
this moment. We don't know what that means whether it's
like he saw himself as a trophy. She the way
Cat described him seemed to say that he's the trophy.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Well, he thought he was like the white hero savior type.
He was like in a many traditional horror movies. He
would have been the guy that saved the day, right,
but instead by saving the day, he died in his
body gut.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And then also the question is did he have a motive?
Was it for Talia or was it not? Like what
was this end? Did Phase actually know and just killed
him at a rage?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And not just because that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's a lot of a lot of back and forth.
So yeah, there are a few themes of course, like horror,
like we have the friendship, we have the beginning, and
we have the end. We have an obvious conversation about
what happened in high school. Whether was Talia a part
of high school? Was she a part of like college
(14:09):
the way they made it sound because Lynn talked about
not knowing phil that will or Philip.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I thought Talia was part of college.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But yeah, I thought she was a later on.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I think she was a later addition.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, so that it was mainly the four of them
and Kat was the glue. Yeah, she had a psychotic
break whatever that was that made everybody nervous. They wanted
to protect her, but they didn't. It was an odd relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, And I do think it's interesting that so many
horror properties have done this recently. It's not new, but
I feel like it's become a very popular thing recently.
Of the friend group that you think is a friend
group and then you learn more and you're hmm, yeah,
there's a lot of bad blood here.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And one of the things with Kat that was interesting
is that they did have this nervousness around her, this
sort of are you good? Should we have even invited you?
But she had been with it all the men in
the group at least a little bit, and so there
(15:30):
was kind of that weird jealousy of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
And from what we gathered towards the end, when Lynn
was like making his talk of a conversational about like
we're the first to die, she was queer. I think
she's the bisexual of the group, which is interesting, like
not necesarily, like she couldn't be absolutely, but that she
was the center of that type of attention as well
that I'm like, are you trying to add a little
(15:56):
more to the trope for us to possibly think she's
gonna I like, not sure, not sure where this is going.
And again it may have absolutely had to do with
theos A novella, so we get glimpses and not the
all the story.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, and I think that that a lot of those
a lot of horror, but a lot of shorter horror. Specifically,
it is meant to make you kind of it's almost
like a mirror where you're reflecting your own experiences and
thoughts into the story of what is she hallucinating or
is she not? Like you are putting your own experiences
(16:33):
in that, and I think, I mean, this is probably
my own bias, but I was kind of like, does
this mean that she was tally in her?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So yeah, it was a very quick it was not
explored in length, but okay.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, And apparently something that I missed that as I'm
reading some more reviews of it, they were reliving thin
haunted houses in Kuala lumpor did you hear that that
I missed that part.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I didn't know that they were relived. Well, I'm not
sure what they mean by reliving, but I know that
they had visited haunted houses. Yes, they had gone to
haunted houses together. This was a thing that they did.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
In my head, that's just like small places in the US,
because I think they're supposed to be based out of
the US, So that's interesting that they went to Kuala Lumpur.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, this was sort of the culmination of a just
a bunch of visiting of haunted houses. And again I
was surprised. I'd never thought of this getting married on.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It, getting married on a house. But yes, we also
see the end of the friend show, so whatever the
mess was, we saw the final ending, which feels like
any adulthood. And maybe that's the worst story of it all,
even without this tragedy that could have that would have
happened except for the pipe and tal yah and face.
And I don't know if they got married. It doesn't
(17:56):
seem like they got married.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
It doesn't seem like they did. And that's the thing
about horror movies too, is that you know, usually it
either ends where you're close, you bond over this trauma,
or you're jud buddy together trauma, never want to see
each other again.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And we've talked to each other again as part of
the wolffect yes, and coming into horror movie stereotypes scary
movie tropes. Yes, we have the funny guy and queer
characters possibly dying in the end, but instead we had
(18:33):
that flip of only one person dying. It was the
one that everyone's assumed would survive.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yes, so they Lynn literally says this, by the way,
He's like, we should get out of here. We're going
to be the first to go. He says this to
Kat as things are starting to become clear that something
is amiss. Yeah, and so I did enjoy that of
the flipping of the acknowledgment and the thing of the trope.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
She does it at a very beginning that she's like, Oh, no,
we're gonna die here. We're definitely, We're definitely coming to
die here. This is the this is ridiculous. What have
we done? I need to leave. But she kept keeps going.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Which is also something that happens in a lot of
horror stuff. You know, you have that intuition I probably
shouldn't be here, and you keep going.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Interestingly, So again, I've been reading a lot of reviews
on this and that whole like white Man is supposed
to survive and he's also a jock like all these things,
and then he plays the priest so like he's supposed
to be the pure one as well, but he's definitely
not the pure one in this group. But like it's
seemingly like that's what they're trying to put on this.
One Reddit post in reviews did you see this was
(19:48):
so angry and called this book a woke which I
was like, what, what, what's this and then be racist
towards white people.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Mm hmm, that's an anti white man.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I was like, wait, what is what is happening? And
everyone's response to that, I was like, I think that's
kind of a reach. We understand you might not have
liked these topic things, but this was not anything about
being woke. It has nothing to like, no one's telling
you that you have to be gay to survive. No
one's telling you being white means you're definitely gonna die.
(20:25):
They were annoyed with him in general for trying to
save everyone, like, and they were also annoyed with each other,
like this was not a thing where they were bullying
because he said bullying the white dude. I was like,
huh no.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He wanted to be the hero, and you know, the
truth of it is a lot of times, if we
take it out of our movies, you probably would die.
And you're trying to do that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Back in.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, yeah, and already, as we mentioned, this was purposely
flipping a lot of the tropes, like usually it is
that guy, the white guy who does it, or the
final the white final girl who does it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So yeah, it was. It was quite funny that and
it was a long Reddit post. He was very upset.
I'm like, I feel like you're just reaching to be upset. Also,
this is not a white person writing this, so is
that why you're angry?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There's spending too much time on this.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Like what is happening? This was twenty twenty one, y'all,
and the review was from twenty twenty one and then
the same like women being sacrificed for men, and I
feel like this, especially like when it comes to the
bridal trope, like the that is a const or always
waiting and so therefore either they've been wronged by men
(21:46):
or they're waiting on men.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, I reading this reminded me of because Samantha and
I are working on a hopefully not huge, too big
of an episode on religious Horror, and I was debating
whether to put a section on there about marriage because
I'd forgotten how big bridal horror is huge. It's really huge,
(22:11):
and this idea, I mean, that's the whole basis of
this horror story of the house they're staying in, is that,
you know, it's this woman who's waiting and waiting for
a groom who might never come, and sacrificing all these
other women every year year to do it. And that's
what the house is built on, which I find really interesting.
(22:35):
In terms of a conversation we recently had about a
game I played on f which was based in Japan,
and it was about kind of the horror of marriage
and how women, at least in the timeframe that game
was set in, which was in the nineteen sixties, didn't
have like you kind of had to get married and
(22:57):
it was sort of a was a horrific thing if
you did and if you didn't. At least in the
frame of that game, that's how it was. But I
had I did. This made me step and pause. I'd
forgotten how big of a trope that is, the kind
of the bride.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It's big.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It is big, yeah, and it's quite an image of
you know, the woman waiting for for the man to
come and hopefully that would put her.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
At peace, yeah, which he never does.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Usually in a nice like finery or something. Yeah, which
is a good exposition against maybe a decaying visage or whatever.
But it is a striking image for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
It is. The book is really like the cover is
really creepy. Yeah, oh yeah, but I've seen that cover
before and like not that cover, but like that kind
of art for Japanese legend, and that's definitely what it's
based on. So some of the games that Cassandra has
worked on includes Gotham Knight's World of Horror. She co
(24:09):
wrote that Where the Water Tastes like Wine, Wasteland three.
So she's been, she's been, she's been doing that's just
a few, Like, she's done a few of these things.
So genre, this genre is up her ally, it's her thing.
Would be interested that she's got several other books. So
this book in itself actually was nominated for several different awards,
including the Brahmstroker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World
(24:32):
Fantasy Award, so like it definitely got her name out there,
even though she had already written several books beforehand that
also was nominated. I think she actually won for Best
Fiction Collection for Breakable Things that just released a couple
of years ago. So we should add some of those
things to our later lists.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
We should, we should, And I read a lot of
reviews that did say this is very reminiscent of us
Shirley Jackson. Yeah. Uh, no vella. So if that's your
if that's your thing, I highly recommend it. It's very
it is very short. It's like a creepy haunted house story.
If you're looking for it that this is for you. Yeah, yes,
(25:21):
Well we love recommendations though listeners. I I love a
good scary movie, book, video game, whatever, So please send
those our way if you have them. You can email
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(25:42):
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Speaker 3 (26:04):
H
Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
And I never told your prediction by her radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And for this month's book Club of October, we are
coming in with a horror fiction for our spooky time
of the month. I feel like, yeah, and of the
year whatever, all the years, all the months, this season,
it's just spooky right. This is written by Malaysian author
Cassandra Ka and the title is nothing but Blackened Teeth,
(00:43):
which I know is a very strong Asian folklore. I
don't know if it's Japanese alone, because I've definitely seen
Korean versions of this, Chinese versions of this, Filipino versions
of this, so like obviously, but like this is set
in Japan. Just an FYI, have you heard of this before?
We talked about this legend before.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
We did talk about this legend before. It was a
long time ago, though.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yes, you come back and visit some of these legends.
And just a quick reminder, yes, this was released in
twenty twenty one, So spoilers ahead because we're going to
talk everything about it. Because this is a very short book.
So if you want to take a second, take a
couple hours, read pause here and come back. So This
book was released in twenty twenty one, and a lot
of professionals praise this book. We got like Stephen King
(01:29):
coming in and talking about how much he loves it,
and so many others. But I will say there seems
to be a lot of back and forth when it
comes to like peer reviews, and I think it has
something to do with it being a novella. What do
you think any.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I think it's that, and I think it's also and
we'll talk about this. I really enjoyed it, but the
ending is quite abrupt, at least that's how I felt like.
It was like, oh, Okay, that's the end. And you know,
you know a lot of people really like a good Yeah,
here's the ending, it's closed, and this was sort of, hey,
(02:07):
it's over, and I guess it's the Yeah, Yeah, that's
what I That's what I'll say. I would also say
that some people, from what I was reading were just confused,
which I understand. But I think I had a lot
of horrors like that where you're kind of a little
(02:28):
it's meant to be a little confusing or unsorrying, or
you don't know for sure what's happening or what's reality.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I think you're right, and we're gonna we're gonna
give a review at the end of the book. And
it is a lot, but it is very short. It
is very short novella. The writer herself is not new
to this horror life. She has several several books that
are horror related to people. Love also was a part
of the horror video game genre. Yeah, she helped with
(02:58):
many pretty big ones as well as help written and
I think there were like several narrative driven horror that
you would enjoy. So she is not new to this, yeah, y'all,
just so you know. But yes, so this is a
novella that puts a lot in a very small book,
(03:20):
very few amount of pages. So let's go ahead and
jump into it. So we meet the main protagonist, Kat, who,
along with several high school friends, come together to see
the e littlement of Talia and FaZe at a haunted
Hayan style mansion in Japan. Turns out, Phillip, a rich
friend of the group, put this fancy trip together for Talia,
whose dream has been to get married in a haunted place.
(03:42):
And I feel like Japan is appropriate because it's scarce
that of me.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, it also made me laugh when I read that,
because I was like, yeah, how have I never thought
of this idea? Getting married?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Is your dream to go get married?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
But I just think that's a I can see people
wanting to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, let's do this. The four have come together through
some tumultuous times. They all were involved together somehow very
intustuous group. Cat dated Phase in a high school but
they never even kissed. So that we find out Philip
had relations with both Kat and Talia, and at one
point Kat tried to break Phase and Talia up, and
(04:25):
because both of them seem to be miserable and arguing
all the time, Talia really hates Cat for that. Yeah right,
oh yeah, like that, like it's not in the same
but then she really can't stand her. So Kat at
one time seemed to have needed some hospitalization due to
mental health issues. We're never told exactly what, and though
she has now she is now better, she's still struggling
(04:47):
with some things, including maybe hallucinations. So as they all
explore the home and talk a bit about the past,
like how Fays didn't know that Talia and Philip had
dated before they got together, or if Philip would say
anything about that, that seems to be very big, hush
hush secret type of thing. Talia also makes it known
that she didn't want kat there but had to because
(05:09):
Faize and Philip wanted her there, so she was invited,
and also we learn about a bit about this house.
The legend goes that as soon to be bride fiance
was at the mansion waiting for her future groom to
get married, but before they could, he died, leaving her
heartbroken and mourning, so she vowed to remain there waiting
for him, being cemented into the walls again waiting for
(05:33):
his return, and to keep her from being lonely, they
sacrificed the young girl to stay with her every year,
which seems like a red fly that they should have
listened to that legend, especially because they're like, well, so
we don't want sign papers because we don't need even
pay patrol. That's two big signs.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, that's a big sign.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah for sure, just saying later, Lynn joins the party.
He is the fifth He's the funny, culinary one, also
the one that got married in a very fancy wedding
and lives in Manhattan. He is very obvious to the
fact that he was only there for Kat, who apparently
had a relationship with her as well, Something Something As
(06:14):
the night continues, Talia suggests the game, in which they
tell one hundred scary stories and blow out a candle
every time they do to see if anybody flinches. Apparently
it's a Samurai thing, which I don't think it's true,
but hey, who knows. As the night ends, Cat volunteers
to tell the last story of a young woman of
the house, and while she's doing so, she sees a
(06:35):
young woman throughout the night with black and teeth who
kept saying the same Japanese lines about being on a mountain,
being alone, waiting, and as Kat is saying the story,
she sees the young ghost woman and says it out loud,
and Talia goes to chase after this ghost woman and
their face and Philip and Kat all warn her not to,
(06:57):
but she runs and Faz and Philip follow behind. Lynn
warns and forces Cat to stay behind, talking about the
different scary movie tropes with the fact that they are
most likely to die. Cat raises the point that Phase
and Philip have been there for her when Lynn wasn't,
and then Lynn even got married without telling Kat, which
seemed like a big thing. Again, A lot of things
(07:17):
got glossed over very quickly. They were like okay, okay, okay,
And all the while they wait and suddenly Talia pops
out of nowhere, like essentially a wall all of a
sudden the door, saying that I had to come and
see what she found. And after a lot of back
and forth, they go with her to a room where
she's donning a veil and wedding clothes. And by the way,
Philip was supposed to getting them married. I can't tell
(07:38):
is he actually a priest or is he pretending to
be a priest? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I thought he was pretending to be a priest. Okay,
but I mean I guess even if he was actually
a priest, it still had an air of him kind
of putting on airs, like there is something about it
that felt a little like your ears over selling this
little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Too much, a little too death does protest too much.
But Kat knows something is wrong and tries to leave
and tries to get everyone to leave, when Lynn just
his Talia. I thought that was interesting, Like not the
reaction I thought, but okay, And she is revealed to
be the ghost bride who speaks in Japanese. After Phase
(08:24):
has a meltdown and they all go to see if
they can find a solution. They find a book, because
you know in all the movies, they find a book
that Phase reads it, though the rest of them they
can't see anything. It's blank pages. But yet he sees
something about the corners, the Four Kings, some body parts,
some blood, some cumb okay. After some arguing and back
(08:46):
and forth, tensions rise and Philip is murdered by Phase,
disemboweled essentially. I don't know what kind of knife he had.
At this time, they decided to go ahead and complete
the instructions with an organ. Philip's organ Fai has discovered
and Talia appears out of nowhere, and as she does,
Philip dies like his last breath happens right there. They
(09:08):
all leave and they all tell the same stories to police,
to parents, to everyone. They drank too much. The house
caught on fire and Philip wasn't able to get out.
Soon after the funeral and after they all leave, they
all dressed apart. Talia, unable to get past the trauma
that she is, ends up being hospitalized. Kat going back
to school for finance kindom stuff, and that's the end.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Of the story.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So what was your review of this book.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I really enjoyed it. It wasn't at all what I
expected based on the summary, but I did enjoy it.
I like a good creepy haunted house setting, right right,
that's classic. I liked the kind of the horror, kind
of the classic traditional horror with your kind of newer horror,
(10:07):
because there was an air of it that at first
felt it might be a slasher kind of because you know,
you have the character they like they're gonna die because
they don't believe in this, or they're going to die
because you know X y Z. So that was fun.
And just kind of the playing with the tropes and
mixing those two kind of older horror versus newer horror,
I thought was really fun. And you know, like the
(10:28):
trope of a friend group who has all of this
trauma and actually apparently doesn't really like each other in
a lot of ways, like that was very apparent. The
whole bride thing, which I've seen in a lot of horror,
was interesting, and the imagery was very I thought, very disturbing.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So yeah, that was a good loss of imagery.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
MM hm, yes, I did.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I enjoyed it. I think it's very short. It is
very short, it is very abrupt, which is what happens
with most novellas in general. But I think a part
of like what I did love is it also played
on that trope we're talk about trips in a minute,
but like is this real? Isn't real? Is she seeing
things or isn't she seeing things? That narrative, which has
been more fun narrative, like it was always there, it
(11:17):
was never there type of conversation. Her seeing the body
stacked as if their brick or there would being the
structure of the house was interesting. The Japanese conversations that
come in between the fact that yes, they do have
like a comedy relief, but not. I was very confused
about this dude coming from the US with all of
(11:39):
the food.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, I was like, this wedding situation, you imported cheeses?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Can you do this? I don't understand what are we
talking about here?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
But then also like yes, the obvious distand between Talia
and Kat. I didn't know where that was going. I
didn't know if that was a central plot, and it
really wasn't. I guess the relationships were like kind of
the plot the house was the sixth main character. Obviously,
I don't know. I don't think I gave it the
time and feel to imagine the house. I needed to
(12:15):
do better, Like it was definitely what I imagined a
traditional Japanese home, but at the same time, I was like,
it's a mansion, so I wonder what that means on
that level with all of the artifacts and like figurines
that that we talk about, Like this is one of
those that you need a good two or three lessens
or reads read through is because you're like, what did
(12:37):
I just miss? What did they just say? Like the
adding of come the ingredient was odd. I was like,
huh yeah, okay, interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I mean that's also that's a classic trope too
of the as you said, the finding of the book
and you've got to get these things.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, those things. I'm like, that seems like an odd
thing for a virgin bride waiting for her. Okay, you
know what you do, you maybe this is what it was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The sacrifice was Philip this time and not a bride,
but he was seen as like the a prize in
this moment. We don't know what that means whether it's
like he saw himself as a trophy. She the way
Cat described him seemed to say that he's the trophy.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Well, he thought he was like the white hero savior type.
He was like in a many traditional horror movies. He
would have been the guy that saved the day, right,
but instead by saving the day, he died in his
body gut.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And then also the question is did he have a motive?
Was it for Talia or was it not? Like what
was this end? Did Phase actually know and just killed
him at a rage?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And not just because that's true.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's a lot of a lot of back and forth.
So yeah, there are a few themes of course, like horror,
like we have the friendship, we have the beginning, and
we have the end. We have an obvious conversation about
what happened in high school. Whether was Talia a part
of high school? Was she a part of like college
(14:09):
the way they made it sound because Lynn talked about
not knowing phil that will or Philip.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I thought Talia was part of college.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But yeah, I thought she was a later on.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I think she was a later addition.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, so that it was mainly the four of them
and Kat was the glue. Yeah, she had a psychotic
break whatever that was that made everybody nervous. They wanted
to protect her, but they didn't. It was an odd relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, And I do think it's interesting that so many
horror properties have done this recently. It's not new, but
I feel like it's become a very popular thing recently.
Of the friend group that you think is a friend
group and then you learn more and you're hmm, yeah,
there's a lot of bad blood here.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And one of the things with Kat that was interesting
is that they did have this nervousness around her, this
sort of are you good? Should we have even invited you?
But she had been with it all the men in
the group at least a little bit, and so there
(15:30):
was kind of that weird jealousy of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
And from what we gathered towards the end, when Lynn
was like making his talk of a conversational about like
we're the first to die, she was queer. I think
she's the bisexual of the group, which is interesting, like
not necesarily, like she couldn't be absolutely, but that she
was the center of that type of attention as well
that I'm like, are you trying to add a little
(15:56):
more to the trope for us to possibly think she's
gonna I like, not sure, not sure where this is going.
And again it may have absolutely had to do with
theos A novella, so we get glimpses and not the
all the story.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, and I think that that a lot of those
a lot of horror, but a lot of shorter horror. Specifically,
it is meant to make you kind of it's almost
like a mirror where you're reflecting your own experiences and
thoughts into the story of what is she hallucinating or
is she not? Like you are putting your own experiences
(16:33):
in that, and I think, I mean, this is probably
my own bias, but I was kind of like, does
this mean that she was tally in her?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
So yeah, it was a very quick it was not
explored in length, but okay.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, And apparently something that I missed that as I'm
reading some more reviews of it, they were reliving thin
haunted houses in Kuala lumpor did you hear that that
I missed that part.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I didn't know that they were relived. Well, I'm not
sure what they mean by reliving, but I know that
they had visited haunted houses. Yes, they had gone to
haunted houses together. This was a thing that they did.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
In my head, that's just like small places in the US,
because I think they're supposed to be based out of
the US, So that's interesting that they went to Kuala Lumpur.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, this was sort of the culmination of a just
a bunch of visiting of haunted houses. And again I
was surprised. I'd never thought of this getting married on.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
It, getting married on a house. But yes, we also
see the end of the friend show, so whatever the
mess was, we saw the final ending, which feels like
any adulthood. And maybe that's the worst story of it all,
even without this tragedy that could have that would have
happened except for the pipe and tal yah and face.
And I don't know if they got married. It doesn't
(17:56):
seem like they got married.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
It doesn't seem like they did. And that's the thing
about horror movies too, is that you know, usually it
either ends where you're close, you bond over this trauma,
or you're jud buddy together trauma, never want to see
each other again.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And we've talked to each other again as part of
the wolffect yes, and coming into horror movie stereotypes scary
movie tropes. Yes, we have the funny guy and queer
characters possibly dying in the end, but instead we had
(18:33):
that flip of only one person dying. It was the
one that everyone's assumed would survive.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yes, so they Lynn literally says this, by the way,
He's like, we should get out of here. We're going
to be the first to go. He says this to
Kat as things are starting to become clear that something
is amiss. Yeah, and so I did enjoy that of
the flipping of the acknowledgment and the thing of the trope.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
She does it at a very beginning that she's like, Oh, no,
we're gonna die here. We're definitely, We're definitely coming to
die here. This is the this is ridiculous. What have
we done? I need to leave. But she kept keeps going.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Which is also something that happens in a lot of
horror stuff. You know, you have that intuition I probably
shouldn't be here, and you keep going.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Interestingly, So again, I've been reading a lot of reviews
on this and that whole like white Man is supposed
to survive and he's also a jock like all these things,
and then he plays the priest so like he's supposed
to be the pure one as well, but he's definitely
not the pure one in this group. But like it's
seemingly like that's what they're trying to put on this.
One Reddit post in reviews did you see this was
(19:48):
so angry and called this book a woke which I
was like, what, what, what's this and then be racist
towards white people.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Mm hmm, that's an anti white man.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I was like, wait, what is what is happening? And
everyone's response to that, I was like, I think that's
kind of a reach. We understand you might not have
liked these topic things, but this was not anything about
being woke. It has nothing to like, no one's telling
you that you have to be gay to survive. No
one's telling you being white means you're definitely gonna die.
(20:25):
They were annoyed with him in general for trying to
save everyone, like, and they were also annoyed with each other,
like this was not a thing where they were bullying
because he said bullying the white dude. I was like,
huh no.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He wanted to be the hero, and you know, the
truth of it is a lot of times, if we
take it out of our movies, you probably would die.
And you're trying to do that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Back in.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, yeah, and already, as we mentioned, this was purposely
flipping a lot of the tropes, like usually it is
that guy, the white guy who does it, or the
final the white final girl who does it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So yeah, it was. It was quite funny that and
it was a long Reddit post. He was very upset.
I'm like, I feel like you're just reaching to be upset. Also,
this is not a white person writing this, so is
that why you're angry?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There's spending too much time on this.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Like what is happening? This was twenty twenty one, y'all,
and the review was from twenty twenty one and then
the same like women being sacrificed for men, and I
feel like this, especially like when it comes to the
bridal trope, like the that is a const or always
waiting and so therefore either they've been wronged by men
(21:46):
or they're waiting on men.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, I reading this reminded me of because Samantha and
I are working on a hopefully not huge, too big
of an episode on religious Horror, and I was debating
whether to put a section on there about marriage because
I'd forgotten how big bridal horror is huge. It's really huge,
(22:11):
and this idea, I mean, that's the whole basis of
this horror story of the house they're staying in, is that,
you know, it's this woman who's waiting and waiting for
a groom who might never come, and sacrificing all these
other women every year year to do it. And that's
what the house is built on, which I find really interesting.
(22:35):
In terms of a conversation we recently had about a
game I played on f which was based in Japan,
and it was about kind of the horror of marriage
and how women, at least in the timeframe that game
was set in, which was in the nineteen sixties, didn't
have like you kind of had to get married and
(22:57):
it was sort of a was a horrific thing if
you did and if you didn't. At least in the
frame of that game, that's how it was. But I
had I did. This made me step and pause. I'd
forgotten how big of a trope that is, the kind
of the bride.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It's big.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It is big, yeah, and it's quite an image of
you know, the woman waiting for for the man to
come and hopefully that would put her.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
At peace, yeah, which he never does.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Usually in a nice like finery or something. Yeah, which
is a good exposition against maybe a decaying visage or whatever.
But it is a striking image for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
It is. The book is really like the cover is
really creepy. Yeah, oh yeah, but I've seen that cover
before and like not that cover, but like that kind
of art for Japanese legend, and that's definitely what it's
based on. So some of the games that Cassandra has
worked on includes Gotham Knight's World of Horror. She co
(24:09):
wrote that Where the Water Tastes like Wine, Wasteland three.
So she's been, she's been, she's been doing that's just
a few, Like, she's done a few of these things.
So genre, this genre is up her ally, it's her thing.
Would be interested that she's got several other books. So
this book in itself actually was nominated for several different awards,
including the Brahmstroker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World
(24:32):
Fantasy Award, so like it definitely got her name out there,
even though she had already written several books beforehand that
also was nominated. I think she actually won for Best
Fiction Collection for Breakable Things that just released a couple
of years ago. So we should add some of those
things to our later lists.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
We should, we should, And I read a lot of
reviews that did say this is very reminiscent of us
Shirley Jackson. Yeah. Uh, no vella. So if that's your
if that's your thing, I highly recommend it. It's very
it is very short. It's like a creepy haunted house story.
If you're looking for it that this is for you. Yeah, yes,
(25:21):
Well we love recommendations though listeners. I I love a
good scary movie, book, video game, whatever, So please send
those our way if you have them. You can email
us at Hello at Steffannever Told You dot com. You
can find us on Blue Sky at momso podcast, or
on TikTok and Instagram at stuff I Never Told You
(25:42):
for us on YouTube. We have some new merchandise at
Commonburia dot com. And we have a book you can
get wherever you get your books. Thanks, it's always too
our super producer Christinior, executive producer My and or contributor Joey,
thank you and thanks to you for listening stuff Never
told You. Pspection by heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
a podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
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