SUMMARY:
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.
It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.
But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.
But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
TEE'S THOUGHTS:
Ok. Well. This book was certainly interesting. I think. Let me start out by saying that it was a difficult read. Not like, feeling wise or something like that, but like I didn't know what half the words meant. I knew going in, this was kind of about a Japanese Folktale, but I never thought I would have to sit with a dictionary looking up words to find out their meaning. I felt I had to, otherwise, what if I missed something that had to do with that word. Basically, it didn't matter, I am still not sure what I read.
I think the concept of the ohaguro-bettari was interesting, and that Khaw was able to make it the center of a horror story was brilliant on her part. The thought of a ghost bride waiting endlessly for her groom to come... sounds creepy. To me, however, the real horror came with the characters. They descended on this haunted mansion to celebrate the wedding of two of them. These are people who have been friends since high school, but their lies, their relationships, and their real feelings for each other ended up being more horrifying than ghost bride herself.
The story was well written, despite all the pretentiousness of the wording, and I really enjoyed the first half of the short novella, which was just over 100 pages, something I thought was going to be a quick read and quickly found that thought was WRONG. But halfway through I just tired of the drama between the friends, and found myself wishing that the ghost bride would come along and put me out of my misery!
Between the
Sad that the drama and angst between the friends ruined this one. That whole ghost bride premise is pretty creepy. Thanks for commenting on my blog earlier. :)
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