Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - The Salt Grows Heavy

Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

77 reviews

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A couple times, Khaw's books have floated across my radar. I always feel like I'd like them, based on cover vibes, but then I'd read the blurbs and they all feel too horror-y and I get scared off. (I'm a huge scaredy-cat. Ask me about how many nights I couldn’t sleep after watching The Descent in high school...) Apparently, I was finally feeling big and brave, and decided to give this one a go.

In an apocalyptic(ish) world, a siren-like creature leaves the land she'd been bound to for years, after her daughters devoured the kingdom. As she sets out on a journey, leaving that destroyed place behind her forever, she meets a mysterious plague doctor. Their travels bring them to a dark, wintry forest village populated by children controlled by three Frankenstein-like "surgeons" who have set themselves up as gods. Together, they must use the darker parts of themselves to survive the encounter(s) there.

This is like, take horror and make it poetry. Or take poetry and make it horror. It has all the hallmarks of body horror - gore and bones and medical content (Frankenstein-style, as I mentioned in the blurb) and viscera and blood and cannibalism (eating others flesh at the very least). But it's communicated with writing that is lulling, mesmerizing. It's the lyrical academic exactness in the word choices, precise sentences and descriptions, everything purposeful, with esoteric levels of vocabulary, that creates a language-style reminiscent of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Phenomenal.

Under that phenomenal writing, the story itself is so horrible you can’t relax. But you also cannot look away. I'm not always into the pieced-together-sinister-science/medicine type of horror, but I did enjoy the conglomeration of the darker sides of all mermaid/selkie/siren mythology. And the creativity of bringing that together with plague doctor imagery and ambiance ended up working for me. And there was a dark, but creepily endearing, love story woven in that I wasn't sure about to start, but ended up finding quite compelling, in an unearthly sort of way.

There was a plot, but I thought that was the weakest part. This was mostly writing and vibes. And what a vibe! It was similar to Pan's Labyrinth (which I was super into, in high school), and sort of like the Jack and Jill storyline of McGuire's Wayward Children series (though considerably less whimsical, more disturbing and ominous).

That bonus story at the end, a gruesome re-vision and reclaiming of The Little Mermaid, looking at the sorrow within the fairy tale that is well-known, examining what, as with all fairy tales, is always conveniently left out. I was here for that.

One of the blurbs for this novella says reading Khaw is like “watching a nightmare ballet.” And I honestly can’t think of a better description. It’s gorgeous and terrifying. It's grotesque. In the best way. If that's what you're looking for, then give this short read a go.

“Myths are full of lies. This is not one of them. […] Names have so much power.”

“It is always interesting to see how often women are described as ravenous when it is the men who, without exception, tale without thought of compensation.

“Meat may be mulch, when left for long enough.”

“No myth can remain terrifying when you;ve seen it broken and beaten, rendered as toothless as an old crone.”

“But palatability is prized over accuracy. It is easier to market a nymph than a viperfish.”

“Man mistakes his own experiences as the canvas on which all truths are drawn. He is rarely correct in this respect.”

“That I want to die here, mired in the goal. That I want to race them to Death's carriage, exceeding their pace but only just, never going so far as to be unable to turn and corset their fingers in mine. That eternity is a worthless bauble without their conversation. That I would follow them into the demise of the universe where every heaven and hell is shuttered, and there is nothing of us but motings of wan light, and there is no bodily apparatus with which to express affection, no recourse save to glow weakly in worship until at last, such things are swallowed too by the dark. That I would love them even then. As long as a moiety of conscious thought persists, I will love them. I will love them to the death of days.” (damn what a sentiment!)

“How men fear things that can’t be quieted.”

“We are made of stardust. Or maybe, of primordial elements such as the ocean and the dark and the killing flame and love. Perhaps, my kind are conduits, our shape defined not by parentage but the things to which we'd yoked our beliefs. Perhaps, we are as any myths are: protean, impossible, exactly what we need to be.”

“Wordless, they unfold their arms, stretching them out to me. There is no hesitation. I plunge into their arms. And it is enough, it is more than enough.”

Content Warnings

brynnfai's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I liked the ended ending a lot and it was a very fresh book with beautiful prose though addmitedly a bit hard to follow at times. I had to read it out loud to fully understand what I was reading a lot of the time.

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roxiehrt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Im still trying to process this book, but it’s a solidly written book. You do get dropped into the world with basically no exposition so know that you’re going to have to figure out the rules of the world as you go along. The flowery language does make it a laborious read and you’ll need to give it your full attention, but it’s worth the read if you’re into a gothic horror fantasy.

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lilinn_aion's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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nickel_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

4.5

Didn't know I needed this reimagining of The Little Mermaid, but I most certainly did! At the center of a tale dripping in blood and violent rituals of making and unmaking is a love story of sorts. Khaw continues to use beautiful prose to describe horrific - and ultimately human - things.

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e_l_k's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'd seen this book on plenty of best-of horror lists, but I'll be the first to admit that the premise alone didn't thrill me.
That doubt was dashed from my mind from the first page onwards.
Khaw has a way with descriptive prose that my English teachers would have envied, coveted, before gagging at how vivid the depictions of viscera and horrible violence are. This is NOT a book for the faint of heart or stomach. But it is a spellbinding tale of rediscovery, self-acceptance, and love in the face of pure, selfish evil.

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