Reviews with content warning for Child death - House of Salt And Sorrows

This is a Dark retelling and you should check TW/CW info
This book genuinely surprised me. I thought ‘its a YA fairytale retelling I know how this goes. Theres the gorgeous mysterious dark haired love interest who’s gonna turn out to be the twist villain.’ I dont think its a spoiler to say i was Wrong in assuming the twist, because I genuinely didn’t know who the villain was until the protagonist did.

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buzby72's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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nightmarebees's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this was a lot darker than i was expecting and i’m into it! if mike flanagan ever did a fairytale retelling, it would probably look similar to this.

i was actually more invested in the mystery and the gothic atmosphere than the romance. while cassius and annaleigh were cute and their scenes provided a respite from the tension around them, they did fall in love very fast and there wasn’t a lot to cassius as a character other than being the main love interest. that said, i’ve read way worse YA romances.

the horror/gothic elements were pretty well executed, and several of the visions were genuinely unsettling. i was especially uncomfortable having one of the hallucinations topped off by accidentally walking in on your dad boning your stepmom, which is its own kind of horrific. the main mystery was well written, and though the reveal of the perpetrator was kind of predictable, it felt balanced by the fact that both she and the person she was trying to hurt were complex and not entirely “bad” people. still glad she died in the end. for justice.

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