Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

House of Salt And Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

18 reviews

druzyquartz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Pregnancy, Body horror, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Vomit, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Child death, and Infidelity

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What an amazing read. Genuinely, amazing.

The way it tackled themes of madness and grief were striking and left me confused in the way one should be when reading from the perspective of someone that’s trapped between illusions and reality. The conclusion actually remedied a lot of the issues I had with the earlier parts of the story. On top of that excellent execution, the characters and world felt very striking and realistic. Sibling dynamics and how they all reacted to things rarely caught me off guard in the sense of being unrealistic. Each character felt very real and alive. Seeing how they interacted with their world and its beliefs was also very interesting. On top of the world building itself being fascinating.

Really my only issue was the ending as it made me so mad I dropped it from 5 stars. (And this only applies the to epilogue/seven months later portion.)

Overall it was an amazing book and retellings that still capture the original while being so distinct and unique are a favourite of mine. It is, however, an extremely dark book and I highly recommend looking at content/trigger warnings before reading it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Death, Body horror, Miscarriage, Gore, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Stalking

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse

girrllie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Very good read but be prepared for child death. I didn’t realize this is a horror book for awhile, usually not something I like to read. But it’s horror light, an interesting story, and good writing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, and Body horror

winterhartarts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mental illness, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Dementia, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Sexism

emboldend's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

lizzie_beth98's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Gore, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Medical content

isabella_sans_merci's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

This book wavered wildly back and forth between very well written and just stupid. I think the author’s characters are quite weak, which contributed to most of the faults, but when plot and worldbuilding are the focus, it is quite strong. I think this story would work great as a videogame tbh, bc that would allow you to skirt around the fact that sometimes the characters are just intolerably stupid

All in all however, I am forced to conclude that I liked it. Also hats off to the audiobook narrator. She did a great job acting

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gore, Child death, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Domestic abuse

chloenrogers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Gothic horrors crusted in sea salt. Like a scary Little Women set against the dark ocean. Rich, evocative language kept me enthralled through every mysterious twist and lingering kiss. I even lost some sleep, unable to shake the ghostly visions from my mind. While the main character feels somewhat flat and inactive, the story is tumultuous enough to keep things engaging. I shed genuine tears throughout so many points of this mystery. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Animal death

tays_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Miscarriage

Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Rape, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

roseofphantom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This was so. deliciously. messed. up!!!  I finished this in less than 24 hours, I couldn't stop!   It was so creepy, eerie, disturbing but it was also exciting! There were so many twists I didn't see coming and when I thought I figured it out, it turned out I was wrong!  It really kept me guessing, I cannot WAIT for the sequel.  I definitely would consider this something akin to a fantastical version of Haunting of Hill House, it was amazing!!!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

The contents of this book is a ghost story, and an extremely dark one at that. Please keep this in mind when reading this book. Lots of discussions about death and the ways people can die. Lots of disturbing imagery too.