Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Summer of Salt

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

55 reviews

grace_ocb's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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✨ Practical Magic vibes
✨ murder mystery that wasn't much of a mystery at all
✨ infuriating sister dynamics

+ Mary grated on my nerves. She's pushy, obnoxious, rude, and she belittles almost everything Georgina says or does. Reminds me a lot of my older sister back when she bullied me the exact same fucking way. I think she got on my nerves a lot for this reason.

Obviously I'm sympathetic towards her as the story goes on. But the beginning? She made it insufferable. At one point Georgina says that Mary makes her feel like she's home. Babe?? What?? At this point she's never been kind or compassionate towards you and has dismissed everything you've said and done. Is that home to you?

+ The murder mystery wasn't a mystery. Literally right from the beginning I knew who it was, and it made the rest of the book's pacing slow and stilted. At one point the characters are given the answer and yet still debate about it two pages later which was so frustrating.

+ The writing style is nice and the small town vibes are cool. Also I didn't hate Georgina or her romance with Prue, though it's a minor subplot. Also love the strong bond between Georgie and her mom!

+ I read this book because it was on a "asexual books" list and it features one aroace side character who barely shows up or has a role in the book. That'll be the third book this month that was listed as an "asexual book" and then had a super minor character as asexual. I hate it here. Why am I just digging for scraps??

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mnerd63's review

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Good but confusing and made me sad.

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maddisonsimmons's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

okay. the plot was interesting and i liked the characters. it seemed a bit fairy tale ish and i wasn’t always in love with the writing, but i liked the book

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nicolaaa's review

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cutlet's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

An enjoyable read about a world very similar but not quite identical to our world. A little predictable but not bad. Fantastic description of friendship and how strong that love can be. Cute budding romantic relationships but even cuter that they're not the main focus for most of the book.

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mayabromby's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

loinereads's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

At first, Katrina Leno’s novel seemed to be a joyful read, and while reading the first pages of it, sentences such as « On the island of By-the-Sea, you could only smell two things: salt and magic. » Made me expect for a warm, comforting and sunny mood.

As we ease into Summer of Salt, we make acquaintances with the Fernweh twins: Mary and Georgina, the latter being the narrator of the novel.

As their birthday approaches, they know they will have to find out their true powers and be ready for it to thrive. Simultaneously, they need to prepare for the birdheads to arrive for the Annabella season is on its way, and their mother Penelope Fernweh will be the host of many ornithologists coming from all over the world to see the famous bird of By-the-Sea.

The more the story unravels itself, the more we discover that this novel is in fact a beautifully-written palimpsest of Edgar Poe’s poem « Annabel Lee. »

In Katrina Leno’s Summer of Salt can be retrieved the gloomy and gothic style of Poe’s writings as well as the mysterious atmosphere and the magic that reigns upon the world and its inhabitants.

Thus, progressively, the plot of Summer of Salt becomes darker and we, as readers, find ourselves trapped in a curl of suspense, emotions, and wonders.

Since saying more about the unraveling of the novel’s plot would end up in spoilers, all I can say to increase your interest in this book that I adored is that if you love reading about magic, powerful yet emotion-driven women, the discovery of the self, then this novel will match your expectations.

Eventually, I ended up recommending Summer of Salt to the friend who recommended it to me for I believe this is a book that all women should read.

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