Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - House of Salt and Sorrows

It’s a solid horror retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. There was a lot going on, and a lot to keep track of, but it did its job well enough. It really picked up around the halfway point with

the death of Edgar.

That was exactly what I needed to get me hooked back into the plot, and from that point forward, it was really well paced.

I was able to guess a couple of the twists as information was revealed (though I never got anything exactly correct), and the romance seemed unnecessary, but overall a fun time.

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chezler24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

This book opens with a funeral and hints at ghosts setting me up for a book similar to gothic horror novels like Haunting of Hill House. I was ready to find myself lost in a new fantasy realm exploring the customs of the people of the Salt veiled with this overarching aspect of doom and gloom. The writing kind of lost me for a bit as it seemed to abandon the gothic horror elements in favor of random fantasy and love triangle plot lines. These aspects later came back around as the source of these elements was revealed but I did have to push through certain chapters to get to the big reveal. Ultimately, I feel like it would fall into the category of fantasy/gothic romance rather than gothic horror. The ending was enjoyable enough; however, the overarching plotlines were a bit weak at points and left me wanting certain aspects to be explored a bit more.

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sinaprst's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

THE VIBESSSSS.....I CAN'T

also the birth scene was so disturbing, i nearly threw up

recommended reading ambience: https://youtu.be/LJqVftwOIDc?si=bUpnVHgr70JxgERQ

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alyvia_jeane's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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antimony's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

in this retelling of the twelve dancing princesses, annaleigh is the sixth daughter of twelve. four of her older sisters have died, one after another, and rumors abound about her family being cursed. annaleigh becomes increasingly sure eulalie, the most recent of her sisters to die, was murdered, and she also becomes increasingly plagued by maddening visions. as she and her sisters sneak out to dance the night away, annaleigh begins to wonder if there is something more sinister hidden behind these balls...

ok first of all to start off the setting of this was IDEAL. spooky windswept, salt-encrusted, waterlogged islands above cliffs and a sea that is not really actually evil at all but it is the sea so it must be and i mean that in the most positive way. AND theres a lighthouse. five stars for the world i would love to live in it. and the ENDING was absolutely insane. oh my god. i finished this right before bed last night and then i just had to turn off the light and stare at the wall and go to sleep without any time to process .... there was so much there. maybe this afternoon i will have to go back and reread the last couple of chapters. because they were so insane.

THAT BEING SAID i did have a couple issues. the romance was so very ya but to be fair this is a ya book. so what do you expect. also annaleigh had better chemistry with fisher SORRY. i don't care that

he was not actually fisher because fisher was dead

i am glad that at least the romance didn't overpower the main story it was just a little annoying. kinda instalove and the reveal about cassius's mom's identity was. i dont know it felt like nonsense. and i still don't understand how

he came back at the end. like i know it was his wish and annaleighs wish but wasn't he dead? or did he only half die because he's half god? ugh i don't know.

i also wish i'd gotten a little more explanation on

what was real after all -- like did the other sisters also think they were dancing? did the confrontation when annaleigh got back from the lighthouse happen at all? etc etc.

ALSO it kind of felt like some of the 12 dancing princesses elements were thrown in just to keep it a retelling like the balls didn't show up for a while and

was the contest for suitors even real?

that also being said i loved that annaleigh's dream was to be a lighthouse keeper and that

her happy ending was getting to work at the lighthouse after all :)

im a lighthouse fan !!!

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spookysierra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy Sh*t. Holy Sh*t. Holy Sh*t.

Look. I don't typically write reviews unless a book is amazing or truly terrible.

This book is fantastic.

Going in, I knew it was going to be a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses, but I wasn't sure how closely it was going to follow the fairytale. I also didn't realize this book was going to be a spooky murder mystery. Because I went into this not realizing the full scope of the book's premise, the beginning was kind of slow for me; HOWEVER, as soon as I started to realize there was more to this than just a group of girls wandering off into the forest to dance the night away, with dashing young men I. WAS. IN.

My assessment of the book went from a 3 to a 4 immediately and before I was 75% through the book, I could just feel that I was going to rate this 5 stars

This book had me mistrusting EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. I would go back and forth on some, I would second guess everything everyone was saying. This book is masterful.

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chloenrogers's review against another edition

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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.

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