Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

226 reviews

papayat's review against another edition

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

3.75

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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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kstrammel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

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pacifickat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
What did I just read?? Also, it was wonderful.

"I recall once, there was an astronomer in my husband's court, who extolled the poetry of the universe, how numinous we were despite the mucus and the blood we shed. 'Stardust,' he'd said, inebriated with his own doctrine. 'We are made of stardust.' Or maybe of primordial elements, such as the ocean, and the dark, and the killing flame, and love."

For one, this is a story about stories.

The narrative takes the shape of a dark mashup of
The Little Mermaid, Frankenstein, and Lord of the Flies, with a sprinkling of biblical types and symbols
. It took me a minute to get my bearings at the beginning. (Wow, this is gorgeous poetic writing. Huh, that's weird. It sounds like her children are
casually snacking on a human corpse
. Oh no wait, they are. Yikes. What is this story?)

It is also a commentary on how the stories humans tell themselves shape their beliefs and behaviors, sometimes leading to their own suffering and ruin, even as those same stories are defended as sacrosanct. Sometimes horrors in this upside-down world mask themselves in holiness. The true enemies, the charlatans wielding power, want people to believe that evil is found elsewhere, and to fear the outsider rather than questioning the darkness in their own midst, in their own systems of belief.

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

"There is a reason The Hunt is central to so many narratives. For all that humanity professes to delighting in its own sophistication, it longs for simplicity, for when the world can be deboned into binaries. Darkness and light. Death and life. Hunter and hunted."

This is also most definitely a horror story.

While the prose is a mesmerizing, undulating, hauntingly beautiful (unless big words bother you) thing, the plot beneath is feral and eviscerating.
People get eaten, tongues cut out, empires burn, characters are vivisected, entrails are spilled.
There is no lack of truly grotesque detail. This is an apocalyptically dark canvas on which to paint a fairy tale.

This is also a haunting love story.

"I wonder sometimes if this consciousness is the same, if I am the same. Or, if I am a mere fabrication strung together by circumstances."
"There is nothing wrong with being a monster."
"You always know the right things to say."

The story reminds me more than a bit of This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: the sumptuous use of language, the poetic cadence of the narrative, the distinct natures and voices of the main characters, and
their uncanny romance which slowly springs from time spent wandering a dangerous world together, sharing pieces of themselves along the way. Their love, once realized, crescendos into an unrelenting force in a dark and dangerous world, defying death, time, and logic.
 

"[...] Eternity is a worthless bauble without their conversation. [...] I will love them to the death of days."
 

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the telling of this tale. As one Barnes & Noble reviewer put it, "For someone who simply loves words, this novella was practically a playground [...]."

However, the weirdness of the plot and sheer quantity of strange vocabulary and odd phrasing employed throughout made me wonder if the author may have been aided by AI in their writing process. I saw online that she has utilized AI in the past for visual character studies, but it made me wonder if she also used it to create this written work. It is a weird world we live in where this might even be a question a reader would think to ask -- but there it is, sitting in the back of my mind even as I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

In the absence of further evidence, I am going to give the author the benefit of the doubt and offer up 5 stars. This kind of story is totally my jam.

 
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rachjellie's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

5.0

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jlchabotte's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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thesupermassive's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

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cozyscones's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

4.0

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ashley_elizabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.0

A really interesting twist on the mermaid myth. Super gory & atmospheric, with just enough purple prose to really build the fairy tale-like quality. I was left wanting more, which I think is always a good sign! The only part of the story I think genuinely needs a bit more explanation is the connection between our two main characters.
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