Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

90 reviews

bookreadingelf's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Gore, and Body horror

spookysierra's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Child death, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Death of parent, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Body horror, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness

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. 

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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

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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

nofy's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Body horror, Murder, and Child death

aurumia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I went in to this book, expecting a traditional fairy tale retelling, and was glad to expect a light hearted book. 

Boy, I could not have been more off-base.

From scene one, this book was sad, then a little scary, then maddening, then frightening, before reaching the happily ever after epilogue (after a fashion).

The retelling of Twelve Dancing Princesses was absolutely expert. There were details woven in that I recalled from the original fairy tale and made my heart happy, which is why it was so incredible the author was able to work in such darkness. There are horror movie tropes which made me have to stay up to finish the book, just to make sure I wouldn't have nightmares.

Annaleigh as a main character was fantastic. I could follow her line of thinking, her emotions were mild to others, but as we didn't much time in her head, you could learn and grow with her as those emotions became increasingly important to share and show.

The happily ever after was woven in beautifully and did not even remotely feel like a deus ex machina, even if it maybe was just a little bit.</spoiler haunting>

Despite having a lot of things I didn't enjoy (just in mood), it was expertly written and I really did like it in spite of myself, and it will definitely be a book I remember. I look forward to more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Alcoholism, and Gore

ahaugen23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

It is dark - I mean you can probably tell from “sorrows” in the title that it will be sad, but it also gets kinda gross and def needs a TW for sexual assault. The world is great, and the mystery is well crafted.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Grief, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape

callmesword's review against another edition

dark 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? No

3.5

House of Salt and Sorrows started strong, and then it went downhill to the point the ending and explanation fell flat and felt bland. Specially the explanations for the sisters' deaths.

The eerie, twisted atmosphere presented at certain moments (for example, with annaleigh's and verity's visions) was immaculate. The characterization of each sister and how easy it was to differentiate them from each other (even the ones who were already dead) as well.

Unfortunately, the romance, I did not even know the book would include, was extremely rushed and unnecessary. Did not apport anything to the story. Personally, I would have liked more of a consequence to annaleigh, and by that I mean I was rooting for her to die (sorry!).

To sum up, it felt all the darkness was diluted. I had different hopes, I suppose.

In an additional final note, why are all fantasy books terribly straight? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Stalking and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

readingwithjo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Miscarriage and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity

eve_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

⁕ The dark fantasy elements of this novel were top notch and surprisingly intense for a YA novel. Craig does not shy away from the more sickening details of death, rot, and ghosts, even though the main characters through which we experience these things are literal children.

⁕ The slow burn romance honestly made me feel stupid giddy. I read this book months ago and I still remember the toe-tingling delight I felt when *the kiss* FINALLY happened. 

⁕  I didn't very much care for the characters as individuals (I felt that they were one-dimensional and stereotypical), but I loved their relationships and arguments as siblings. The jealousy and love between them were very well-written.

⁕ SPOILER: Portions of the plot felt haphazardly thrown together. We spend the entirety of the book trying to solve which friend or family member killed Annaleigh's sisters, only to find that it was largely the work of an evil demon that we didn't even know existed until the last few chapters? Also, the main love interest has magical powers and is related to royalty but doesn't use these attributes to help solve the mystery? Okay....

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Gore, Suicide, Pregnancy, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent