Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

3 reviews

kappafrog's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

I absolutely LOVED this book. Wow.

I've always wanted to write a historical queer

selkie

story myself, so I was really intrigued to learn about this book when it came out. I liked Sutherland's approach to a historical novel. It wasn't bogged down in overly precious "old-timey" language, but drew you very directly into the world instead. The book had really good pacing too. I was a little intimidated to start such a long book, but it didn't feel long when I was reading it. I liked that the story was told entirely from Jean's perspective. She was a great character to spend time with, and I really felt for her.

The part that made me cry was when she and Jo were reunited and things became so settled and peaceful between them. I could really feel how that had been weighing on her so much, wondering if she had ruined Jo's life, and I felt relief with her when Jo turned out all right, and also when Jo said that her life wasn't Jean's sole responsibility.

I adored Muirin!  I'm a Gaelic speaker and was impressed that Sutherland got the genitive right on ròin. I would have liked to see more Gaelic in the book, but at least its presence was always there and not something that was treated as an afterthought. I also appreciated the inclusion of the Native characters. I'm not sure why Sutherland only named the Mikmaq in the acknowledgements and just used "Native" throughout the book, but I appreciated this as a more realistic spectrum of the types of people in 19th century Nova Scotia than some books would try to portray.

Of course, I absolutely loved the romance between Jean and Muirin. My heart ached for both of them, and I really felt the sense of frustration Jean had with having so few options for helping a woman in a bad situation in this place and time. The writing style of the book is not overly flowery, but I really appreciated the way Sutherland wrote her characters, making them feel very much like real people, and there were also some beautiful passages about the natural world of their surroundings. Sutherland was also very effective at creating a sense of dread with the escalating actions of the antagonist.

My only real plot qualm came late in the book:

It was a misstep to have Laurie's lover also be a selkie. It was way too much of a coincidence and made the world feel small. Really, the two queer people who are adopted family to each other both find selkie lovers?

Other than that though, I really enjoyed the plot of this book and thought it made sense how things progressed.

What a wonderful book! I highly recommend it. It totally absorbed me while I was reading it. I'm looking forward to seeing what else this author has in store!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Murder, Outing, Stalking, Death of parent, Confinement, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Biphobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide, Medical content, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Excrement, Miscarriage, Alcohol, and Colonisation

sapphic_alpaca's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Outing, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Confinement, Medical content, Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Infidelity

kaiyakaiyo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really liked this! I’ve always found selkies to be a fascinating yet disturbing concept; this book takes that concept and fleshes it out in such a romantic, compelling way.

Jean was funny, determined, stubborn, foolhardy- I love love loved her commitment to safe births and the general wellbeing of the women in her town, even if they didn’t always pay her the same respect. midwifery is possibly the most impressive set of skills in the world

Muirin was lovely. Downtrodden, but never defeated, and always looking to carve out her piece of happiness regardless of Tobias or anyone else. 

 The romance was sweet and paced just right. I definitely want to buy this in print! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Pregnancy

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Murder, Death, Rape, and Sexual assault