Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

44 reviews

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

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness

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, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, and Vomit

carrasreadsandthings's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This was an amazing book! I loved every chapter and couldn't put it down. It was so unpredictable! I highly recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

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

Moderate: Rape

sammymantis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Alcohol

anielabooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book was such a rollercoaster for me. I came in with little knowledge of horror books and only the Barbie’s version of a 12 dancing princesses under my belt. Thankfully, the horror wasn’t very intense. I was so invested in the story the entire time and was very satisfied with the ending. I also loved the romance aspect of the book as I found myself falling in love at the same time as Annaleigh. I honestly did not predict the ending, which I liked. I particularly loved the motif of the sea turtles throughout the book; it really made the last few chapters that much more heart-wrenching. I’m so glad one of my followers recommended this book to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

It took me a while to get into (it only started really picking up for me around pg 123). But once I did get into it, I really did enjoy it. 
At first it was hard to keep track of all the names because there were 12 sisters plus more characters (though four of the sisters are dead from the beginning). Although I liked having a large cast of characters, it was a bit confusing for a while. 
There were also some cliché romance moments and a bit of instalove which isn’t my favorite but didn’t ruin the whole thing.
It felt like it was trying to be a little too much all at once: a psychological thriller, horror, fairy tale retelling, fantasy, romance, family drama, mystery. I think this might be why it felt a little all over the place and rushed in some areas.
HOWEVER, I really just loved the ~vibes~ of the whole book and I did NOT expect it to get so dark and unsettling but I enjoyed that (despite it being a shock). I had also totally thought I guessed the twists but BOY was I WRONG lol. 
The description was lovely and the tension, suspense, and mystery definitely kept me intrigued.

would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Death of parent

thereaderfriend's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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

3.0

I wanted to love this book, one bc it’s a 12 dancing princesses retelling, and two bc the romance was good. Also really loved the atmosphere and spookiness. Truly a horror fantasy YA novel. 

But there were a few problems that were great enough to knock this rating from a 4 star down to 3. 

Without spoilers, this mc has little going for her. She’s rich and pretty and entitled and does care about the people she loves.. but she doesn’t do much except figure out the problems and even then she was told the problems. Seemed like she wasn’t trying to find the villain/murderer and just was exasperated from the grief ensued upon her—which I can understand but to an extent.

But the outcomes would’ve happened even if she had done nothing.

Now here for the main reasons with spoilers.

<Why did Cassius come to her and await Annaleigh? Never brought that up besides the fact that he was looking after his father. And why were the 3 sisters deaths not explained? That seems to be a stupid plot point because it didn’t even shine light on a lesson. And also, I thought the point of this was that the dancing was supposed to kill people? It hasn’t killed the first five people! Their deaths were substantial but not enough to give in my opinion. Also, I’m conflicted with Cassius bc he could’ve killed those five people but he didn’t. I think that would’ve enticed me more if it was him rather the step mom. But I knew it’d be her from that first moment she was peeved that her son wouldn’t be heir. I do like that he loved Annaleigh though and was kinda sweet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

robin_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Not at all what I expected but the gothic horror fantasy novel of my dreams. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gore, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit