Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

126 reviews

knitting_sword's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gore, and Body horror

percival_wise's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Blood, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

mar's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.5

literally had to come back and up my rating after a couple of days bc i cant stop thinking about this book. i want what they have

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Medical content, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death and Miscarriage

ceruleanseas's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.75

This is a stunning fantasy horror novella. Khaw reimagines a version of The Little Mermaid where the prince wasn't so sweet and spins a tale, not about revenge, but about the aftermath. The mermaid (for lack of a better description or a name) leaves her husband's kingdom in ruins, accompanied by a plague doctor who is more than they seem. I adored the elegant and imaginative prose, and appreciated the complex motivation of characters who are unapologetic about their natures. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Grief, Self harm, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Confinement, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Rape

archiebb's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

Definitely a gorier book than I usually read. I liked the fairy tale feel of this read. I saw someone critique the use of the big words and academic kind of sound which could definitely be a turn off to be aware of. I didn't mind it and it kind of fit the fairy tale feel for me. 

My biggest grievance with this book involves a spoiler.

This felt like watching Superman vs Some Other Superhero (or really a common thing in Marvel movies) where everyone is seemingly invincible and there's no sense of what someone can't recover from. 
E.g., her being completely taken apart on the doc table but she is able to eat him entirely and then he still comes back and captures her and then she burns them all to ash. But then she can still salvage the bezoar that makes her plague doctor come back 400 years later. Like at that point I really didn't care.

Wouldn't re-read tbh!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Torture

emzhay's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

This is a captivating and wonderfully grotesque fairytale, but the vocabulary distracts from the atmosphere and emotional beats. So many times I was pulled out of a scene because I had to look up a word that was used. I understand what the author was going for, but sometimes it seemed like they wanted to pick the most obscure synonym from a thesaurus. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gore, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, and Death

Minor: Miscarriage

imreallyjk's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

The prose was beautifully written despite the very gruesome subject. Not for the faint of heart but perhaps for those who need to break away from humanity for a short time…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Blood, Child death, Kidnapping, Gore, Torture, Physical abuse, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Body horror, and Cannibalism

brendan_clay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, and Blood

gloom_lord's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Khaw's The Salt Grows Heavy is itself a bezoar, a taut antidote, a charm against the deafening silence of our thrownness into the world. It reminds us that love can be transcendent, that it may very well be all we have to cling to at life's terminus. It is a beautiful book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Blood, and Misogyny

lady_dariya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

Holy body horror batman, check the warnings before embarking!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Medical content, Body horror, Child death, Blood, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder