Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

126 reviews

lilmswolfe's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

The use of words not often used in everyday life was overwhelming. It’s fine if there a word here and there, I can usually decipher what it means by the surrounding text but dang 2-3 words every sentence or so? Sheesh. 

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Content Warnings

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

vampirequeen's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death and Excrement

chainsawheartbooks's review

dark emotional sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

A hauntingly beautiful love story about life, death and the destruction of what we hold dear.
This book gets very dark and gory in places, but it’s not without the warmth that comes with a true romance, one that keeps your heart light amongst the grim setting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Body horror, and Blood

nubiani's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Child death, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: War

clynns's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Pregnancy, Rape, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Vomit, Confinement, Death, and Torture

queerreaderchaos's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Cannibalism

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

No, we are not very different at all, even if one is fashioned with thread and dried sinew, the other cleaved and then conjugated by magic.

A siren and a plague doctor travel the land together, walking away from destruction and right into something sinister in the middle of the woods. This is a strange book to summarize or even describe. It felt more like an event or a landscape. I think you'll either like this or absolutely despise it, no inbetween.

Beautiful yet challenging prose. At times I felt like I was wading through a swamp whenever the author threw these complex and uncommon words (not helped by the fact that English is my second language). Very vibes but with a lot of thoughts. I would highly recommend checking trigger warnings for this one, you'll find everything from cannibalism to child death to graphic gore. Ultimately I liked it but I felt cheated by the length, like a meal missing its main ingredient.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pregnancy

chrysanthxmum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy, Torture, and Miscarriage

bangiebangs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

4.5*

I read this not even knowing what genre this was going to be, and I can recommend doing that. Pick it up now, come read the reviews later and see what you think. It's definitely worth it. 

This story is dark and uncomfortable, relentlessly tricking you into thinking what will happen next and then leading you somewhere else entirely. Extremely interesting, couldn't put it down, and even if I don't usually read... horror? Is it horror? ... I really enjoyed this one. 

Beautiful language, excellent levels of horror, definitely recommended. I'm only not giving it a full 5* because I'm not sure whether I'd reread it... but maybe? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Gore, Cannibalism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Death, Child death, Physical abuse, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Religious bigotry

natka_manatee's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

It’s not even the word themselves that are hard to understand, it’s the combination of them and the fact that after you recall the definition, they still don’t actually mean anything. What even happened here? What are “snow fountains” (pg14)? This is like an insufferable teenager discovering the thesaurus. Never again.

Also, this is not even remotely a fairytale. The only thing in common is that she (whoever she is bc she doesn’t have a pronounceable name) is technically a mermaid like “The Little Mermaid”. Although, she also walks on land the whole time and turns into fire at one point so who really knows.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Miscarriage, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, Death, Cannibalism, and Gore

Minor: Vomit

It just sucked dude idk what to tell you