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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.
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.
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 youejoverly's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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
It takes you around half the book to wade through the nonsense sentences to figure out what this book is even about and then you spend the rest of the time second guessing yourself. It’s like she wrote the whole thing with predictive text. There was an overwhelming amount of adjectives that had you forgetting the beginning of the sentence by the time you made it to the end of the sentence. Most of the sentences didn’t mean anything at all and once cobbled together with the other sentences it STILL meant nothing.
Please do not read this book thinking it is a fairy tale. The description is very misleading. This was a gory waste of time. The only reason I finished it was because it was so short I thought surely it would get better. It DID NOT. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything worse.
Please do not read this book thinking it is a fairy tale. The description is very misleading. This was a gory waste of time. The only reason I finished it was because it was so short I thought surely it would get better. It DID NOT. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything worse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Infertility, Gore, and Kidnapping
raven_nivhaar's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
The Little Mermaid meets Frankenstein. I quite enjoyed it. The language was absolutely stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Torture
Minor: Child death and Animal death
hoganbreathesinink's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Definitely not for the faint of heart, but I absolutely loved it. Very dark and grisly–I was so intrigued by the glimpses we get of the world the characters inhabit.
I would definitely read a lengthier book with the mermaid and the plague doctor's backstories!
I would definitely read a lengthier book with the mermaid and the plague doctor's backstories!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Death
elle_e_d_light's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
I found this very challenging as a read. The vocabulary used sometimes feels very thesaurus-y. I have a pretty decent vocab level, but I still had to look up a lot of words which interfered with immersion. I also just had several moments were I was confused about what was actually happening. They're all creatures, but I had a very hard time picturing what they looked like or how they seemingly evolved throughout the book.
Also, this book is incredibly gory and because so much of the gore directly deals with the evolution of the beings in the story—which I already was struggling with—I would read some sections several times over and still struggled with figuring out how the gory bits worked in relation to the monsters involved.
I don't know. I was just very confused by the end.
Also, this book is incredibly gory and because so much of the gore directly deals with the evolution of the beings in the story—which I already was struggling with—I would read some sections several times over and still struggled with figuring out how the gory bits worked in relation to the monsters involved.
I don't know. I was just very confused by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Violence
There's a lot of consuming of people, but none of them are human really, so I don't know if it actually counts as cannibalism. Basically, there's several different monstrous creatures and a lot of gore and body horror.yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.0
If you're looking for a thoroughly macabre reimagining of The Little Mermaid and don't mind (or enjoy!) significant on-page body horror, this is an excellent novella. The story was imaginative and dark and calls back to the much grittier origins of our favorite fairytales. The writing is evocative and flowery (even in describing the rituals of a cannibalistic cult), and the epilogue was actually... sweet? That said, I almost set this aside at 20%, after realizing just how substantial the body horror elements were (I wasn't sure if I could manage another 60 pages). Ultimately, I pushed through because I appreciated the story arc and the thematic goal, and because I do like to read outside my typical genres occasionally. Recommended to horror readers who enjoy dark fairytale retellings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death
lumie's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
No 124 pages have ever felt this long. It was a droning, overtly descriptive, pretentious fever dream of repugnant, disgusting gore. I was vaguely nauseous reading through this, and I'm no stranger to horror. But this just felt gory for gore's sake.
Heed the trigger warnings, there's long detailed descriptions of mutilations, and vaguely human things eating children and other vaguely human things, to excruciating vomit-inducing detail.
The only part I enjoy was right by the end. We are sold this book as a dark retelling of the little mermaid, and that is what the final chapter was. And it's short, impactful and tragic in the best way. It also contains a far less excessively descriptive writing style. It almost seemed disconnected, like it was written by someone else. If anything, it would have made more sense to start the book with this chapter, to grip you with its impact.
Instead I was sort of both bored and disgusted throughout the first 110 pages, wondering if all the carnage was leading to something. And it was, but to a romance that to me felt flat, as the characters didn't have much chemistry between them.
Instead I was sort of both bored and disgusted throughout the first 110 pages, wondering if all the carnage was leading to something. And it was, but to a romance that to me felt flat, as the characters didn't have much chemistry between them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Cannibalism, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
killerqueen45's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Medical content, Body horror, and Pregnancy
ruhlen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
3.5
The most beautifully written gory fairy-tale romance story I've ever listened to.
I'm kind of glad it was so short.
I must admit that I chose to listen to this novella based purely on the cover art and the title. The Salt Grows Heavy is an awesome, intriguing title and the cover art is striking and mysterious. Cassandra Khaw is an interesting writer - I'm still not sure if she is for me. I've read Food of the Gods, so I'm not unfamiliar with Khaw's viscerally graphic style. It did make me uncomfortable listening to it in this book, though.
The Salt Grows Heavy is a first-person retelling of the mermaid myth. It also includes a Frankenstein-esque tale of man trying to achieve immortality and what reminded me of Lord of the Flies group of children worshiping the trio of immortal "Saints." If you're looking for a deep, dark fairy tale, this is about as deep and as dark as you can get.
Susan Dalian performs the narration of the audiobook beautifully. I would compare this audiobook to Circe or Piranesi for the overall tone it evokes. The prose is poetic and delicate and gorgeous, in stark contrast to what it is describing. Much like my warning for Food of the Gods, do not read or listen to this story during any type of meal.
Overall, I think I would give this more like a 3.5. Did the story and writing make me uncomfortable? Yes. Was it memorable? Yes. Did it add something new to the fairy tale fantasy space? Yes. Was it my kind of story? Undecided. Since it is so short, if you are curious about Cassandra Khaw as an author and what she brings to the genre, I would definitely give this one a try. And I highly recommend the audiobook.
I'm kind of glad it was so short.
I must admit that I chose to listen to this novella based purely on the cover art and the title. The Salt Grows Heavy is an awesome, intriguing title and the cover art is striking and mysterious. Cassandra Khaw is an interesting writer - I'm still not sure if she is for me. I've read Food of the Gods, so I'm not unfamiliar with Khaw's viscerally graphic style. It did make me uncomfortable listening to it in this book, though.
The Salt Grows Heavy is a first-person retelling of the mermaid myth. It also includes a Frankenstein-esque tale of man trying to achieve immortality and what reminded me of Lord of the Flies group of children worshiping the trio of immortal "Saints." If you're looking for a deep, dark fairy tale, this is about as deep and as dark as you can get.
Susan Dalian performs the narration of the audiobook beautifully. I would compare this audiobook to Circe or Piranesi for the overall tone it evokes. The prose is poetic and delicate and gorgeous, in stark contrast to what it is describing. Much like my warning for Food of the Gods, do not read or listen to this story during any type of meal.
Overall, I think I would give this more like a 3.5. Did the story and writing make me uncomfortable? Yes. Was it memorable? Yes. Did it add something new to the fairy tale fantasy space? Yes. Was it my kind of story? Undecided. Since it is so short, if you are curious about Cassandra Khaw as an author and what she brings to the genre, I would definitely give this one a try. And I highly recommend the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Genocide
moonytoast's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Murder, Blood, Death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death