Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

84 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

While being leagues above the other book I've read by Cassandra Khaw, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, it is still a mixed bag. 

It has some gruesome moments of gore and cruelty that earn it the label of horror. Nothing made me laugh or roll my eyes like the previous novella I read. And yet, I finished it not having the faintest idea what on earth a "mermaid" was in this universe. Perhaps it would have been better less as a standalone and more as a novella in a story collection taking place in the same universe?

The romance also took me by surprise in a bad way, considering how much I winced listening to one half of the couple muse about the other's gender.

The things I liked and the things I didn't balance the scales of my opinion. This will almost certainly be the last thing I read by this author.

Also, really didn't like the audiobook. It was the first time I've gotten completely lost and confused about who was speaking, which didn't help my experience.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Transphobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

queenkath32's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Medical content, Gore, Body horror, Blood, and Death

jessereadsthings's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Super interesting, but wish it was a bit longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Gore, Medical trauma, Torture, Body horror, Child abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape

lady_bountiful's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Child death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Violence

stardustdreamer's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Torture, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Child death

rheagoveas's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Medical trauma

gondorgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Murder, Torture, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Grief, Misogyny, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

wintertrees's review against another edition

4.75

A phenomenal novella. The prose is artful and clear, with a spectacular use of metaphors. The main characters are interesting and well-drawn; the mermaid's POV lends itself to a unique view of the events and facilitates many of the previously mentioned metaphors, and the plague doctor contrasts them in all the right ways and compliments them just as well. Foreshadowing in the plot is well-handled, the events building on each other in subtle ways. The themes in the book are handled in interesting and unique ways. The setting, though sparse in details, never feels underdeveloped, and is very intriguing. And of course, the gore is visceral and well-described. 

The only comment I might call a complaint is that I personally felt like certain aspects of the ending didn't quite land for me.

Personally, I felt like a more poetic ending for the plague doctor would've been to die and stay dead. I did not feel like their resurrection received the necessary thematic back-up. However, I acknowledge that this is likely a result of differing priorities of me and the author; the love story was clearly very important to the author, but this is a story element I always have throuble getting invested in, and this book was no exception. I felt like the heart of the story were its themes of consumation, and (im)mortality; I think I would've been more on board with the ending if I'd considered the love story the heart instead. I am happy the plague doctor survived and had a happy ending; the reuniting of lovers, sticking together no matter how terrible the circumstance, with one building the other a new body like their torturers did so many times, only subverting it by creating every aspect with deep respdct for their love's agency, absolutely is poetic in its own way. However, to me, I feel like the continuation of the cycle of horror, with the mermaid becoming the surgeons, was far more obviously set-up than the subversion. I expect others will disagree, though, and that's fine.

Other than that, a near perfect novella.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

emthemermaid's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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 already love the author's writing, and this book had everything I love in it--horror, romance, monstrous mermaids--so I was very excited to read this. It's dark, delicious, and poetic. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Torture, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism

emimli's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

2.0

I wanted to love this, but ultimately it fell flat for me.

My biggest gripe with this book is that the ending seemed very rushed and didn’t fit with the overall atmosphere of the story. It also felt very unearned. I’m not a fan of deus-ex-machina style endings where the central conflict is solved using a completely new, previously unmentioned plot/world/character element, which is unfortunately exactly what happens here. 

Additionally, from a technical standpoint, Khaw’s writing style is  pretty unbearable. Her prose reads like she just discovered the synonym tool in Microsoft Word. It’s overwrought to the point of being nonsensical at times.

The love story at the centre of this book was my favourite part, but even that needed to be built up much more.

The two MCs go from being vaguely horny for each other to expressing their undying love within mere hours. Nevermind that, as far as the reader knows, the MCs barely ever interacted prior to the events of the story, and now they’re too busy fighting for their lives against immortal sadists to have any real meaningful conversations. Am I supposed to believe these people are desperately in love when they barely even know each other? We needed a slower burn.

Overall, there are some  cool ideas in here, but the execution was sorely lacking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Torture