Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

174 reviews

ladynocturnal's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

A mermaid and plague doctor go on a gore filled quest. I wasn't all that invested in the characters or story, but the mermaid lore was interesting. The writing made this novella slightly amusing. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy

samkive's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

i really liked it, i loved the characters, i loved the pace. a lot of the reviews on goodreads complained about the language used being too difficult to understand but i simply searched up what words i couldn't figure out and used context clues for the rest so 😭😭

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Content Warnings

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

nightlight_reader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

4.5

I’m not a body horror person, or at least I need to be really specific about my body horror triggers, but this was excellent throughout and I think some of the clinical voice of our mermaid narrator helped to mitigate a lot of that for me.

I think the acknowledgements sums up this book well:
“This book of mine about people who won’t give up on each other, who stay even when the world crumbles to ash, who hold on even when there’s nothing but hope.”

It’s a good one. It’s full of love and hope even when it doesn’t seem like it. It’s incredible and dark and fucked up. But it’s a good one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse

marrowandmoss's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What a joy of a read! This was such a beautiful book, some of the loveliest writing I've come across in a long while. The characters are tragic, their love a queer island amidst two distinct histories wrought with pain, abuse, the torture of birth and death and love; a rose amongst the bramble of the world. 

It is extremely gory, but it never inspires revolt. Instead it's a beautiful juxtaposition of the flowery language of the text with the ugliness of what is being described. The violence is ethereal in a way only befitting the fairy tales which birthed this story. 

Truly, I cannot recommend it enough. My favorite description in the book:
"I look to the tree line where the pines stand like a tribunal in judgement. Sunlight breaks itself upon their branches, and the world beneath them is stark, no color at all, a chiaroscuro of midnight and salt."

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Kidnapping

gossamer_lens's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I just... so good. I loved it. The ending wasn't how I would have wanted it ended... but reflecting on it, it was perfectly satisfying, well-written and enjoyable. It was very Neil Gaiman esq in the way the plot progressed and the whole vibe was a fun dark and mysterious thing. I went into it expecting more horror/thriller which it wasn't. But I kinda loved it for that. It feels like something that will sit in my brain for longer due to what it actually is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

snickells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

jkoradio's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

zachari's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

baroque yet spare, clinical in its violence, the desperate brutality of Khaw's prose leaves me thirsty for more without feeling unfinished; on the contrary, I'm left feeling charmed by that special combination of  self-completion and open-endedness which keeps one up late mulling over the details of ghost stories long after the campfire's ashes have gone cold. in four brief chapters Khaw sketches just enough of a queer, cruel fairytale landscape for the reader to intuit horizons beyond its horizons and depths beyond the depths, only to send the whole thing up in an ambiguous inferno which leaves me blinking hard at the afterglow and struggling to make out just what it is I've read. fans of the  mytho-banal-horrific trifecta in Ken Liu's "Good Hunting" and Madeline Miller's Circe will notice resonances, amplifications and elaborations on certain themes and motifes. I look forward to watching where the literary subfield and Khaw herself go next in the wake of The Salt Grows Heavy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

thenoboshow's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

brig_berthold's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Deeply insightful examination of the human experience. The prose was beautiful, tedious, at times, and wholly purple. The story itself was fascinating and gory and will rain memorable to the (likely) cult audience it attracts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail