Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

231 reviews

nerdatlas5's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Gotta say, I was a little worried about starting this because I found Khaw's other novella, Nothing but Blackened Teeth difficult to follow to a negative degree, but this was a huge improvement. I enjoyed how she played with the way fairytale's betray the bias' of the teller and how she twists them to a much darker form. The horror of it was also well done, especially hearing some of the body horror being described made me pretty squeamish. The characters of the mermaid and plague doctor were done well, and their developing relationship with each other felt so real and full of depth. And for the most part the story did a good job balancing unveiling information to drive the plot while still giving enough to make it understandable. Overall an excellent horror novella.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Violence

vicious's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Child death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death

sarahbiegelsen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Gore

booksandfin's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

This was an interesting novella. A quick and gruesome read. I loved a lot of the elements in the story and how it fell back into original myth telling that is dark and eerie. I wish it had been a little longer so we could have gotten to know characters a bit better though. I think that there just wasn’t enough time for me to become invested in the characters.

Great for body horror fans! :-)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Cannibalism

troubleintandem's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book has some beautiful language and vivid imagery, most of it about cold snow, blood, and vivisection. A kind of strange fascinating intersection of Madeline Miller's Cersei and Phil Tippett's Mad God.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

libraryofblood's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Miscarriage, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

ichthyomancer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

Honestly felt the first half was a little hard to get into- it’s own language bogged it down in the beginning, but matured as the novel progressed into something I honestly can’t be mad about. I think the lore contained in the book despite it’s small size was amazing and genuinely made me want to see other fairytales set in the same universe, but I’m happy with this little sliver into it that we got.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

mairead_parade's review

dark 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? No

4.0

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered something for which the term “body horror” was so perfectly apt. This is a walking content warning for the squeamish, but I kind of loved it? Khaw never uses one syllable when she could use five, but in a piece this short, I didn’t find it grating, and I think the vibes come through over the vocabulary on audio. The physicality of the imagery is striking and beautiful (even when gross), and the visceral nature of the main character’s motherhood really struck a chord. 

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Content Warnings

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

Extremely graphic and detailed descriptions of violence, body parts/injuries/vivisections, including those of children

readingwithrylanne's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-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? Yes

2.0

I was very curious about The Salt Grows Heavy after seeing that it was a pseudo-reimagining of the little mermaid, but unfortunately I really struggled to get into it. While the plot was quite fascinating (and very morbid), the language was so flowery and descriptive that I had to reread sections multiple times to get the gist of what was going on, and even then, I didn't understand everything. I don't tend to have a hard time with the prose of books, but I just couldn't connect with the writing, which made it a struggle at times to get through the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cannibalism, and Murder

taffy8klaw's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore