Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

410 reviews

sussaann's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

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

5.0

I've never loved a book as much as I love this book. It's remarkable and heartbreaking, every time I re-read it I find a new line that makes it hurt better, this time it was "Better I be reduced to miscreant daydreams of the ocean than be alive without them." Khaw has a unique talent for making body horror beautiful and disgusting. Am I throwing up because it's so graphic or because I'm crying so hard? The world may never know...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

cottagequeer's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

trante89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

Interesting, dark, take on a fairy tale. Combining aspects or characters from the little mermaid and Frankenstein into a horror novella. The vocabulary was a bit distracting and can cause the reader to have to pause and look up the words very often with a few pages. It's a only a hundred or so pages but still took roughly a week to finish.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

tsedorable's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

Spectacular give me 14 of them right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gore

reaisin's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, and Murder

ashlynncj7's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

acogna's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

3.0

Would have probably been a better read if the author didn't use a thesaurus every four words to describe something. The floral prose is lovely at times, but aggressively clunky in more obvious spots, which happened more than I would have liked.

The plague doctor is hot, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

pancre_ass's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

• I liked the contrast between the known mermaid tale and what actually happened
• The writing style is quite pretty and grotesque
• Not a native English speaker but I don’t mind looking up words every page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Pregnancy

lalazee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

3.5

Stunningly written, pure gothic art. I reached the upper limit of my body horror preferences, though, which is why I didn’t give a four star. Other people won’t mind at all. The story was devastatingly fascinating, the characters darkly creative, and all around I am WOWed by the effectiveness of such a short novella. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Torture

marcusistired's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, and Cannibalism