Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

110 reviews

adragoninspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

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

telligraphy's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

4.0

Solid read. I loved the two main characters and their connection. I just don't think I'll think about this again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy

christmaskid's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

I’m so intrigued with Cassandra Khaw’s writing style, I absolutely need to read more. The only reason this is so low rated is because I desperately wish it was longer and more fleshed out!! Praying that they write a longer novel as their prose is absolutely beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture, and Pregnancy

gxuosi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

cannibalism as a metaphor for love, to be so devoted that you devour them whole, but seen from the eyes of the eaten. to be so desired you are torn apart piece by piece. to have nothing left as you are rended from bone and marrow into a porcelain doll, finally an empty husk that’s no longer the idol of your keeper’s eye. to be left in a world of cannibals, devourers, the eaters and eaten; and then against all odds to choose instead of destruction, that someone is worth cannibalizing yourself for; creation, sacrifice, love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Miscarriage and Excrement

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

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