Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

56 reviews

cecetomas's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-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? No

5.0

This novella is fantastic. It's queer gore done perfectly. The language and imagery in this book are just haunting in the most incredible, addictive way. I'm not always a huge fan of retellings but this one was done so well that I almost forgot that it was. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Pregnancy

mattyb's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Physical abuse, Torture, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

le_lobey's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

A beautiful nightmare. I found Khaw’s word choice a lot less distracting in this than in Nothing But Blackened Teeth. The rich descriptions built towards the Mermaid’s character and the overall project of juxtaposing the brutality of the story and beauty of the language.

I don’t think I’ve encountered this many new words in a while!

Bathyal --  a scientific term for the preabyssal zone of the sea, but in this context it was really like chthonic, but ocean
Sapidity -- having a good or pleasant taste
Exuviate -- to shed or molt, as a skin
Inimicality -- being hostile or unfriendly
Intaglioed -- artfully engraved
Vellicating -- touching softly to induce chills or tickling
Tunica -- organ mucus sheath
Paillette -- dangling shiny on clothing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, and Medical trauma

ajsteele1699's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

maresuju's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Torture and Xenophobia

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Torture, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

additional content warnings: dismemberment, evisceration, corpse mutilation, cult like society, being forced to eat one self’s body parts

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

The gore and viscera of this novella sheaths a love that is tender in that it is beautiful, and tender in that it is raw to touch.

the narrator growing to look more human in the epilogue harkens back to the miss the reference of the falsehood earlier on about a mermaid's ability to become human if they love a prince deeply enough. The plague doctor's empathy becomes the narrator's upon their eviceration and subsequent death. The space and tenderness the plague doctor holds for the children being mutilated by the surgeons who killed and revived them over and over again is transmuted in their death to make the desire to preserve life something tangible to the narrator.

I enjoyed the way readers were dropped into the story after the narrator had taken a sort of revenge, and is figuring out where to set herself in the world after, and I enjoy that some things are left unexplained.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

virgilsinferno's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Gore

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault

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

Moderate: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

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