Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

41 reviews

ktkumpf's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

An absolutely gorgeous short story. Will absolutely be looking into more work from this author. They dynamic was excellent, the prose were phenomenal the pacing worked wonderfully. 0 complaints except that I can never read it again for the first time. But please be mindful this is graphic, profoundly so, and if body horror or child death is not something you can tolerate do not touch it with a 10 foot pole. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Miscarriage

rknitss's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

Another Cassandra Khaw that I didn't realize was novella length and was pleasantly surprised by. This one, once again, does not waste a single word. Told from the point of view of the Mermaid (yes, that mermaid, though the story isn't quite what we've been told) while she travels with a plague doctor, we get a gory adventure that's sprinkled with the musings of an abyssal creature who had the all too normal female experience of having choice and autonomy ripped away from her. Don't worry, dear reader. She rips it right back.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

jemmers's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

3.25

Gothic, deeply romantic, queer retelling of the classic mermaid myth. Quick read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence

typedtruths's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.25

i didn't like this at all. yes, the themes of unconditional love are beautiful but everything else about this did <i>nothing</i> for me

▷ <u>Representation</u>: nonbinary sc/love interest.

<a href="https://typedtruth.wordpress.com/">  Blog</a> • <a href="https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/">Trigger Warning Database</a> • <a href="https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/typedtruths">StoryGraph</a>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, Gore, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Rape, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Grief

➸ Trigger warnings for misogyny, domestic violence recounted, rape mentioned, miscarriage, involuntary & voluntary medical procedures and experimentation, graphic body horror, graphic blood, gore, and injury depiction, graphic cannibalism, minor grief and loss, death of a child, death of a friend, murder, and cults.

loki29's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A bizzare but intriguing book. It took me a while to get used to the language. While I did end up kind of enjoying the language used, I found it felt pretensious at times. 

However, it had a good pace and kept me intrigued from start to finish. I would love to have had more about the mermaid and the plague doctor

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Blood, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

queerreaderchaos's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Cannibalism

chrysanthxmum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy, Torture, and Miscarriage

natka_manatee's review against another edition

dark slow-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? No

1.0

It’s not even the word themselves that are hard to understand, it’s the combination of them and the fact that after you recall the definition, they still don’t actually mean anything. What even happened here? What are “snow fountains” (pg14)? This is like an insufferable teenager discovering the thesaurus. Never again.

Also, this is not even remotely a fairytale. The only thing in common is that she (whoever she is bc she doesn’t have a pronounceable name) is technically a mermaid like “The Little Mermaid”. Although, she also walks on land the whole time and turns into fire at one point so who really knows.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Vomit

It just sucked dude idk what to tell you

libraryoflanelle's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

W.T.F. Cassandra Kwah is a literary genius! In 128 pages, I laughed out loud, I threw up a little in my mouth, I kicked my little feetsies and I cried… I devoured this book, or did it devour me? visceral, shocking, perfection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

latashman's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A dark Little Mermaid retelling, what happens after she married the prince. Loved the writing and could imagine what each scene looked like. I felt haunted and tense as I read. 

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Content Warnings

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