Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

41 reviews

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

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

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

anna__b's review against another edition

4.0

I don't really know what to make of this weird, gory little novella. The writing was definitely very beautiful and poetic (and nasty!), but there were also many times where I was wishing the author would just put down the thesaurus, and it maybe could've used one more round of editing to finish polishing up the prose. I think the goal of the story was to take readers on a brief and intriguing trip through this very dark and spooky and fairytale-esque world, and I definitely got that, but for me if this had even been a little longer it would've been so much better. I have felt like most of the novellas I've tried are missing something, so maybe I should just accept it as a me problem and stop reading novellas, but there was a lot of untapped potential here! More specifically, I would've loved to see more of how the relationship between the mermaid and the doctor came to be and understand more about their dynamic - the bonus story (?) after the acknowledgements did touch on this a little but it’s not clear to me why this wasn’t included as part of the main narrative, I think starting the story off with those scenes would’ve been a real improvement. I also would've liked to see a little more of this world before they arrived at the saints' village, although that may be more due to my own curiosity about the setting rather than feeling like the story really NEEDS it. 

So I guess the TLDR is I was intrigued, entertained, and sort of grossed out, but the prose was slightly overwrought and it needed at least a little more length and development to get me truly invested. I'd definitely like to try something else from this author though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, Child death, and Medical trauma

pullgodem's review against another edition

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? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Animal death, Grief, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

reggiethebird's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is in black and white and red. Lots of red. I feel like the author went through an anatomy textbook, found all the strange and unused verbs, and strung a story together as an excuse to print them out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, and Torture

carolined314's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

Brutal, precise, haunting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Murder, Gore, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Grief, Medical content, Confinement, and Pregnancy

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

virgilsinferno's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual assault

regans's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Death, Torture, Body horror, Medical trauma, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Miscarriage

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Miscarriage, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

breezer's review against another edition

4.0

This was so strange but I kinda loved it?

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Content Warnings

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