Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

268 reviews

latashman's review

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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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sydresnik's review

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challenging dark
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

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raven_nivhaar's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The Little Mermaid meets Frankenstein. I quite enjoyed it. The language was absolutely stunning. 
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hoganbreathesinink's review

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challenging dark fast-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? Yes

5.0

Definitely not for the faint of heart, but I absolutely loved it. Very dark and grisly–I was so intrigued by the glimpses we get of the world the characters inhabit.

I would definitely read a lengthier book with the mermaid and the plague doctor's backstories!
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melaniem03's review

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

3.0

Audiobook version. The prose in this is quite striking at times and often somewhat complex (this was likely compounded in audio format as it requires you to pay somewhat close attention). It's a love story but told through a very dark, very gruesome fairytale lens of a mermaid and a plague doctor. There's a lot of body horror (detailed gore descriptions) which isn't my thing so I struggled a bit with that. Someone who doesn't mind that would probably love this.
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melshoo's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A novella about a mermaid, a plague doctor, some kids, and guts. A lot of guts. The body horror was almost too much for me. But the novella was short so I pushed through. I liked how it tackled the question of how to respond when you see people undergoing the same trauma you went through.
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bazzie101's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense

4.25

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alexijai98's review

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

4.0

Saw this book described as having A24 vibes and I 100% agree. One of the most unique things I’ve ever read.
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_scvvter's review

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

4.5

Considering the fact that I was able to finish this in two days when I'm a notoriously slow reader says a lot. It says even more the fact that the second day was literally when I first woke up in the morning says even more. 

As I've been trying to get back into the groove of reading again, the two other short novels I picked for easiness has not been the best in my eyes. Started to make me think that I was not the biggest fan of short novels. But this completely changed my tune. A horrifying but exillerating ride from start to finish, Knaw's was able to easily suck me into the world with these character I grew quite found of really quickly. The plot had me on the edge of my seat, well more like bed, waiting to find out what's gonna happen to these characters. I was actually very nervous that the characters would actually not succeed and that was a great feeling to actually have from a novel.

On critique, if you can call it that, is that a lot of words flew over my head while reading this. Looking it up to find a lot of it be medical terms for the body, so be ready for that. And some other tiny things that I got over such as
It seeming like the main character got her toungue, which was cut out a while ago and was slowly growing, growing to normal size and her being able to speak like there was no problem.
 

Overall, absolutely loves this book and can't wait to look for more novels by Cassandra Know
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thegodmachine393's review

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dark hopeful mysterious medium-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? No

4.0

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