Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

220 reviews

andibrimi's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

i don’t know what the fuck she’s saying, but girl i am living!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, and Medical trauma

abyjo's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The writing *chef kiss* It's a short story, so if you need a horror retailing similar to "Thornhedge" by T. Kingfisher, this book is in the same alley.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, and Child death

valodniece's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Daaaaaamn. I'm not sure if Khaw intended this to be a criticism of the Russian state throughout all of its incarnations (imperial, communist, modern), but it certainly is. Set in the taiga, worshiping those who hurt you and cannibalize you and the belief that they will still somehow lift you up but never do... on the surface, sure, it is a dark and cannibalistic Little Mermaid retelling, told through the looking glass inspired by Lord of the Flies, but it really reads as more than that. Excellent work by Cassandra Khaw, and I will definitely be reading more of their work.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

ccrtb's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Very interesting and gory spin on The Little Mermaid tale, though it has more to do with the happy-ever-after. Honestly could not guess where the plot was going to go so the horrors of the narrative were unique and surprising. Can’t fully explain why I liked this one. I just enjoyed it.

The writing is beautiful, but a little too embellished at times. It took me a few pages to feel like I understood what was going on because I was only three sentences in when I had already encountered two words I had no idea existed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

magnetarmadda's review

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Violence, Child death, Pregnancy, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Gore

This is amazing and beautifully written, but do be careful going in: there is so much gore, a truly unbelievable amount in 106 pages, and if that’s not for you, I would not recommend this book

emk5's review

dark hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

A really quick read, very bloody, strong

happy

ending. This is queer as in (redacted) 

This author does use a lot of really specific vocabulary, which was mildly distracting at first (in the initial 50 pages, about a third of the book, I looked up: parturition, bauta, koan, gelding, abattoir, bier, limns, unctuous, bathyal, repast). Honestly most you could use context clues or ignore, but I had literally never seen some of these before so obviously I wanted to look them up. 

I would love to read a sequel! I will be checking out other things Khaw has written! 

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Content Warnings

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

gaeliloveweiss's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Torture, Child death, Physical abuse, Blood, Cannibalism, and Grief

nelkenbabe's review

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Child death

ivorybug's review against another edition

dark

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

laurareads87's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

"Mermaid. A word that demonstrates the ineptitude of human language, and the species' predisposition for ingantalizing the unknown. ... [P]alatability is prized over accuracy. It is easier to market a nymph than a viperfish."

The Salt Grows Heavy is a horror/fantasy novella of a murderous mermaid and a gender non-conforming plague doctor travelling through a near-dead kingdom, each with a traumatic past to contend with.  Very well written, though it's hard to say 'beautifully written' when the subject matter is, very often, viscera.  Heed the content warnings on this one - not for the faint of heart.

Content warnings: graphic gore & body horror throughout. Cannibalism is on page & described in detail. Blood, death, deaths of children, murder, violence, medical content, medical experimentation, misogyny, sexism, abuse, spousal abuse, rape (not on-page or described in any detail), kidnapping, mass murder, cult violence / religiously motivated abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Medical content, Death, Child abuse, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape