Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

53 reviews

ajsteele1699's review

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

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

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

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

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

mermaidsherbet's review

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, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

stardustdreamer's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

spektriva's review

dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

This is exactly the kind of book I love. Weird, dark, horrific, asbtract. The writing is intricate and beautiful, even if sometimes it didn't quite land for me. I could talk about the plot or characters or lore but I don't think it's about any of to those things; it's about the feeling it evoked in me. Reading this felt like a dream, bizarre and incoherent, and I really enjoyed the experience. I am also always a sucker of mermaid stories that depict them as monsters. 

Really, the only downsides for me were the occasional use of words or metaphors that felt out of place when compared to the rest of the writing.  I also wasn't super fond of the epilogue, I think I would have preferred if it was left as it was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse