Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

9 reviews

ruhlen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.5

The most beautifully written gory fairy-tale romance story I've ever listened to.

I'm kind of glad it was so short.

I must admit that I chose to listen to this novella based purely on the cover art and the title. The Salt Grows Heavy is an awesome, intriguing title and the cover art is striking and mysterious. Cassandra Khaw is an interesting writer - I'm still not sure if she is for me. I've read Food of the Gods, so I'm not unfamiliar with Khaw's viscerally graphic style. It did make me uncomfortable listening to it in this book, though.

 The Salt Grows Heavy is a first-person retelling of the mermaid myth. It also includes a Frankenstein-esque tale of man trying to achieve immortality and what reminded me of Lord of the Flies group of children worshiping the trio of immortal "Saints." If you're looking for a deep, dark fairy tale, this is about as deep and as dark as you can get.

Susan Dalian performs the narration of the audiobook beautifully. I would compare this audiobook to Circe or Piranesi for the overall tone it evokes. The prose is poetic and delicate and gorgeous, in stark contrast to what it is describing. Much like my warning for Food of the Gods, do not read or listen to this story during any type of meal.

Overall, I think I would give this more like a 3.5. Did the story and writing make me uncomfortable? Yes. Was it memorable? Yes. Did it add something new to the fairy tale fantasy space? Yes. Was it my kind of story? Undecided. Since it is so short, if you are curious about Cassandra Khaw as an author and what she brings to the genre, I would definitely give this one a try. And I highly recommend the audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Genocide

thatoneguyjm's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

A delightfully dark, cold, and savory riff on The Little Mermaid. Also, don’t fuck with mermaids.

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Content Warnings

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

leanne_miron's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Genocide and Misogyny

reggiethebird's review

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

axel_p's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

3.5

I would have loved if this where longer.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pregnancy, War, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Vomit, Child death, and Gore

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 it's 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: Blood, Child death, Vomit, Violence, Animal death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Genocide, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Murder

sharron_joy_reads's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.25

The mermaid and the plague Doctor escape into the wilderness following the fall of an empire and her murdering her husband. Whilst travelling they meet a pack of feral children who kill each other for sport, they are pieced back together again by three saints. To save the children the mermaid faces her true terrifying nature and the plague Doctor confronts his past. 

This is the little mermaid/lord of the flies crossover that we all needed. Stunningly beautiful prose drenched in violence and gore. This mermaid has teeth, lots of them, she is powerful after captivity, vicious and brutal. Cassandra has the most beautiful way with words, they transport you into a fairytale dark as hell, her turn of phrase is salve for the soul, the language is sensual, exquisite and savagely macabre, loved it! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, and Medical content

sarrie's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

 

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw is possibly one of the prettiest but most gruesome books I've read. Khaw's writing is lyrical, verging on the purple side, but it works to enhance the horror of the scenes they paint. From opening the book by describing how a house looks like the empty bones of a body, to the dark and atmospheric painting of the world in which our characters are traveling. Khaw manages to show us both the horror and beauty of what's around. 

The story itself is concise. A former queen, think a twisted Little Mermaid after she bore the Prince children and they turned out to be the horrors that she truly is, and a Plague Doctor are leaving the devastated realm her children destroyed and traveling to another. They find themselves in a village of children that is controlled and 'cared for' by a trio of Saints. We see the reflection of what violence and the search for immortality can do to a person and the victims it creates. Our mermaid is silenced, through violence perpetrated upon her by her husband, and over the course of the story she finds her voice again and becomes the master of her own story and heart. 

As I stated the horror in this is intense, I wouldn't recommend this for the faint of heart. From a description to eating an eyeball to the sight of someone's insides leaking out their front, Khaw cuts no corners. My only complaint, in truth, has nothing to do with that. I almost never say this but the epilogue on this felt a bit too much, and unneeded. A tidy and sweet ending to a brutal and visceral story. Though I'm giving this one a high mark, I do wish that last little bit had been left to the reader to decide. 

5 out of 5 Plague Masks 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Death, Gore, Cannibalism, Genocide, Blood, Body horror, and Violence

erynlasbelin's review

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Cannibalism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Torture

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Genocide, Vomit, and Excrement