Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

7 reviews

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

uncreativeoops's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Took me a while to get into but once the main characters had an actual goal i was hooked. Gorgeous writing and creative similes; you either spend a very long time reading it to catch everything or you can find new things upon rereading it. The body horror is also very graphic in a lyrical way. I have no idea, where the setting was supposed to be, how the world or magic works. This felt like history, fantasy, and postapocalyptic at once and I didn't even mind. Also yes to violent reinterpretations of mermaids; beings from the ocean are terrifying and this should apply to mythological male fantasies as well.

Also I wasn't expecting the most raw love confession followed by torture followed by characters dying several times followed by a Frankensteinesque scene that had me giggling (??) and I still haven't processed it.

I was expecting the body horror, but not body horror mixed with so many emotions it was WILD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

itsheyfay's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Sexism, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent

booksthatburn's review

dark reflective tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY is technically the story of a plague doctor and a mermaid, a description which does not do nearly enough to imply how cool and weird this book is. The main character is not nameless, but her name is explicitly one that cannot be pronounced by humans, and so neither does the story render it in a form I could repeat. It deals with cycles of abuse, a religious cult, deprogramming, reclaiming agency, and the need to rescue someone in a bad situation like the one you yourself previously escaped. It’s also about a group of children worshiping a trio of surgeons who claim that death is not murder because they’ll be brought back to life. The children become more and more distorted, changing into a strange collection of remnants in the hands of those who would use and abuse them under claim of immortality.

Khaw's style has clearly developed more since HAMMERS ON BONE (also excellent), and this is less of a romp than THE ALL-CONSUMING WORLD. It has their willingness to just let a story be bleak without being depressing, finding hope interwoven with death, plus a strange interlude into cult deprogramming. It is specifically a follow up to one of the stories from the collection BREAKABLE THINGS, called "And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice". That story is included in the back of THE SALT GROWS HEAVY for anyone who needs a refresher.

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY is a truly excellent piece of horror. I’m very glad I read it. I hope you like it too.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Sexism, Vomit, Confinement, and Animal death

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Miscarriage

"And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice" - Graphic CW for blood, gore, death. Moderate CW for toxic relationship, confinement, pregnancy, miscarriage, violence, cannibalism.

existentialhell's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Medical trauma, Child death, Gore, Torture, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Cannibalism, Blood, Confinement, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexism

emthemermaid's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

I already love the author's writing, and this book had everything I love in it--horror, romance, monstrous mermaids--so I was very excited to read this. It's dark, delicious, and poetic. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Torture, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism

emimli's review

dark emotional sad tense

2.0

I wanted to love this, but ultimately it fell flat for me.

My biggest gripe with this book is that the ending seemed very rushed and didn’t fit with the overall atmosphere of the story. It also felt very unearned. I’m not a fan of deus-ex-machina style endings where the central conflict is solved using a completely new, previously unmentioned plot/world/character element, which is unfortunately exactly what happens here. 

Additionally, from a technical standpoint, Khaw’s writing style is  pretty unbearable. Her prose reads like she just discovered the synonym tool in Microsoft Word. It’s overwrought to the point of being nonsensical at times.

The love story at the centre of this book was my favourite part, but even that needed to be built up much more.

The two MCs go from being vaguely horny for each other to expressing their undying love within mere hours. Nevermind that, as far as the reader knows, the MCs barely ever interacted prior to the events of the story, and now they’re too busy fighting for their lives against immortal sadists to have any real meaningful conversations. Am I supposed to believe these people are desperately in love when they barely even know each other? We needed a slower burn.

Overall, there are some  cool ideas in here, but the execution was sorely lacking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Torture