Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

178 reviews

brendan_clay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, and Blood

willow1113's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Confinement

djbagwell's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Child death, Blood, Body horror, and Gore

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

I loved how poetic and flowery and even animalistic at points the writing of this book got. It really pulled me into the world and set the atmosphere of the story perfectly! And I love this world; even though the book is pretty short, it still felt like a developed setting with hints and more lore.
And I really like the two main characters and their relationship with each other, too. This is a story about two people dealing with their trauma together, healing together in a way, and supporting each other throughout it. They are not perfect or try to be, but they feel realistic and are loyal to each other. I especially loved the line, where the plague doctor calls out the "your trauma makes you stronger" bullshit. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Confinement

ktkumpf's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

An absolutely gorgeous short story. Will absolutely be looking into more work from this author. They dynamic was excellent, the prose were phenomenal the pacing worked wonderfully. 0 complaints except that I can never read it again for the first time. But please be mindful this is graphic, profoundly so, and if body horror or child death is not something you can tolerate do not touch it with a 10 foot pole. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Miscarriage

gloom_lord's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Khaw's The Salt Grows Heavy is itself a bezoar, a taut antidote, a charm against the deafening silence of our thrownness into the world. It reminds us that love can be transcendent, that it may very well be all we have to cling to at life's terminus. It is a beautiful book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Blood, and Misogyny

elbauer002's review

dark

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Gore

lady_dariya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Holy body horror batman, check the warnings before embarking!

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Murder

ashleync314's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

Just WOW!!
An amazing book. Very detailed and amazing writing by the author. The characters and the worldbuilding is something that really hooks you in and keeps your turning page after page. Although the diction is very high brow, it didn't distract from the story and fit the overall dark fairytale nature of the story.

Beware though there is a lot of explicit description of gore/body horror for anyone who may not be able to stomach it but it wasn't too over the top for me. 

The language is really beautiful and I definitely have to do a second read because it's very VERY good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood

meagan123's review

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Abandonment and Pregnancy