Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

18 reviews

spadedigsbutts's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

Just a very raw book in general! Lots of poetic language and it really just dives into the story right away. I didn't quite get a grasp of the personalities of the main two characters, but it was absolutely fine for what it is. 

[Will add more later!]

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Vomit, Confinement, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

zeegy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This was hard to read in the beginning. You're plunged into the world with no moment of explanation and the writer is a big fan of using every word ever in existence so it was tedious in the beginning. But I say things really picked up in the second night. I understood their goals, there was a bit of personalities breaking through, an inkling of romance. The whole thing though gorey and horrifying was strangely so romantic. The ending was heart wrenchingly beautiful. I admit to bursting into tears through the last night.

---

Content Warnings

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

wrensreadingroom's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Kidnapping, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Alcohol, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Medical trauma

blackheart's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was fantastic. Dark, gory, and heart wrenching. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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.

---

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.

---

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Transphobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

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

---

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