Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

91 reviews

jmtleaf's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Gorgeous, evocative and absolutely gore soaked. The terror and intimacy of consuming the other. Deep world building that trusts the audience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, Medical content, Misogyny, War, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Torture

Specific, explicit and detailed description of medical procedures, entrails, body horror and violence. Main character has been kidnapped and imprisoned and has their teeth and tongue removed

e_l_k's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'd seen this book on plenty of best-of horror lists, but I'll be the first to admit that the premise alone didn't thrill me.
That doubt was dashed from my mind from the first page onwards.
Khaw has a way with descriptive prose that my English teachers would have envied, coveted, before gagging at how vivid the depictions of viscera and horrible violence are. This is NOT a book for the faint of heart or stomach. But it is a spellbinding tale of rediscovery, self-acceptance, and love in the face of pure, selfish evil. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Slavery, Gore, Vomit, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Violence, Torture, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Blood, Child abuse, Dysphoria, and Murder

There is a short story at the very end of the book that presents the events directly precluding the main narrative.

pacifickat's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

 

What did I just read?? Also, it was wonderful.

"I recall once, there was an astronomer in my husband's court, who extolled the poetry of the universe, how numinous we were despite the mucus and the blood we shed. 'Stardust,' he'd said, inebriated with his own doctrine. 'We are made of stardust.' Or maybe of primordial elements, such as the ocean, and the dark, and the killing flame, and love."

For one, this is a story about stories.

The narrative takes the shape of a dark mashup of

The Little Mermaid, Frankenstein, and Lord of the Flies, with a sprinkling of biblical types and symbols

. It took me a minute to get my bearings at the beginning. (Wow, this is gorgeous poetic writing. Huh, that's weird. It sounds like her children are

casually snacking on a human corpse

. Oh no wait, they are. Yikes. What is this story?)

It is also a commentary on how the stories humans tell themselves shape their beliefs and behaviors, sometimes leading to their own suffering and ruin, even as those same stories are defended as sacrosanct. Sometimes horrors in this upside-down world mask themselves in holiness. The true enemies, the charlatans wielding power, want people to believe that evil is found elsewhere, and to fear the outsider rather than questioning the darkness in their own midst, in their own systems of belief.

"Man mistakes his own experiences as the canvas on which all truths are drawn. He is rarely correct in his respect."

"There is a reason The Hunt is central to so many narratives. For all that humanity professes to delighting in its own sophistication, it longs for simplicity, for when the world can be deboned into binaries. Darkness and light. Death and life. Hunter and hunted."

This is also most definitely a horror story.

While the prose is a mesmerizing, undulating, hauntingly beautiful (unless big words bother you) thing, the plot beneath is feral and eviscerating.

People get eaten, tongues cut out, empires burn, characters are vivisected, entrails are spilled.

There is no lack of truly grotesque detail. This is an apocalyptically dark canvas on which to paint a fairy tale.

This is also a haunting love story.

"I wonder sometimes if this consciousness is the same, if I am the same. Or, if I am a mere fabrication strung together by circumstances."
"There is nothing wrong with being a monster."
"You always know the right things to say."

The story reminds me more than a bit of This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: the sumptuous use of language, the poetic cadence of the narrative, the distinct natures and voices of the main characters, and

their uncanny romance which slowly springs from time spent wandering a dangerous world together, sharing pieces of themselves along the way. Their love, once realized, crescendos into an unrelenting force in a dark and dangerous world, defying death, time, and logic.

 

"[...] Eternity is a worthless bauble without their conversation. [...] I will love them to the death of days."

 

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the telling of this tale. As one Barnes & Noble reviewer put it, "For someone who simply loves words, this novella was practically a playground [...]."

However, the weirdness of the plot and sheer quantity of strange vocabulary and odd phrasing employed throughout made me wonder if the author may have been aided by AI in their writing process. I saw online that she has utilized AI in the past for visual character studies, but it made me wonder if she also used it to create this written work. It is a weird world we live in where this might even be a question a reader would think to ask -- but there it is, sitting in the back of my mind even as I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

In the absence of further evidence, I am going to give the author the benefit of the doubt and offer up 5 stars. This kind of story is totally my jam.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Murder, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Cannibalism, Gore, and Slavery

Moderate: Xenophobia, Vomit, and Animal death

religious radicalization

, power and control

tenthousandactualbees's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Torture, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Death, Body horror, Miscarriage, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

vbarsi's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Really cool premise but didn’t read as easily as I would have hoped. I’m a pretty avid reader, but I found myself struggling due to needing to stop every few sentences to look up obscure vocabulary. It distracts from the story when you need to pause so often. Some cool themes about women’s rage and the things that men take from women, their entitlement to their bodies etc. 

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Content Warnings

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

unexpected love story at the end! Didn’t imagine that would occur for a book filled with gore, despair, and violence

allyareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

I'm currently on a horror kick and this book has me obsessed. I haven't stopped thinking about it and already desperately want to reread it. I feel like it may be a story you get something different with each read.

Please I implore you, take your time when reading this. The atmosphere, characters and actually all of the writing is handled with so much deliberate care. Even the most violent or gory scenes (i.e. most of the book) are written so beautifully and delicately. No doubt heavy on the purple prose, but I found once I was in I was in (I also read an Ebook version and we love a quick hold-down thesaurus check).
I’ve always hated the story of the Little Mermaid and this does a fantastic job of exploring the dark suspicions, the various myths and the cyclical nature of storytelling. Getting to hear the story from the monster/victim in their own truth was perfect.
I’m livid it was so short, even with the original short story attached. It may be controversial but I think I might have enjoyed reading the short story before.

But as someone who works as a bookseller, I know it will be divisive. I can tell some people will love this wholeheartedly and others are going to fucking hate it. So I can't recommend this to everyone.
If you don’t like books heavy on vibes, body horror and with big pretentious words, this ain’t your book.
Recommend to fans of tv series Hannibal, the dark elves from the Magicians, dark fairy tale retellings and the people who cheer on the monsters.

If anyone has any simliar books, GIMME! I would love some suggestions please.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape

ctara2123's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Grief

knitting_sword's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gore, and Body horror

percival_wise's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Blood, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

mar's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.5

literally had to come back and up my rating after a couple of days bc i cant stop thinking about this book. i want what they have

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death and Miscarriage