Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

96 reviews

kileyjojo's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

If you're expecting this to be a horror retelling of The Little Mermaid, it's nothing like that. This book is a short novel about the aftermath of what would have been that story. That doesn't make it bad, but it's something to note if that's what you are looking for in a book.

I go back and forth on how I feel about this book. The pace is extremely fast and the story flies by but I don't think that's a bad choice. It could have been fleshed out more but I think it gets the job done. That being said, you're thrown right into the midst of the story and are given practically no background on the characters or what they are encountering. This does prevent the feeling of the book being padded but it also makes it harder to connect to the characters.

The vocabulary used in this book is very advanced. I found myself skipping every other word because I didn't know the meaning of them. This, in combination with the fast pace, makes the book confusing. When the scenes aren't clearly spelled out, it's hard to understand what is happening and how the characters got from point A to point B. For example,

there is a portion of the book where the mermaid is dissected on a table. Two sentences go by and she's whole again and running through the woods. The dialogue and the story are so hard to comprehend that I feel like I missed an entire chapter

.

If you enjoy horror, gore, and just going with the flow, you would like this book. I don't think the author is a bad writer. I think the book is falsely advertised in where the story goes and that the vocabulary makes the already short book feel even shorter. There are great messages in the book and the characters are unique and interesting. I just wish we got to see more of them. The page count really hinders the character development. The story feels completed but feels like something is missing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, and Torture

cwerber's review

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Holy shit, y'all. 

This novelette is something else and I mean that in the best way possible. It will turn your notion of the little mermaid story upside down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Cannibalism, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Gore

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

Seriously, look at my warnings. This isn't for the faint of heart.

typedtruths's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.25

i didn't like this at all. yes, the themes of unconditional love are beautiful but everything else about this did <i>nothing</i> for me

▷ <u>Representation</u>: nonbinary sc/love interest.

<a href="https://typedtruth.wordpress.com/">  Blog</a> • <a href="https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/">Trigger Warning Database</a> • <a href="https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/typedtruths">StoryGraph</a>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, Gore, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Rape, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Grief

➸ Trigger warnings for misogyny, domestic violence recounted, rape mentioned, miscarriage, involuntary & voluntary medical procedures and experimentation, graphic body horror, graphic blood, gore, and injury depiction, graphic cannibalism, minor grief and loss, death of a child, death of a friend, murder, and cults.

_mor06_'s review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Death, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content

Cults!! Manipulations that created a cult over godlike figures is a main theme

ladykatka'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had to read the first few pages a couple times to get used to the writing style. Once that happened it did have a unique beauty to it. The conversation between the mermaid and the plague doctor was easily the best part. It was gruesome at times but it added to the atmosphere.

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Content Warnings

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

lilmswolfe's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

The use of words not often used in everyday life was overwhelming. It’s fine if there a word here and there, I can usually decipher what it means by the surrounding text but dang 2-3 words every sentence or so? Sheesh. 

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Content Warnings

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

vampirequeen's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death and Excrement

salemander's review

5.0

this shit had me SOBBING. one of the most beautiful books i’ve ever read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Death

loki29's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

A bizzare but intriguing book. It took me a while to get used to the language. While I did end up kind of enjoying the language used, I found it felt pretensious at times. 

However, it had a good pace and kept me intrigued from start to finish. I would love to have had more about the mermaid and the plague doctor

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Content Warnings

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

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

No, we are not very different at all, even if one is fashioned with thread and dried sinew, the other cleaved and then conjugated by magic.

A siren and a plague doctor travel the land together, walking away from destruction and right into something sinister in the middle of the woods. This is a strange book to summarize or even describe. It felt more like an event or a landscape. I think you'll either like this or absolutely despise it, no inbetween.

Beautiful yet challenging prose. At times I felt like I was wading through a swamp whenever the author threw these complex and uncommon words (not helped by the fact that English is my second language). Very vibes but with a lot of thoughts. I would highly recommend checking trigger warnings for this one, you'll find everything from cannibalism to child death to graphic gore. Ultimately I liked it but I felt cheated by the length, like a meal missing its main ingredient.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pregnancy