Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

96 reviews

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

shakita45's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I devoured this book like the mermaid devoured everyone else.

But seriously this book blew me away, and I'm going to work through Khaw's entire body of work now.  This little story had me in tears in a way full-fledged novels don't manage, and the writing style is beyond beautiful and incredibly evocative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Cannibalism, Vomit, Body horror, and Medical content

nkmustdie's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Ableism, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Animal death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Blood, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Bullying, Cannibalism, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Trafficking

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.

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.

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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

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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

cecetomas's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

This novella is fantastic. It's queer gore done perfectly. The language and imagery in this book are just haunting in the most incredible, addictive way. I'm not always a huge fan of retellings but this one was done so well that I almost forgot that it was. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Pregnancy

leanne_miron's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Genocide and Misogyny

kelskiiz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

soooooo good, super dark and explicit but beautifully written imagery. the way their relationship was written was one of my favourite things; not many words, tender actions, and understanding.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual assault and Confinement

yenanena's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death