Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Salt Grows Heavy

Choosing to not give a star rating because I honestly don't know how I feel about the book, and partially that is on me. Horror is a genre I don't really read, and I can recognize when I'm not the intended audience. It feels unfair to knock off points for something that is clearly not for me.

But I can at least somewhat review the contents of the book. I think the prose is really beautiful, and suits the dark setting well. Eerie and strange, in a good way, but it's also far too complex to follow along easily. Or at least, that's how I personally felt. I literally did not understand a good portion of what I was reading, and often had to look up words. Sometimes, multiples times on a single page, maybe even a paragraph. At some point I just stopped doing that because it was really distracting, and broke immersion from the story. I feel like I would have enjoyed this book way more if I understood what I was reading.

I'm thankful this is a novella, but oddly enough I think the plot and the characters (mainly the Mermaid and the Plague Doctor) would really benefit from more development. It feels like a lot of the plot happened just because it could.

As a forewarning to future readers, in terms of content warning there's some detailed gore/murder in the book, along with detailed medical dissection. These sections didn't phase me since the usage of overly complex language made it hard to follow along the gore-y scenes, but it might disturb some if you can visualize text as you read.

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jemmers's review

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dark mysterious slow-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

3.25

Gothic, deeply romantic, queer retelling of the classic mermaid myth. Quick read.

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sofiadanielle's review

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dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Almost docked it to a 3.5, honestly. However!!! Though I think the first 30 pages makes the story framework difficult to understand, I very much enjoyed the last 30 pages.

A critique I will stand by, though, is the use of overly complex, “flowery” language. While I do believe that this type of writing helped in creating that uneasy horror-esque feeling, I would’ve enjoyed the story written in a plainer way.

Feels very fever dream-like (said positively, towards the end.) Quite unique, and I adore the epilogue.

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hendrixpants's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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fictionalfelinefanatic's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Short, intense haunting story that jumps right into the dark world of what we would say are mermaids but gies so much deeper. Listening as an audiobook, it's a delight as the author is clearly a wordsmith and able to pull you into this dark and vicious world where no one is safe including children and even.more disturbing still the children are dangerous.

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andibrimi's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

i don’t know what the fuck she’s saying, but girl i am living!

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valodniece's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

Daaaaaamn. I'm not sure if Khaw intended this to be a criticism of the Russian state throughout all of its incarnations (imperial, communist, modern), but it certainly is. Set in the taiga, worshiping those who hurt you and cannibalize you and the belief that they will still somehow lift you up but never do... on the surface, sure, it is a dark and cannibalistic Little Mermaid retelling, told through the looking glass inspired by Lord of the Flies, but it really reads as more than that. Excellent work by Cassandra Khaw, and I will definitely be reading more of their work.

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