Reviews tagging 'Blood'

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

106 reviews

sinaprst's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

THE VIBESSSSS.....I CAN'T 

also the birth scene was so disturbing, i nearly threw up

recommended reading ambience: https://youtu.be/LJqVftwOIDc?si=bUpnVHgr70JxgERQ

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Suicide, and Vomit

alyvia_jeane's review

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Grief, and Pregnancy

It kept me guessing and wanting more. I was just as confused as the main character and that is hard to do. Didn’t guess the end but omg that was crazy!! Loved the atmosphere and imagery. Verity is my new baby and poor fisher/Hanna! Is that a spoiler? Nah. Was worried I wouldn’t like this but definitely wrong. Not a 5 star bc there was a little thing that happened that I didn’t like. But otherwise great.

sah's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Grief

veerau's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Felt very... Lukewarm. It had way more dancing than what I would have liked, but considering it is a 12 dancing princesses retelling that's 100% my fault in not digging deeper into the plot 💀
The start is somewhat interesting, but when Cassius appeared I definitely lost interest (it didn't help that Annaleigh was constantly thinking of the guy) 
Mid book got so boring I fantasized about dropping it, but alas the ending was way darker that I imagined?? Definitely turned the book around for me

best part being the half uneaten half decomposed lil guy in the lighthouse <3 kinda sad it wasn't more gorey tbh, that would have been so cool

Characters aren't really that well characterized, but considering there are more than a dozen recurring characters the contrary would be mindblowing. 
Extra: I did not like the romance like, at all. Why was it there. And why so rushed.

I was so hoping that Cassius was the killer but no, evil entity appears... Wishing everything was indeed her own delusion, but no... And then he dies!!! But no he doesn't...? Exhausting man

Also taking more space to mention how much I couldn't stand Annaleigh's name... It should be fine since it is 1st person (I think?? Not 100% sure tbh) but girlie likes introducing herself a lot 💀💀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Gore, Death, Body horror, and Blood

nut_megg's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Blood, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Stalking

elysenicole213's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Grief

trigger warnings for traumatic birth scene

spookysierra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy Sh*t. Holy Sh*t. Holy Sh*t.

Look. I don't typically write reviews unless a book is amazing or truly terrible. 

This book is fantastic.

Going in, I knew it was going to be a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses, but I wasn't sure how closely it was going to follow the fairytale. I also didn't realize this book was going to be a spooky murder mystery. Because I went into this not realizing the full scope of the book's premise, the beginning was kind of slow for me; HOWEVER, as soon as I started to realize there was more to this than just a group of girls wandering off into the forest to dance the night away, with dashing young men I. WAS. IN.

My assessment of the book went from a 3 to a 4 immediately and before I was 75% through the book, I could just feel that I was going to rate this 5 stars 

This book had me mistrusting EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. I would go back and forth on some, I would second guess everything everyone was saying. This book is masterful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Medical trauma, Child death, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Death of parent, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Body horror, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness

chloenrogers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Gothic horrors crusted in sea salt. Like a scary Little Women set against the dark ocean. Rich, evocative language kept me enthralled through every mysterious twist and lingering kiss. I even lost some sleep, unable to shake the ghostly visions from my mind. While the main character feels somewhat flat and inactive, the story is tumultuous enough to keep things engaging. I shed genuine tears throughout so many points of this mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Animal death

tays_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Miscarriage

Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Rape, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I don't read a lot of YA but this is definitely a good one! The gothic, haunting atmosphere of a castle by the cliffside of an island was *chefs kiss*. This book is equal parts fantasy and mystery, but slides towards horror as the story progresses.

Annaleigh was one of 12 princesses living on the island, but after the unfortunate accidental deaths of a few of her older sisters, and her mother, the townspeople believe her family to be cursed. Annaleigh believes the most recent death was a murder rather than a suicide and begins trying to unravel the mystery, with some help from her childhood crush and a handsome stranger she meets in the market. The plot thickens when the sisters go searching for a portal used by the Gods to travel to other regions in hopes of finding love with people who are unfamiliar with the curse. Annaleigh struggles to unravel the mystery of what's happening. Is there really a curse? Who can she trust? Wtf is going on? Also, there's ghosts.

The world-building was well done in this book. We learn about their religion and customs organically without a ton of exposition. It's definitely a world you can get lost in. The only thing that makes this book YA is the lack of smut, which feels authentic to the time period where marriage came first. One thing that wasn't old-timey was the fashion for the balls that the princesses attend. Everything is described in a beautifully cinematic way. As the book slips further into horror, the descriptions are grotesque and you genuinely feel scared for our characters who we've grown to care about.

I'd recommend this book to people who like gothic, ghostly, psychological horror and don't need smut to enjoy themselves.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Classism, Suicide, Child death, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent

This book is more psychological that violent and we generally see the aftermath of violence more than we see violence. There's a few scenes that feel like nightmare sequences that are a bit more intense. The horror sequences were pretty epic for a YA book, but it's definitely not splatterpunk or anything.