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A review by dearestdaisies
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Cannibalism, and Child death