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A review by iam
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
dark
3.0
Short and brutal novella (novelette?) with lots of horror and a fairytale vibe to it.
This follows a mermaid who is joined by a plague doctor after the kingdom is eaten by the mermaid's daughters.
We only get snippets of the worldbuilding, and have to puzzle the bigget picture together from the few scraps we get. I would have loved to get more, as the lore is fascinating, but I think part of the appeal is also the mystery.
Both mermaid and plague doctor have a past that isn't entirely clear, but it's filled with loss and tragedy. As they stumble over a village of children and the "saints" they worship, they want to try and help the kids before their stories turn into that same tragedy. But not all fairytales end well - a lot of them end with a lot of blood.
This was very gory, but not too bad (as in, I could stand the level of graphic-ess, possibly because its so suffused in the fairytale vibes). There is a romantic subplot, of sorts, which was cute, but as the story was so short I didn't really get invested. Overall, it could have worked with a bit more plot added to it, but I also enjoyed it in its shortness.
This follows a mermaid who is joined by a plague doctor after the kingdom is eaten by the mermaid's daughters.
We only get snippets of the worldbuilding, and have to puzzle the bigget picture together from the few scraps we get. I would have loved to get more, as the lore is fascinating, but I think part of the appeal is also the mystery.
Both mermaid and plague doctor have a past that isn't entirely clear, but it's filled with loss and tragedy. As they stumble over a village of children and the "saints" they worship, they want to try and help the kids before their stories turn into that same tragedy. But not all fairytales end well - a lot of them end with a lot of blood.
This was very gory, but not too bad (as in, I could stand the level of graphic-ess, possibly because its so suffused in the fairytale vibes). There is a romantic subplot, of sorts, which was cute, but as the story was so short I didn't really get invested. Overall, it could have worked with a bit more plot added to it, but I also enjoyed it in its shortness.