A review by lumie
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

1.5

No 124 pages have ever felt this long. It was a droning, overtly descriptive, pretentious fever dream of repugnant, disgusting gore. I was vaguely nauseous reading through this, and I'm no stranger to horror. But this just felt gory for gore's sake.

Heed the trigger warnings, there's long detailed descriptions of mutilations, and vaguely human things eating children and other vaguely human things, to excruciating vomit-inducing detail.

The only part I enjoy was right by the end. We are sold this book as a dark retelling of the little mermaid, and that is what the final chapter was. And it's short, impactful and tragic in the best way. It also contains a far less excessively descriptive writing style. It almost seemed disconnected, like it was written by someone else. If anything, it would have made more sense to start the book with this chapter, to grip you with its impact. 

Instead I was sort of both bored and disgusted throughout the first 110 pages, wondering if all the carnage was leading to something. And it was, but to a romance that to me felt flat, as the characters didn't have much chemistry between them. 
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