A review by katwhiskerz
House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense 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

3.25

Many good things about this book! It was super atmospheric and I enjoyed reading about all the balls and pretty dresses. I loved Cassius's character and thought the romance was cute! (We love a supportive, smitten male lead). Also point to Verity for being a creepy younger sister, love her. However, I thought there many points in the book where the world/backstory were kind of info-dumped for plot armor. Like Sterland's backstory with Highmoor, the presence of certain gods and Tricksters (wtf even is a trickster, I didn't remember that lore being dropped in the beginning and I couldn't find it anywhere), and the final reveal at the end.

And the sisters didn't even have to do anything at the end, everything was sort of just revealed to them and then they got their shit rocked.

I just felt like this book was trying to be too many things at a time. Murder mystery, gothic horror, magical realism...and because of that, neither aspect got their time to shine. In reality, I think this book wanted to be romance cuz that was the best part lol. Also, I would've liked more explanations of what happened to the three eldest sisters. Also also, some foreshadowing of certain characters being bad people/making poor decisions would have been welcome.

Kind of disappointed Camille didn't have a bigger role in this and was just a petty older sister. She could have had so much redeemable villain potential!