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A review by judieduartie
House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
5.0
4.75⭐️
Erin Craig really just ripped my heart out of my
chest and thought it was okay to do that. Did I make any attempt to stop her? Absolutely not. This book had me screaming by the end of it. I really wasn’t expecting such a dramatic twist at the end. This is one of the only YA fantasies that truly shocked me and that made me feel genuine fear for the characters.
The beginning of this book was 3 stars, the middle 4 stars and the ending 5 stars. I was honestly expecting a basic YA fantasy plot with a generic plot or characters, and I’m so glad this book wasn’t the case. I didn’t have high hopes while reading the beginning; it seemed kinda boring and pointless. Thank goodness I stuck through because things got so much better! We finally started picking up and the romance was really developing. And the ending. My God. That was truly something else. I had no idea what was happening and it was freaking me out. You’re literally thrown into the mix alongside Analeigh because you have no idea what’s real and what’s not.
Can we please talk about that twist at the end? What on earth was that? Those last 100 pages really had be panicking and I genuinely had no idea how things were going to play out. Like, Annaleigh? Kinda crazy. Morella? Crazy. Cassius? Non-existant. Verity? Demon child. Fisher? No comment. I had a smug face reading this up till page 300 because I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, but Erin did a whole 360 and flipped this book on its head. I’m still trying to process everything that happened.
Okay, let’s talk about the characters for a bit. I guess I should start with Annaleigh since she’s our protagonist. If I’m being honest, she wasn’t different to any other YA female protagonist I’ve read about, but I was somehow still rooting for her. The easiest way to put it is that I felt an attachement to the story more than to her, but since she’s the narrator I slowly grew attached to her? I will say that she didn’t make as many stupid decisions as I’ve seen with other protagonists, which was nice. Although, she got distracted way too easily whenever Cassius was with her. You’re trying to find out who murdered your dead sister but you’re just going to go make out with this guy? Okay.
Cassius. That’s it, Cassius. My absolute favourite character in this entire book. He ticks off all the boxes. Hot? Check. Demi-god? Check. Husband material? CHECK. What else is there to love? I was worried about growing too attached to him in case he turned out to be the murderer, but thank God he was a genuinely good guy. He was so sweet and kind throughout this entire book. Also, did I mention he’s husband material? This man is literally perfect. A lot of people will be mad that he didn’t actually die in the end, but I’m glad. He deserves to be happy with Analeigh. It was so precious in those last few pages when he said that his wish was the easiest to grant of all the wishes they received because all he wanted was to be with her. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be crying here in the corner!
The dad was a douche. That’s all I really have to say about him. I don’t know what really happened to him, I assume he just died in the fire?
I was rooting for Morella as soon as we met her. Sure, she was ignorant and a little rude, but she did seem to be trying her best and was just lonely. Nope, guess she was just lowkey psycho and struck a bargain with one of the most dangerous Tricksters.
Camille and Annaleigh were supposedly best friends but they spent half the time arguing in this book and being passive aggressive towards each other. I mean, they are sisters but it just seemed like they were at loggerheads way too much.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I wish the mystery aspect of it was incorporated more into this book. It felt like the romance was the main aspect of the story up until about 250, when the murder mystery finally started getting good. Other than that, this was a fantastic book and I would highly highly highly recommend this.
Erin Craig really just ripped my heart out of my
chest and thought it was okay to do that. Did I make any attempt to stop her? Absolutely not. This book had me screaming by the end of it. I really wasn’t expecting such a dramatic twist at the end. This is one of the only YA fantasies that truly shocked me and that made me feel genuine fear for the characters.
The beginning of this book was 3 stars, the middle 4 stars and the ending 5 stars. I was honestly expecting a basic YA fantasy plot with a generic plot or characters, and I’m so glad this book wasn’t the case. I didn’t have high hopes while reading the beginning; it seemed kinda boring and pointless. Thank goodness I stuck through because things got so much better! We finally started picking up and the romance was really developing. And the ending. My God. That was truly something else. I had no idea what was happening and it was freaking me out. You’re literally thrown into the mix alongside Analeigh because you have no idea what’s real and what’s not.
Can we please talk about that twist at the end? What on earth was that? Those last 100 pages really had be panicking and I genuinely had no idea how things were going to play out. Like, Annaleigh? Kinda crazy. Morella? Crazy. Cassius? Non-existant. Verity? Demon child. Fisher? No comment. I had a smug face reading this up till page 300 because I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, but Erin did a whole 360 and flipped this book on its head. I’m still trying to process everything that happened.
Okay, let’s talk about the characters for a bit. I guess I should start with Annaleigh since she’s our protagonist. If I’m being honest, she wasn’t different to any other YA female protagonist I’ve read about, but I was somehow still rooting for her. The easiest way to put it is that I felt an attachement to the story more than to her, but since she’s the narrator I slowly grew attached to her? I will say that she didn’t make as many stupid decisions as I’ve seen with other protagonists, which was nice. Although, she got distracted way too easily whenever Cassius was with her. You’re trying to find out who murdered your dead sister but you’re just going to go make out with this guy? Okay.
Cassius. That’s it, Cassius. My absolute favourite character in this entire book. He ticks off all the boxes. Hot? Check. Demi-god? Check. Husband material? CHECK. What else is there to love? I was worried about growing too attached to him in case he turned out to be the murderer, but thank God he was a genuinely good guy. He was so sweet and kind throughout this entire book. Also, did I mention he’s husband material? This man is literally perfect. A lot of people will be mad that he didn’t actually die in the end, but I’m glad. He deserves to be happy with Analeigh. It was so precious in those last few pages when he said that his wish was the easiest to grant of all the wishes they received because all he wanted was to be with her. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be crying here in the corner!
The dad was a douche. That’s all I really have to say about him. I don’t know what really happened to him, I assume he just died in the fire?
I was rooting for Morella as soon as we met her. Sure, she was ignorant and a little rude, but she did seem to be trying her best and was just lonely. Nope, guess she was just lowkey psycho and struck a bargain with one of the most dangerous Tricksters.
Camille and Annaleigh were supposedly best friends but they spent half the time arguing in this book and being passive aggressive towards each other. I mean, they are sisters but it just seemed like they were at loggerheads way too much.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I wish the mystery aspect of it was incorporated more into this book. It felt like the romance was the main aspect of the story up until about 250, when the murder mystery finally started getting good. Other than that, this was a fantastic book and I would highly highly highly recommend this.