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

dark mysterious medium-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

3.0

I wanted to love this book, one bc it’s a 12 dancing princesses retelling, and two bc the romance was good. Also really loved the atmosphere and spookiness. Truly a horror fantasy YA novel. 

But there were a few problems that were great enough to knock this rating from a 4 star down to 3. 

Without spoilers, this mc has little going for her. She’s rich and pretty and entitled and does care about the people she loves.. but she doesn’t do much except figure out the problems and even then she was told the problems. Seemed like she wasn’t trying to find the villain/murderer and just was exasperated from the grief ensued upon her—which I can understand but to an extent.
But the outcomes would’ve happened even if she had done nothing.

Now here for the main reasons with spoilers.
<Why did Cassius come to her and await Annaleigh? Never brought that up besides the fact that he was looking after his father. And why were the 3 sisters deaths not explained? That seems to be a stupid plot point because it didn’t even shine light on a lesson. And also, I thought the point of this was that the dancing was supposed to kill people? It hasn’t killed the first five people! Their deaths were substantial but not enough to give in my opinion. Also, I’m conflicted with Cassius bc he could’ve killed those five people but he didn’t. I think that would’ve enticed me more if it was him rather the step mom. But I knew it’d be her from that first moment she was peeved that her son wouldn’t be heir. I do like that he loved Annaleigh though and was kinda sweet.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings