Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

228 reviews

justjai's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This book at first took a bit to get into. The prose reminded me of bramble off to the side of an unbroken path, me getting caught every once in a while. But I carried on, the story felt a bit distant, but I loved the language and the bits of lore, gore and fantasy woven into it. It’s short page length definitely helped in my enjoyment of this the story told in this style.

This book lent me it's words for a few evenings and I enjoyed each one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

alexandryareads's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism and Religious bigotry

frawst_disasta_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

“But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth.”
This is a novella about stopping horrible saints.  It grapples with the horror of cult like behaviour.

But the book is actually a love story that develops between the main characters, a deep love that is felt on the page.

While not my usual book of choice, I think this book will live rent free for quite some time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Outing

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

gauriraut's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

shetef's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This book started out fairly interesting but just fell apart catastrophically around the end of the first chapter. Lots of interesting ideas raised and then abandoned. I was pretty excited to have some masc non-binary rep but the author whiffed it on this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, and Cannibalism

Minor: Antisemitism

honeydewdaze's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Holy shit. goth as hell. 72000/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder

crow_bee's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Is the prose flowery and dense at times? Yes. The writing, however, is still well done. The Salt Grows Heavy consumed me during the 2.4 hours it took for me to read it. It’s short-it’s sweet (besides the gore and body horror lol) and I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere and tone. This book was weakest in its final act but still left me satisfied overall.

I am going to recommend this to people if they are looking for a Halloween read- as it’s spooky and bloody but (personally) didn’t gross or freak me out like some other horror novels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Cannibalism

paigehf's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Torture, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

raybudbury's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

Not my ass being like “the gore was fun but the story was eh”. Makes me sound crazy but whatever, we love gore in this house. Story was hard to follow a bit + wasn’t grabbing me as much as I wanted it to. Actually probably would be better if it were longer 🫶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

cfell's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail