Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Salt Grows Heavy

Did not live up the premise! A lot of overly descriptive, borderline garrulous prose that amounted to very little substance, character building, or plot. it felt like they received a thesaurus for christmas from a loved one and wrote this book to prove they’d used it.

it got to the point where the sensorial detail even became repetitive; blood = rubies, entrails = coils/ribbons, bones = baby teeth… we get it! tons of words used over & over to the point where it almost felt like copy/paste. for a book so short it shouldn’t have been hard to come up with a word to replace “bathyal” instead of saying it over & over

neither of the leads were interesting. we were on the cusp of so many interesting details about “mermaid” lore, about human reanimation, the magical universe they are in, but the author chose to squander that on pages and pages of describing trees and skin and teeth. the romance had potential to be interesting, but again… the author chose to focus on how everything smelled and tasted for some reason

also this was an extremely loose “fairytale retelling”; I was personally okay with that, but don’t come in expecting anything detailed in that regard. Khaw doesn’t really go into detail about anything that isn’t a texture or a taste

if style over substance is your jam, this may be for you! it is firmly not mine so 2 stars trending downward. I had a similar complaint with Nothing But Blackened Teeth, so I think this author is just on the Don’t Read list for me :/ kernels of really interesting but ultimately unrealized premise seem to be the lay of the land. spent the whole book waiting for Khaw to get into the story only for there not to be a story at

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kylasmv15's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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leeghlee's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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alite428's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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rmgmorrow's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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thecaffeinatedlibrary's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense

5.0

A story that is at once grotesque, and cosy. Hannibal meets The Little Mermaid in this dark horror novella, and I loved every single minute of it!

I had no idea what to expect from this novella, but I was immediately sold with two words: mermaid, plague doctor. I didn’t need anymore convincing.

This has some horrifyingly beautiful writing, prose that is so shocking and visual that you don’t know whether to be disgusted or awed. It is perfectly paced, and flows like a whirling cursive script. This story accomplishes so, SO much in 128 pages. It is atmospheric, horrifying and deeply romantic.

I highly recommend this one!

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