Reviews with content warning for Abortion - Thirst for Salt

This book was actually terrible. It was like a romance book but the love interest man, Jude, is such an insanely bad and unlikeable person to the point where there was never a point where I was rooting for him and the main character. Like he sucks so bad. He gives misogynistic vibes, is absolutely terrible at communication, is a gaslighter, and has zero emotional intelligence. And he doesn’t progress or change or grow at all. The whole time I was just questioning why the main character even liked him at all. Because seriously I was eye rolling when she said that she didn’t think she would ever stop loving him.
And beyond the terrible love interest, the main character was boring. It was interesting when she talked about her mother and their relationship, but she was kind of whiny when talking about anything else. She wasn’t very interesting and she didn’t even grow as a person that much throughout the story. Like book is told in a retrospective style, where she is talking about when she was 24, but she is currently in her 30s. But the stylistic and literary styles were the same. She seemed unchanged, which was not very realistic because I think most middle aged people would say they are very different from when they were young.
This book also treated the age gap trope in a really weirdly. The way characters talked about it just felt awkward.
I didn’t like any of the characters, and it was long and boring, and the relationship was not at all compelling. I think that some people might like this book, but coming from the perspective of being in a happy and healthy relationship, I just hated it. It felt like the least romantic book and I wished I had not read it.
And I’m not saying that books about toxic relationships can’t be good, because they can be really entertaining and enjoyable. But these characters were so one dimensional that it was so awful to read.
Listened to on Libby.

Content Warnings

bloomed's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

“For so long I have lived like the woman in the parable, looking back to see whatever ruins lay behind me. If I had remained at Sailors Beach and had a child with Jude, if I had married him, as I once imagined I would, my bridal train would have been made of salt and sand.”

no plot, just vibes, but in a really beautiful way! this might be in my top 5 for 2023; it was a great, quick read.

the prose was light and delicate without ever tipping over into sounding floral, and the actual content was really beautiful. the main character was relatable in the best way, but she was still a flawed, nuanced person. i really enjoyed how nostalgic the story seemed, too. the relationships (between the main character and jude, but also between everybody else, especially the main character and her mother) were really lovely and had a realistic push-pull to them that made them tangible—honestly, if someone handed me this book and told me it was a memoir, i’d probably believe them!

the story got a little bit heavy toward the end, so be mindful of content warnings, etc. nothing ever feels like it’s being injected for shock value, though, which is a huge plus.

Content Warnings

allisonz6's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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beanith's review

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Reading Around The World (6/199): Australia

Thirst for Salt is like a synthesis of “The Glass Essay" by Anne Carson and "The Crane Wife" by CJ Hauser, mixed, horrifyingly, with the themes of my diary (and maybe the diaries of all introspective, sensitive girl-women).

This novel is about love and how it endures.

I thought the quotation-less dialogue was a well used device and that it forced me to accept the story through the memories of the narrator. It’s her account, her feeling, of how everything happened. I don’t think she’s an unreliable narrator, no more than anyone else remembering their life, but the world is tinted by her emotions and experiences.

Gorgeous writing. I was a little surprised to find out Sailor’s Beach isn’t a real place. Lucas writes of it as if she’s walked the wet sand, smelled the salt air, and passed the Old House all her life.

The end was really difficult for me to read through. Please heed the content warnings.

Content Warnings

melissa_b_67's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Thirst for Salt is the story of the love affair between the 24 year old unnamed narrator and 42 year old Jude. The story begins with our narrator telling us that their relationship has already ended. An author who is able to grab our attention so that we continue to turn the pages, even though we know the outcome of the story from the onset, has a true talent indeed. The writing in this book is beautiful and poetic, but still accessible. Thirst for Salt is character-driven, literary fiction, and although only 272 pages, it is a story you can lose yourself in, in all the best ways. This book has a melancholic, dreamlike atmosphere which leaves the reader with a sense of nostalgia for that first great love.

Although this story does have the coming-of-age theme, which I am not drawn to these days, I was thoroughly invested in the timelessness of that deep fall into all-consuming first love. The characters were not especially lovable, but they weren't unlikable either. Again and again what drew me to this story was the author's ability to bring the fleetingness of a great love to the page, "As all lovers learn, when love ends, you lose the future as well as the past."

With the atmospheric Australian beach setting, sub-plots of mother-daughter bonds and the impact of childhood loss on adult relationships, the author's choice to keep the narrator unnamed, the absence of quotation marks, and the many nuances of the love affair, Thirst for Salt is a book you will want to both immerse yourself in and discuss with others.

I have to add that I am obsessed with the title of this book. Thirst for Salt conjures up so many thoughts and images, and the title is perfectly suited for this story.

Thirst for Salt was a 5 star read for me, but I also felt conflicted while reading it due to some unusual stylistic and character choices made by the author. I borrowed Thirst for Salt from Libby and read on my Kindle, but I think I might purchase a printed copy for my shelves. The writing is gorgeous and I'm certain I will want to go back and read certain passages again and again.

If you like an immersive love story, without a perfect storybook ending, leaving you with all the feels, you might want to give Thirst for Salt a try.

Content Warnings

callmeamelia's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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