Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

62 reviews

caitlinemccann's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Rape and Pregnancy

infinitelibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY is technically the story of a plague doctor and a mermaid, a description which does not do nearly enough to imply how cool and weird this book is. The main character is not nameless, but her name is explicitly one that cannot be pronounced by humans, and so neither does the story render it in a form I could repeat. It deals with cycles of abuse, a religious cult, deprogramming, reclaiming agency, and the need to rescue someone in a bad situation like the one you yourself previously escaped. It’s also about a group of children worshiping a trio of surgeons who claim that death is not murder because they’ll be brought back to life. The children become more and more distorted, changing into a strange collection of remnants in the hands of those who would use and abuse them under claim of immortality.

Khaw's style has clearly developed more since HAMMERS ON BONE (also excellent), and this is less of a romp than THE ALL-CONSUMING WORLD. It has their willingness to just let a story be bleak without being depressing, finding hope interwoven with death, plus a strange interlude into cult deprogramming. It is specifically a follow up to one of the stories from the collection BREAKABLE THINGS, called "And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice". That story is included in the back of THE SALT GROWS HEAVY for anyone who needs a refresher.

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY is a truly excellent piece of horror. I’m very glad I read it. I hope you like it too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Sexism, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

"And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice" - Graphic CW for blood, gore, death. Moderate CW for toxic relationship, confinement, pregnancy, miscarriage, violence, cannibalism.

spadedigsbutts's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

Just a very raw book in general! Lots of poetic language and it really just dives into the story right away. I didn't quite get a grasp of the personalities of the main two characters, but it was absolutely fine for what it is. 

[Will add more later!]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cecetomas's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

This novella is fantastic. It's queer gore done perfectly. The language and imagery in this book are just haunting in the most incredible, addictive way. I'm not always a huge fan of retellings but this one was done so well that I almost forgot that it was. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Medical content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Pregnancy

iamastraythought's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Quite a quick read, easy to digest in one sitting. Brutal, but beautifully so, as a fairy tale should be. A hint of Frankenstein in there as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Blood, and Cannibalism

Minor: Pregnancy

jayjm94's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It certainly has its moments and clearly the author is talented. However, I’ve read many many challenging books in my day, ranging from classics to modern books that are heavily stylized or just extremely long and this book still takes the cake for most difficult to follow as far as just visualizing what is literally happening moment by moment. At times it’s beautifully and painfully written, however editing would have been amazing. Any amount of subtlety would’ve been amazing. Any amount of commitment to the reader understanding exactly what’s unfolding before them would’ve been amazing. I understood the plot and sequence events, but got very frequently bogged down by metaphor after flowery metaphor. It’s not an accessible read. I enjoyed the take on mermaids for sure, but the ending was not earned in the slightest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

pullgodem's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic