Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

377 reviews

laurenbookishtwins's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

 "It is always interesting to see how often women are described as ravenous when it is the men who, without exception, take without thought of compensation."

A man-eating mermaid meets a non-binary plague doctor after her daughters have eaten their princely father and ravaged the kingdom, and together, they flee. On their travels, they stumble upon a cult of children who worship three saints and find themselves in danger. THE SALT GROWS HEAVY is The Little Mermaid meets Frankenstein, a grisly fairytale horror with heavy and poetic prose—trigger warnings: bodily horror, blood and gore, miscarriage, dismemberment, cannibalism. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

snackattackisback69's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I adored the two main characters and the concept of this book. Paired with the impeccable writing it could have been a 5 star read for me if the book had not been so short. I wish even another 100 pages went into expanding the world or fleshing out the ending. Additionally there is a section at the end about a character's backstory that I feel would have fit better at the beginning. If you are interested in this book I would also check the trigger warnings as it is quite graphic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

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

leafhead's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Genocide, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

schluemr's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

So weird but loved so much - challenged my vocabulary

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Medical trauma, and Murder

katee17's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood

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