Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

10 reviews

uncreativeoops's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

Took me a while to get into but once the main characters had an actual goal i was hooked. Gorgeous writing and creative similes; you either spend a very long time reading it to catch everything or you can find new things upon rereading it. The body horror is also very graphic in a lyrical way. I have no idea, where the setting was supposed to be, how the world or magic works. This felt like history, fantasy, and postapocalyptic at once and I didn't even mind. Also yes to violent reinterpretations of mermaids; beings from the ocean are terrifying and this should apply to mythological male fantasies as well.

Also I wasn't expecting the most raw love confession followed by torture followed by characters dying several times followed by a Frankensteinesque scene that had me giggling (??) and I still haven't processed it.

I was expecting the body horror, but not body horror mixed with so many emotions it was WILD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Kidnapping, Gore, Child death, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Miscarriage, and Child abuse

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Child death, Medical content, and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, and Dysphoria

kelskiiz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

soooooo good, super dark and explicit but beautifully written imagery. the way their relationship was written was one of my favourite things; not many words, tender actions, and understanding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault and Confinement

hereticburger's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• 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: Cannibalism, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Sexual assault

kamiho's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

Very dark. A bloodthirsty mermaid and a nonbinary plague doctor? A keen come on. I want 500 more pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

alexandratheroux's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? No

3.75

CW: Body Horror. Lots and lots of body horror. If I had known there would be as much body horror in this, I don't think I would have read it.

This short novel is so engrossing and original and sucks you in very quickly. The author uses very flowery prose to make gruesome and vicious acts feel magical. Though at times their word choices felt less like an artistic choice and almost like showing off.
Recommended for fans of dark fairytales. Not recommended for folks with weak stomachs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault

virgilsinferno's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual assault

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Miscarriage, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

emimli's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

2.0

I wanted to love this, but ultimately it fell flat for me.

My biggest gripe with this book is that the ending seemed very rushed and didn’t fit with the overall atmosphere of the story. It also felt very unearned. I’m not a fan of deus-ex-machina style endings where the central conflict is solved using a completely new, previously unmentioned plot/world/character element, which is unfortunately exactly what happens here. 

Additionally, from a technical standpoint, Khaw’s writing style is  pretty unbearable. Her prose reads like she just discovered the synonym tool in Microsoft Word. It’s overwrought to the point of being nonsensical at times.

The love story at the centre of this book was my favourite part, but even that needed to be built up much more.

The two MCs go from being vaguely horny for each other to expressing their undying love within mere hours. Nevermind that, as far as the reader knows, the MCs barely ever interacted prior to the events of the story, and now they’re too busy fighting for their lives against immortal sadists to have any real meaningful conversations. Am I supposed to believe these people are desperately in love when they barely even know each other? We needed a slower burn.

Overall, there are some  cool ideas in here, but the execution was sorely lacking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Torture