The Salt Grows Heavy

I learned of this book before it was out and waited for it with excitement. I always love novels with fewer pages and this was no exception. From the very start, I was sucked into the story and loved the characters. The relationship between the plague doctor and the narrator was so soft and intimate especially contrasted with the story around them. Their enormous care for each other was my favourite part. 

The writing was somewhat hard to understand in the beginning and I had the urge to look up a great many words but after a while it became easier and I wasn't bothered by it nonetheless. The prose was amazing and I could have saved about a million quotes from this book with how beautiful everything was described. I hope Khaw has more novels like this because I will consume them with fervor. 

Honestly I'm completely surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Hear me out. I didn't like Nothing But Blackened Teeth AT ALL! The writing was too flowery and heavy with purple prose. The characters were flat and nothing really happened, especially nothing horror related.

But The Salt Grows Heavy is nothing like Nothing but Blackened Teeth. The plot is unique. It screams gothic horror. I absolutely adored the theme of “the Hunt” incorporating characters like a Plague Doctor and a mermaid who eats humans. Characters were interesting and different.

She absolutely crushed it with the body horror. All I can say without spoilers is if you have a weak stomach, good luck.

Khaw's writing is beautiful in this novella. It was way less “purple” and it showcases how strong of a writer she really is. I'm happy I took another chance on her writing.

Khaw spun a love story amongst all the gore and body horror that really brought the story together showing that true love really can withstand anything.

Alternatively visceral, poignantly sweet and visually striking it left me wanting more but I can see why some readers might struggle with this one. It was a little hard to follow at times, but the writing style was so beautiful that it was still a very pleasant reading experience. I LOVE a very stylized prose that forces you to slow down to really appreciate it and I think that's what Khaw delivers here.

A mermaid, estranged from her husband's court (having killed/eaten them all, I presume), is accompanied by a plague doctor who finds her in the aftermath on a journey to escape. On their way they come upon a village consisting entirely of almost feral children—and three surgeons whom the children call saints. The children claim the saints can bring them back to life better than before, but the surgeons are nigh immortal and children brought back are sometimes missing organs. It doesn’t take long for this duo to catch onto the reason behind the immortality, and it’s the plague doctor who wants to save the children whether or not they want to be saved. Unfortunately, good intentions lead to sad conclusions.

Or, at least, that’s what I’m assuming the plot was. Honestly, it felt like the author sorted a thesaurus by least commonly used words and wrote a book using only those. This prose is so purple, it’s almost black. There’s a creepy folklore story buried in here, but not being able to follow along fully with what was going on from scene to scene sometimes really took me out of it. I wish I could rate this book higher, but not being able to fully follow a story makes it difficult for me to recommend it to other people.

Also, there’s lots of visceral detail here. So if excessively detailed surgical scenes, cracked ribcages, eating of eyeballs, descriptions of entrails, and much, much more is not your cup of tea, pass on this.

I did not expect to like this at all. I'm really hit and miss with lyrical writing styles so I avoid any full-length novels with it but I pick up some novellas from time to time. All I knew about the book was that it was lyrical horror, that was and. But this book is so much more. 

I'm not really the most eloquent person to breakdown all of the themes and discussions in the text, so I'll leave you to read some other reviews for that. But what I can point out is just how much I cared about these characters. I was tearing up by the end of it and that never happens to me since it's really hard to make me care that much about the characters in such a small amount of time, especially in a fantasy genre since there has to be some page time used for setting up the world and/or magic system. Also, if you are intimidated by the more lyrical writing style, don't be. I found that it wasn't hard to follow the story at all. I wish I highlighted some passages and quotes that resonated with me, so I'll definitely try to re-read by the end of the year to actually do that.

There was also a short story at the end of the book that is actually the origin of this novella, and it seems to have been published in the Dark Magazine before. I think that also enhance my reading experience since it gave context for the beginning and stuff mentioned throughout the novella, so I definitely recommend you read it. 

I'll absolutely be checking out more stuff from this author in the future. 

LOL at that one review for saying she didn't get it because of the vocabulary in the novel. Is google also too hard to understand?

Everything else aside - if you didn't follow because of not having an understanding of the vocabulary, you willingly chose to remain ignorant from laziness.

Some things just irk me, dumb insipid people being one of them.

Promising premise but would've liked it if it was edited to be more concise. There was one passage when I actually thought, "Ok, we get it, it's a religious text" and I didn't need a whole paragraph about how it's a religious text instead of what the religious text actually was

Honestly can't understand what exactly happened at the climax, and there was some conflicting details in the world building. For some reason, the set up for the entire story is contained in a short post epilogue AND post acknowledgement short story that would've served everyone better if it had been up in the beginning.

The romance between the main characters also happened suddenly without any build, so I was left wondering why the language changed abruptly.

The more I mulled on it, the less I think I personally liked it, but the Plague Doctor and premise of a vengeful woman still had a lot of promise.

I could easily see this being a 4star read or higher if I had read this as a physical or e-book instead of audio book. That is NOT because the narration was bad, it wasn’t, but the prose style was such that it begs you to take your time reading and maybe even rereading some passages, and I found myself getting lost in the lyrical nature of it all on audio.

This was a really interesting story with characters not quite like others I’ve read (a mermaid and a plague doctor) that left me with a lot of questions. A lot of which I wish I had answers to.

Also the love story aspect was very nice and I was enjoying it but ultimately I didn’t feel like I understood why the characters were so in love.

I think I have to reread this to get all I want out of it, at least I hope that is the case.

The Salt Grows Heavy was recommended to me by a coworker, and they even brought their copy in for me to read. Even though it's such a short book, it took me a while, about two months, to finish it. I picked it up for a bit, then stopped for a long while. I finished the last half in the past two or three days.

Without looking at a blurb, it's hard for me to say exactly what this book was about. Maybe that's my own fault because I went so long between starting and finishing. After looking it up, I'm reminded that this is a story of a mermaid and a plague doctor who become more-or-less trapped in a village of children and surgeons. The story is full of gore and mystery. There's elements of fantasy and, I suppose, science-fiction, though nothing is fully explained.

I think my issue is with many novellas or short stories I read: the setup isn't there. I'm not oriented enough when I begin the story, so I don't understand how things work or where we are. However, I continue on, trying to enjoy it. By the end, the story felt flat, like the big flourish of an ending, or even a climax, wasn't there. I left disappointed, because I did really enjoy the writing of this novella. It's creepy and gory. The mythology of the mermaid here is terrifying, and the reader realizes it over time. That's the novella's strength. Everything else, though, seems like extras so the author could share this mythology.

The plot was uninteresting to me, and at the end something happens that seems completely out of left field. I don't know if the author was building to it, if it's not a spoiler, or if it's obvious. I'm not going to say what it is just in case, but it seemed so awkward and wrong for the story. Suffice it to say, I didn't like the ending.

I would definitely read other stories by Khaw because the writing was great. This was the first thing I've read from them, so of course I'd try again. Also, it has no bearing on anything, but this cover is absolutely stunning. I would hang this on my wall!

https://tinyleafbooks.wordpress.com/

This was such an interesting read. Honestly I've never read anything like this before so I was nervous going in. I ended up enjoying this. I liked the way the story was written, the sentences were beautiful. I liked following our main character and learning a little bit about her. I loved the plague doctor, they were so interesting to learn about. I did find myself skimming at some parts. I had some trouble following along and trying to figure out what was happening. The ending had me tearing up. I felt like we got to know these characters but I wanted to know them a little bit more. Overall, this was a really fun and interesting read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 2.3 leaves out of 5Characters: 2/5 Cover: 2.5/5Story: 1.5/5Writing: 3/5Horror: 2.5/5Genre: Horror/FantasyType: AudiobookWorth?: If this is your thing go for itHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book. I had been on the fence of listening to this audio and to be honest I should have listened to my guy on not getting it. It was as dead as the victims in this book. As lifeless and grayscaled. There were moments when things were a bit... spooky but it was mostly gore-ish and anything having to do with kids are a kinda... triggering. I get the concept of the whole thing it just wasn't done as well as I would have hoped.

This is a beautifully written novella with lots of body horror that very unfortunately made me feel nothing. A mermaid, who was held captive and was mutilated by her husband, is traveling with a plague doctor until one day they run into children playing a game of “piggy.” I know there were themes in this that should have enraged or touched me, but yeah a complete miss for and I don't know why, it has so many things I normally like. Honestly I think it was too intellectual for me.