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The Salt Grows Heavy

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From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairytale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself.

“Narrator Susan Dalian viscerally conveys the gruesome body horror while deftly capturing the lush imagery.” - Library Journal

“This brilliant novella is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.

On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them.

The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

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Maybe this book just wasn't for me. I get it's supposed to be a parable, and I think the characters really brought that aspect of the dark fairy tale to life, but I can't enjoy characters that only exist to nudge the plot along without motivation or direction. Their interactions with each other weren't all that interesting. I can't believe the mermaid would fall so hard so suddenly for the plague doctor.
What exactly the purpose of the story was is also lost on me. There are nods towards this idea of taking/giving, but because I didn't understand the characters motivations, what Khaw might have wanted to say on those themes doesn't resonate. I didn't appreciate the plague doctor explicitly stating this theme at Luke's resurrection, either. In terms of plot, things just seem to happen. The mermaid's tongue grows back. She just decides she loves the plague doctor. She decides to challenge the surgeons. I don't believe the plague doctor's beezor survived the inforno for a second.
A lot of where The Sale Grows Heavy wins points with me is in its language use. It's not perfect, but it beautifully paints this dark fairy tale world. It's clear and complex without being obscure, while also being surprisingly poetic. While I didn't fall in love with the characters, their voices were distinct, and that's always nice. There are a couple of instances where the prose rely on adjectives and adverbs to detrimental effect. The tone was also weirdly neutral and objective, which is strange for a first person narrator. While the writing is mostly excellent, there's a lot of places where you can find excellent writing these days. I thought the setting was neat, but the story, the main thing I'm reading for, didn't satisfy.

In the style of a parable

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