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A review by mitzee
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
It’s a long short story of love, death, abominations of nature - you know, just classic stuff.
The story is about a “mermaid” - using that term loosely because it’s probably more like an immortal humanoid monster that can’t be killed by fire nor dissection - and a plague doctor (they/them), who might have been human at some point. The book takes place at the end of their story - and ends with the beginning of their next after the plague doctor is murdered and (and so is the mermaid supposedly) the mermaid spend the next hundred or so years trying to bring their companion back to life through science and magic. But that resurrection does not happen until the epilogue.
In the primary story the plague doctor and the mermaid are traveling together when they find these kids murdering one of their friends. They soon learn it’s a ritual and that there are “saints” in the village who can bring people back to life. These saints are monsters who b have been eating these kids alive and then bringing them back.
When PD and Mermaid try to expose the truth they end up being slaughtered/captured by the kids and saints (also referred to as surgeons) and they pull the doctor apart, to mere inches of their life, while one of the surgeons starts to dissect the mermaid (for science!). Mermaid awakens mid dissection and eats the surgeon and goes to find the doctor tied to a tree. When she tries to free them the saints and kids come back and catch them both. Set them on fire, PD definitely does but mermaids breathed fire- like a dragon maybe?- and annihilates everyone in the village.
When she wakes up again everyone is ashes. She finds the doctor’s bezoar and that’s where the epilogue takes over.
The story is about a “mermaid” - using that term loosely because it’s probably more like an immortal humanoid monster that can’t be killed by fire nor dissection - and a plague doctor (they/them), who might have been human at some point. The book takes place at the end of their story - and ends with the beginning of their next after the plague doctor is murdered and (and so is the mermaid supposedly) the mermaid spend the next hundred or so years trying to bring their companion back to life through science and magic. But that resurrection does not happen until the epilogue.
In the primary story the plague doctor and the mermaid are traveling together when they find these kids murdering one of their friends. They soon learn it’s a ritual and that there are “saints” in the village who can bring people back to life. These saints are monsters who b have been eating these kids alive and then bringing them back.
When PD and Mermaid try to expose the truth they end up being slaughtered/captured by the kids and saints (also referred to as surgeons) and they pull the doctor apart, to mere inches of their life, while one of the surgeons starts to dissect the mermaid (for science!). Mermaid awakens mid dissection and eats the surgeon and goes to find the doctor tied to a tree. When she tries to free them the saints and kids come back and catch them both. Set them on fire, PD definitely does but mermaids breathed fire- like a dragon maybe?- and annihilates everyone in the village.
When she wakes up again everyone is ashes. She finds the doctor’s bezoar and that’s where the epilogue takes over.