A really interesting idea with strong important topics and some good thoughts… but I did not enjoy this book much at all. Found myself speed reading just for it to be over. Not for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!

I was really excited for this sci-fi, superhero novella but unfortunately it didnt work out as I expected! The formatting was a bit odd to me which I usually dont mind. But I felt confused most of the times as I didnt see the purpose of the story.

I had to DNF this one (at 22%) because the voice of the narrator was just a bit to childish for me and I couldn't get into the story.
It did get two stars though because it talked about some important topics like the treatment of women and their bodies, as well as the residential schools and how Indigenous Canadian children were kidnapped and forced to attend what were essentially Christian cults (the nuns and priests who ran these places would try to erase these children's culture, torture and essentially brainwash them). The issue was that the author brought up these topics at really inappropriate times, like, when MC and here group of friends were talking about aliens and then all of a sudden one character starts talking about the cruelty of residential schools. They are important topics to discuss, it's just that it seems like they could have been better woven into the story... or just written into a completely different story.

This was a real struggle to read.
I read about a third and lost the will to continue.
Since I received a ARC for a fair and honest review I tried again Yesterday. Having waited in for most of the day for a delivery that never came I felt like I had lost a day. This book was not part of that conspiracy but was both a waste of my reading time and a book to remind me that there is a fine line between good and bad literature at times not just on opinions.
The book as an idea: This is a great concept and when being talked about in planning and such, full of potential, nuance and affirming positive role models.
The book as a book. This is a disaster and to say it lost its way is like saying London is in Canada.
I struggled with the many ideas not thought through and added to a collection of characters of female super heroes. They were not quite rounded as individuals more like cubes melting before your eyes.
Issues of bullying, self doubt and racism were introduced but then undermined by a ridiculous plot that demonised corporate boardrooms, lack of female equality, political and religious extremism while introducing no moral compass.
Not sure of the audience intended. I would not be happy to allow pre-teen readers, especially girls to read it as it seems to confuse action and the fight against prejudice as either a comic book saga or a battle already lost. The super heroes have no true message as equally weak on the corporate sell and prone to cliché attitudes to handsome men.
If it as not for the promise to review I would be saying I failed to read this due to its lack of cohesion and plot. Reading to its conclusion I will pay more attention to reviewers who similarly abandon a book. Some books who can just tell a few pages in they were not written for you.
Sad as it had so many issues to address and dragons to slay. Too many ideas crammed into too many characters. Confused, less would have been more. Written with the best of intentions, with a vast insight into to the super hero comic format but lacking planning and oversight.
Indeed the use of killing others is too lightly referred to rather than elsewhere within these where it is acknowledged good needs evil. Here life is at times seen as cheap, a solution to different political or misogynistic views. Sexual values inappropriate to 8 - 12 year olds in the story.
If this is Satire then it is not Animal Farm.
Sweet or sour? Left a bad taste in my mouth.

It's not a good sign when you can't finish reading a *novella*. But I couldn't finish this one. The opening pages were just terrible. First-person narration is always hit-or-miss, and this was a very definite miss; I couldn't stand the main character's 'voice', and the writing is just. Kind of a trainwreck.

In our opening, the main character is 'a little dizzy' from drinking ginger ale. I'd like to know how that's possible, since ginger ale is non-alcoholic in it's modern form. But maybe the alleged tipsiness is supposed to excuse sentences like this

'Actually, "it" was a "he", so I should call him that instead. I'm all about giving respect when it's deserved or earned.'

What? I genuinely don't understand what's being said here. Is she claiming that using the correct pronoun is a sign of respect? It's basic courtesy, and it's definitely disrespectful to refuse to use a person's chosen pronouns, but this is being framed like calling him 'he' is similar to calling him 'sir', which is bizarre.

'He' is a ghost, who is in fact not a ghost, but 'a deity who resides in all through which information communication is transmitted.' On its own, this is an interesting concept, but...a god? An actual *god* has appeared in your living room, and it's only vaguely startling, and where did he come from? Are there other gods? What makes him a god? What does this mean for religion in the world of this novella?

'So again, like a goof, I asked him again: "You mean you're from the telephone company?'

Okay, the character is 'tipsy' (somehow) and I guess people do and say ridiculous things when they're tipsy. But it's the repeated 'again' in that sentence that makes me twitch - it's something very basic that should have been edited out of the first draft. But that's kind of the problem; this novella reads like a first draft that *really* needs a few more rounds of edits. It's jerky, awkward, and random (not in a good way), and the writing itself is incredibly unpolished. An interesting premise can't save from terrible execution.

Honey and Salt is ideal for the fan of science fiction and comic books. I especially liked the author’s creativity in crafting this fantasy world.