Cassandra Khaw has reimagined The Little Mermaid after the happily ever after and it is ominous. The story follows a mermaid on the run with a plague doctor after her daughters have consumed the kingdom and left it in ashes. They arrive at a forest where children are constantly revived by three saints in the village, they are captivated by their nature and must discover what is at the root of it all.

This is actually one of the most viscerally descriptive short stories that I’ve ever read. Khaw does an incredible job of making the children creepy yet innocent, their fear and pain is palpable and I too felt the need that the characters feel to get to the bottom of the reasoning behind the obvious cruelty of the saints.

Read this if you want a grim re-imaging of The Little Mermaid, but be aware their is vivid descriptions of body horror, gore, child abuse, genocide, cannibalism, torture, medical experimentation.

Great book! It had all the fears of growing up. Make a choice. Turn the page or close the book. Enter the darkness if you wish!

“The Salt Grows Heavy” by Cassandra Khaw is a dark and suspenseful novelette that guides readers into a dark and twisted story of an alliance between a plague doctor and a mermaid as they face the horrors of ageless children and the leader who corrupts them.

An incredibly fascinating concept that hade guessing every step of the way. With this said, I thought the length did great disservice. I felt that maybe if it was longer with more character depth and lead in, the story would have been more captivating. I wanted so much more!

This one was a miss for me. I definitely preferred Nothing But Blackened teeth. I would still read more of her book.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, Tor Nightfire for the copy of this eArc. I read this book way back in May 2023. Sometimes life gets in the way of reviews despite the reviewers best intentions. This is this reviewer's attempt to make up for past regressions. I really like Cassandra Khaw's writing style but the books are hit or miss depending on the subject matter. This one was a miss for me and I could hardly remember what it was about after I put it back on the "shelf". I'll still read Khaw when new books are released but the mermaid+folklore subject matter didn't fit for me.

‘The Salt Grows Heavy’ by Cassandra Khaw is a blood and gore filled reimagining of the classic mermaid tale.

A mute mermaid is forced out of her kingdom after her ravenous daughters devour the king and the people. She finds herself in the company of a plague doctor as she flees. She encounters a series of horrifying events that test her resilience and morality.

The prose here was surprisingly beautiful while still being quite visceral. I loved the mood that this book created as well as its memorable main characters.

Cassandra Khaw weaves eerie and disturbing tales with the perfect amount of lyrical beauty. I loved this one so much and am already eager to re-read it for all of the things I missed.

Quote from Cemetery Dance review -

In its bleak yet lyrically stunning style, The Salt Grows Heavy is among the most cleverly crafted stories I've ever read. It's insightful and mind-bending. Peculiarly pragmatic at times, an impressive feat for a grim reimagining of a tale typically told with consent between the mermaid and humans and ending in a marriage that can only breed happiness.

This was macabre and delightfully dark. A twist on mermaids I didn’t know I needed. Every novella gets better and better.

Really, really beautifully written, wow. The prose is so lyrical and rich, and flows along wonderfully. Very much a horrific fairytale.

I just cannot connect to this author’s writing. I didn’t enjoy Nothing but Blackened Teeth by this same author, but I wanted to give them another chance, however, the writing style just doesn’t work for me. I find it to be very choppy and I can’t picture what’s going on in the story. This book will work better for someone who’s reading taste better aligns with the author’s style of storytelling.

Thank you Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

Pretentious. Khaw writes this with thesaurus evidently nearby and it’s distracting. When I learned they used to be scriptwriter for Ubisoft it also made a ton of sense because this whole book reads like an indie game cutscene.

I’ve had my eye on this author ever since Nothing But Blackened Teeth came out years ago. This similarly brief nightmare of a novella showcases the growing talent that I and other readers first noticed in her earlier work.

This book chronicles the story of a mermaid (of a kind you’ve never seen in fiction before, trust me) and a nameless plague doctor wandering a bleak, hostile, fantasy world, searching for a place to start anew. Along the way they must battle the elements, semi feral children, and malevolent surgeons with pretentions to immortality. But as they search for some place to call their own, the relationship between these two consummate outcasts deepens from mere dependence for survival into something far more resonant and beautiful.

The world depicted here is uniquely dark and upsetting, it feels fully fleshed out and lived in for all that we only get brief descriptions of it. Khaw's gruesome plot is rendered beautiful with her remarkably unique and poetic language, a major strong suit of this talented writer. The characters make a compelling pair and play wonderfully off each other. The world building is top notch but its in the interactions between our two main characters that this book really shines. This IS a horror story too, make no mistake, there’s some genuinely nasty stuff in here even for people accustomed to the likes of Stephen King and Clive Barker.

But in the end The Salt Grows Heavy is that rarest of birds, a gruesome, macabrely beautiful tale skillfully weaving the disparate threads of both horror and romance into a compelling and memorable tapestry. Khaw spins a story as chilling as it is heartfelt and as frightening as it is ultimately sweet and love affirming.

This is a stunning fantasy horror novella. Khaw reimagines a version of The Little Mermaid where the prince wasn't so sweet and spins a tale, not about revenge, but about the aftermath. The mermaid (for lack of a better description or a name) leaves her husband's kingdom in ruins, accompanied by a plague doctor who is more than they seem. I adored the elegant and imaginative prose, and appreciated the complex motivation of characters who are unapologetic about their natures.

I truly loved this gothic horror romance. My heart swelled with joy many, many times. There is something so incredible about seeing two people who are so meant to find each other become close. The twists and turns of this plot kept me intrigued, but I was really here to watch the characters interact. They both spoke to me on so many levels. This almost reads as a fairy tale--- something old as time, full of magic, and slightly ineffable. The writing style is fluid and flavorful, the world is lush and terrifying, the horror is deliciously off-putting. I would love another short story set in this same universe from such an outstanding author.

It was weird and hard to follow on audio, even with how short it was. The images and descriptions were a little amorphous for me to grasp while listening. Probably better to physically read.

I didn’t enjoy Khaw’s debut but I’m always willing to give a second chance, especially since the synopsis sounded so intriguing. unfortunately I had a lot of the same issues with this as Blackened Teeth in the way the characters are written, so I believe Khaw is just not a match for me as a reader

I didn't really have much idea of what I was getting into when I started reading The Salt Grows Heavy, but the more I read, the more I couldn't put it down. It was dark, beautiful, and haunting. I appreciated the relationship between the mermaid and the plague doctor, the tension between the two building every step of the way. Definitely content warning with the gore and body horror, but I think this story is the perfect length to get drawn into for a sitting.

I'm sure there's a wonderful creepy story underneath all the baroque prose but I had a difficult time getting past it.

A fever dream with angel wings. I got sucked into this eerie, nightmarish fable with shocking imagery and heartstopping prose.