A gruesome mermaid on land and an androgynous plague doctor take on a dystopian world. it's a love story and a horror story all wrapped up in one wild short story. I really enjoyed this as a love story, with the horror woven in, but I don't think it was the most readable. It uses a lot of words I needed to look up, and just felt a little clunky in places as novellas can tend to be. Super clever, but definitely not everyone in readability/vocabulary as well as in gruesomeness.

As strange and mythic as this was, as much as I didn't really understand what was going on, I feel I can't give it anything less than 5 stars. The writing is pure poetry. Khaw has such a unique way with words, it's breathtaking. The feeling of never giving up for the person you love, always finding your way back to them, was very lovely and done in such an interesting way. It was pure magic reading this fairy tale. It felt like a dream, like I was floating along and just along for the ride, but I loved every second of it.

I suppose my only complaint is the almost excessive use of "big words". I had to look up lots of the words, and it almost felt pretentious. But at the same time I think it also adds to the ethereal, otherworldliness of the tale. All in all it was a remarkable dream to experience.

It starts with a mermaid, standing in the ruins of the kingdom that thought it could contain her, and a mysterious plague doctor, stitched together from many parts, deciding to travel together. They come across a strange cult, worshiping a trio of "surgeons" conducting some *really* unethical human experiments. This is a dark and grisly tale that should be a small horror classic.

Why don't I rate the story higher? Because the most terrifying part of it is Khaw's tortured prose. Each page is littered with wince-inducing sentences like "in the penumbra, the fading dusk gorgeted by coral and gold" and "the zenith of her head barely grazing the circumference of the plague doctor's shoulders." Half the time the flowery words don't even quite mean what Khaw seems to think they do; it's like they spent all their time flipping through a thesaurus to find the longest synonyms they could without giving any consideration to the words' subtle variations of meaning.

Received via NetGalley.

Oh what an horrifying little adventure this was. This story follows our main character mermaid and her seemingly faithful companion the plague doctor as they discover a terrifying village. A terrifying village whose leaders are not at all what they seem.

This is such a fast paced and creepy adventure. It took me a minute to realize that we don't really need to know all of the world because Khaw does such a great job framing the story. I loved getting to experience this story and I think it is quite honestly my favorite Khaw story to date! Check it out!!

For fans of Dark Fantasy, Grimm's Fairy Tales, body horror, and artistic prose.

This is a tough one to review for me, as it was a tough one to read at times. There are some beautifully written, horrifically graphic scenes, which I loved. But often times I found myself tripping over odd, uncommon words that were like speedbumps in the tale. It felt, at times, like the author was more concerned about inserting archaic language than advancing the story.

The story itself is unique take on a mermaid tale and I enjoyed the overall theme of not giving up on those you love. Khaw definitely knows how to write some deliciously dark body horror, which was the highlight of the book for me. I just wish I didn't trip over so many words that I had to look up. To paraphrase from Stephen King's On Writing, the key to good description is clear writing and simple vocabulary. I was thankful that I had my kindle for this one, so that I could easily look up definitions. I did learn a lot of words I didn't know, so my thanks to the author for that.

Thank you to Tor NightFire and NetGalley for providing an eArc. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this eARC!

I want to preface my review by saying that I read Nothing But Blackened Teeth by this author and really disliked it. I didn't like the writing style, but the story was also extremely lacking and the characters so off-putting. But I still wanted to give her one last chance with a story that sounded far better than Nothing But Blackened Teeth.

I was correct, at least in that the story and characters were much better. But it seems like Khaw's writing is just not for me. It is entirely overwritten. Similes and metaphors clog every sentence to the point you don't even remember what was happening. When purple prose gets too purple, it loses its meaning and depth and just becomes filler on the page.

The exceptions to this, in this book at least, comes with the descriptions of body horror. I love flowery prose paired with vile content and this is where Khaw's writing did work for me. But the prose never lets up or loosens so it makes for a very uptight reading experience. And as with her last novella, I feel like we just right-clicked every word and replaced it with a synonym. A very rarely used synonym that I had to look up. Which added to the clogged up feeling of every sentence.

Outside of the writing, I did like the story. I think the mermaid part felt a little unnecessary? We would periodically be reminded that our main character is a mermaid, but beyond that, it never really impacted the story. She could have just been a normal person and not much would have changed. And lastly, what really did not work for me...the romance aspect of this book. It is predominately a horror book, don't get me wrong. But the small romance aspect soured the experience for me. Mainly because it had no build up. It felt completely out of place and forced. It had potential to be compelling, but I don't think enough effort was made in that area.

I know Khaw's writing could absolutely work for others, but it's too much for me. I recommend this book for fans of body horror and flowery prose! And don't let me negative review sway you if you've never read any of Khaw's works, this is only 100 pages so its worth a try if you are curious (I don't feel the same about Nothing But Blackened Teeth...).

*2.5/5 stars rounded up to 3/5 stars*

I...honestly I don't know what to say about this book. It's a quick read, only a little over 100 pages so technically a novella, I guess? It's a twist on the story of the Little Mermaid, only this mermaid is terrifying and horrible but also a little awesome and is accompanied by a doctor wearing a plague mask and they stumble across a bunch of kids who are kind of murderers but kind of not and worship three dudes who also wear creepy masks, and it's sort of body horror/feminism/romance/revenge? I don't know! But I did like it!

Unfortunately this is my first DFN in a long while. I tried hard, but honestly I just couldn’t get into it. I think this is 80% a me problem, the writing was so pretentious and trying too hard that I could not connect. I read about 30% and had almost no clue what was going on. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this author, as I can see that I’m in the minority when it comes to her books.
I dont want to have to work so hard to enjoy a story.

The Salt Grows Heavy is such an intriguing novella. We are thrown right into the story and introduced to
our two characters, a mysterious plague doctor and a mermaid travelling to a creepy isolated village run by a youthful cult and self-proclaimed saints. The story is violent with plenty of gore, carnage and body horror, but it is also a haunting, lyrical tale of love and justice. A grotesque fairy tale with a beautiful heart. Thank you Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for giving me an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was EXACTLY what I was looking for in a novella. And to top it all off, I guess I'm now a fan of horror romance and Cassandra Khaw.

This is a must-read for any horror fan. I'm not really a gore fan, but I'll make an exception for this because it was well-written. The pacing was also well done that even with lulls in the prose, I was still hooked on the story enough to keep reading in (almost) one sitting.

The mermaid and the plague doctor were written in a way that made you really want to root for them, even though one is a monster that loves to eat human body parts. Usually, my issue with novellas is that either characterization or worldbuilding are sacrificed for the plot or action. But not so with The Salt Grows Heavy. Everything is evenly balanced so that you understand the immediate setting (with some of the world at large), the main characters and their quirks and ambitions, and the supporting characters and the roles they play regarding the story and their relationships with the MCs and with each other.

The writing is beautiful and I couldn't help but to highlight some passages in my e-arc copy. And I'm someone who hasn't annotated anything since undergrad. It's that good.

Although some of the words used are... excessive? to the point where reading this novella might not be accessible if you have trouble reading in English. The author uses some really obscure words that I had to keep looking up in my Kindle's built-in dictionary. And since I was using it in airplane mode, half the definitions weren't included in the standard dictionary. Honestly, this is my only issue with the novella.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for this arc.

This was interesting. First of all, Tor has some of the best cover art. This book is romantic, which I was not expecting. Admittedly, I did not pay much attention to the synopsis. It has a lot of body horror, which is fine with me. I read Khaw's last novella & I enjoyed them both, but possibly the first more. I can appreciate lyrical prose, but this book has so many words I had never encountered & will likely never encounter again. Some words were obscure enough that my kindle dictionary didn't have a definition. It was distracting & at times I would do just my best with context clues so I could move along with the story. Still, I intend to read Khaw's next release. 3.5 stars rounded to 4

Unsettlingly affecting.
What a story. And telling.
As intriguing as anticipated.

Everything you have probably heard about this book... is probably mostly accurate.

Dark-- and then some.
Uniquely-twisted. Over-the-top descriptions. More-unknown/new-to-you-words-than-any-other-book-you'll-ever-read. Leaves you wanting to know more of the captivating main characters. Lyrical and artistic.
Odd. Emotive. and Bludgeoningly-delivered with velvet gloves.

Pretty amazing number of layers involved in a short read.. which somehow amounts to be too much... not enough.. slow rolls.. and whiplash-quick action... in a love story that haunts you.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity at a sneak peek into this novella!

I'm not going to lie, the writing was difficult for me. I'm a fast reader usually, but the prose made me really slow down and pay closer attention as I read. I feel like I could still find more if I did a reread.
A very dark story? Myth? Fairytale? I'm going with all of the those.

A mermaid come ashore (and not your Disney mermaid here, this is the real thing), leaving behind her children who have killed the prince and taken down the rest of the kingdom, in a journey with a plague doctor. They venture through the wood to a group of children under the sway of three cannibal saints. Lots of graphic body horror to follow, until a fiery ending that made me want to shake my fist into the air for the "winner". (I'm giving away no spoilers!)

This is a very heavy and visceral story, you can easily visual the horror that is found in these dark, snowy woods. All I could think was that the story was flashing through my brain like a series of paintings. Dark, dark, dark, like watching blood spill across a frozen snowy landscape. I went from a beginning that made me question if I'd make it through the whole thing (the prose), to flying page by page to "see" more of the conflict. And now? I want MORE. I want more background story for that mermaid and plague doctor.

This book sacrificed a lot of important plot details for purple prose. The language was incredibly dense, which sometimes gave greater weight to the often incredibly gory imagery, but other times made it confusing to follow along with what was happening. Aside from the vocabulary, this reads like a fairy tale, sort of distanced from the emotions and the background of the characters. Although I was really interested in the background of the 'mermaid' as well as what exactly happened directly before the story begins, I think this approach to the story worked well.
Because of the purple prose, I was ready to give this book a 3 star rating. But then the epilogue, which was absolutely perfect, made me cry. A 3 star book has never made me cry. So I moved my rating up to 4 stars. I would recommend reading this book just for that epilogue.

This is a dark twisted fairytale featuring a mermaid and a plague doctor. But it's so beautiful and well written that the horrors (when they happen) are striking and chilling.

As you're reading, the tight poetic prose lures you into this tale and into the world of these characters. The author knows how to jar the reader at unexpected times, barely with warning, and that's a very good thing.

While the narrative lulls you in its arms, the horrific events that happen reminds you that this is a horror story and the acts committed by certain characters are a stark contrast to the beautiful world the author creates.

This makes it an exceptionally compelling page turner. Despite the bloodshed, this book is about trust in another person (or even creature) and what the sacrifice might be for that trust.

It's a gorgeous, moving, and bloody novella and I highly recommend it.

A mermaid and a plague doctor stumble upon a child being murdered by children. Only the children explain that the child will be brought back to life and bring the mermaid and doctor back to their village to show them exactly how.

I want to tell you what the book was trying to say but I really don’t know. I don’t think this book will be appealing to the masses. By sentence two I was already having to use the dictionary function on my Kindle and would do so for every page of this book thereafter. The book is short but the prose is dense and unfortunately I was only able to grasp it at surface level and not much else.

For me, it was a book that didn’t invoke any emotion during the course of reading it other than feeling squeamish. The gore in this book is also graphic. It deals with body mutilation, cannibalism and cults. That much I did grasp.

Thank you to Tor Books for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an experience. That is the best way to describe it. Objectively, this is a masterpiece of exquisite writing, however I couldn’t form the type of attachment that I require to truly enjoy a book. I don’t regret reading it and will recommend it to certain readers. Ones who focus almost completely on the beauty of the written word and the visceral emotions it can make you feel. For them this would be 5/5. For me, it was 3/5. So I’m settling on 4/5!

Dense, thick prose. Heavy, dark imagery. Ultimately, about the endurance of love. It’s stark and bleak and gross and beautiful.
Releases May 2nd!
Also, very excited for their collab book with @rkadrey The Dead Take The A Train!

A mermaid and a plague doctor. What a juxtapositioning of characters. The cover was the first thing that drew me into this book. And it did not disappoint as I began reading. The Salt Grows Heavy is a dark, macabre tale filled with grotesque imagery paired with beautiful, eloquent prose to match the relationship between our mermaid and plague doctor. Khaw is not rehashing the Disney mermaid story, but they are breathing new life into the Hans Christian Andersen version. They take a dark fairytale and give it another shade of darkness. Then sprinkles in moments of tenderness and illuminates these dark spaces with luxurious descriptions of the characters.

As we follow our characters on their adventure, we begin to question who the “monsters” really are here in this strange village. After bearing witness to some of the atrocities of the story, I found myself rooting for the mermaid as she devours obstacles. While this story is fantastic, there are some background and characters I would like to know more about. This story had a plot hole that I would like to see some additional exploration in as well. I hope this means we may find ourselves reading more about the adventures of our mermaid and her plague doctor again soon.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, TorNightfire, for this ARC.

This novella is stomach-churningly stunning. While not entirely sure of everything I consumed in this book, it was both horrifying and mesmerizing. This is my first experience with this author's work and now I'm curious to read more by them! Definitely one I'd only recommend to those with a strong stomach, because this definitely leans into the body horror.