Rating: 2.5

I really liked Nothing But Blackened Teeth because I thought it was a quick, entertaining read that didn't take itself too seriously. I feel like this book is the opposite of that. It feels pretentious and hard to follow at times. I was interested un the .concept and liked the relationship between the priest and the mermaid, but that's pretty much the only positive things I felt about it.

Absolutely gorgeous prose of explicit gore and disturbing brutality. I often questioned if this book needed to be written, as I question anything that fictionally depicts the murder and torture of children (just, why?). The glorification of violence overshadowed what could have been a fairly interesting tale of a plague doctor and mermaid coming across an eerie village where three immortal saints lorded over children from unknown origin.

CW: as described above

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

If you are looking for a dark, prose-forward, and violent fairy-tale, look no further than The Salt Grows Heavy.

We've all heard the classic story before: A mermaid gives up her voice to be with the human man she loves. But this story is much darker than the Disney movie you might be thinking about. This mermaid loses her voice when the humans cut her tongue out from her body. When she and her human lover have daughters, these daughters aren't messing around. They kill all of the humans, and our mermaid protagonist is now on the run. She meets up with an androgynous plague doctor with a dark past, and they travel together until they reach a small village where the children play murderous games, and the government is controlled by three prophet-surgeons. The Mermaid and Plague Doctor have one primary goal: survive.

There are so many wonderful elements to this novella that I don't even know where to begin.

Khaw's prose is beautiful and transportive. Their prose is evocative of the old fairy tale style, but with an elevated and modern twist. Khaw took the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and more and somehow further twisted their narratives into the gothic and horrifying. It is obvious that Khaw carefully selected each and every word to achieve just the right connotation; just the right emotional response; just the right poetic beat. I found myself often needing to go back and re-read passages because I was so swept up in Khaw's words that I wasn't actually following the story. (I was also glad that I read this book on a Kindle because there were a lot of words that I had to look up in the dictionary!)

Take just the opening passages of the book. I read those first few pages at least three times as I was swept away by Khaw's lyrical description of the Mermaid's daughters murdering their father while their house burned down. It even took me a moment to realize that that was happening because the prose was so poetic, so metaphorical.

Khaw populates her world with mysterious characters that come to (eerie and sinister) life. Both the Mermaid the Plague Doctor are well-drawn and complex characters. The Mermaid is our POV character throughout the novella, and so we see the world through her lens. She is a character who thought she found love and happiness, but was quickly escorted into a terrible situation that only got worse. As readers, it is easy to empathize with her plight, and we cheer her on through her trials and triumphs. However, to me, and maybe it was because they weren't the POV character, the more interesting of our two main characters was the Plague Doctor. Khaw slowly peels away their mask (both literally and figuratively) as we get to know their dark past and foreboding future. The Plague Doctor brings a jovial sadness to the novella that felt so very real and so very human.

This novella is not for the easily grossed out or faint of heart. Khaw never goes too far, and the horror elements never feel exploitative, but their descriptions of the dark, bloody, and gross things that the Mermaid and Plague Doctor encounter and experience made my skin tingle. I am one of those people who gets a small pain in my knee if someone is talking about how they hurt their knee, and so I was experiencing these little sensations from the images that Khaw conjured up in this little novella. The book isn't scary, but it is dread-inducing as Khaw takes us through this mysteriously horrifying village located within this greater horrifying world.

Through all of the body horror, the sinister surgeons, and the violent villagers, this is a story of love between two broken people crossing a shattered landscape together. Despite its short length, the relationship between the Mermaid and the Plague Doctor grows organically. It's not a fantasy-romance by any means, but it two people finding each both despite and because of the macabre.

I always feel that my role as a reviewer is to help set reader expectations for the books that I review. So, I will say this - if you are primarily a plot reader than this book may not be for you. Readers who do not care about the actual prose or writing of the book (or who value other elements of fiction writing more) may find this novella over-written (some may even call the prose purple) and bloated in its writing. While the Khaw definitely revels in some of the horror elements, particularly in the latter half of the novella, much of the novella is also slow and contemplative. If you aren't swept up in Khaw's world and writing in the first few pages, then nothing the novella does later really changes that.

For me, the entire thing really worked and I enjoyed spending an evening in Khaw's messed up world. This was my first book by Cassandra Khaw, and I will now make sure to go seek out more.

Concluding Thoughts: This novella won't be for everyone as The Salt Grows Heavy is unlike anything I've ever read. It is a gorgeously grotesque fairy-tale lead by two memorable characters finding love in a disturbing world. Readers who love lyrical prose, body horror, and very slanted fairy tale retellings should definitely check this one out.

A mermaid in on the run after her daughters have eaten their kingdom and burned it to the ground. She’s joined by a mysterious plague ground with their own secrets. While in the forest, they come across a village of children who love blood and are controlled by three ‘saints”. The story follows the mermaid and plague doctor adventure through the cruel village.

I would’ve liked more on the mermaids backstory but I did enjoy the story overall. I did have a lot of questions while reading it and I found it be a little purple prose for my liking. I wasn’t a fan of Khaw’s last novella so I’m pleasantly surprised and glad I gave this author another chance.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

This was so beautifully cyclical and mesmerizing. I couldn’t put it down and highlighted nearly have the book. Cassandra Khaw always gifts us a body’s weight worth of gorgeous quotes.

BRAVO! MAGNIFICENT!

Okay, for one, I'm so thankful to Cassandra Khaw and Tor NightFire for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy of this gorgeously jaw-dropping horror novella before it's set to publish on May 2, 2023.

Second, I was lucky enough to participate in a buddy read of sorts (even though I suck at those) with the always lovely @Readergirlie. A book this short is quickly sufficient to binge in an hour or two.

The Salt Grows Heavy is a horror novella that tells the tale of an unlikely pair: A ravenous mermaid and a plague doctor. The two travel across the land, seeking vengeance for an undisclosed reason, feasting on the bodies and souls of the unfortunate passerby of the moment. When the duo comes across an odd campsite that tasks their children with hunting each other for sport and resurrection purposes, the plague doctor decides to use his gift for good and save as many poor children as possible.

This fortress includes the task force of several zombie-like surgeons who maim and torture their patients, stitching together various demises and body parts, all to defeat mortality. Backed by the murderous rage of the land-bound mermaid and the plague doctor's unresolved trauma and healing abilities, they combine their forces with standing up against these cult-like practices, and in turn, we see a love story like no other.

This was probably a 4.5 star read for me. Taking a half star away for some unanswered plot holes (like…where did her daughters go? They were there at the very beginning then never mentioned again?), but overall, this was an astonishing story. I was hooked at “Mermaid,” “Plague Doctor,” and “small village cult,” which were all descriptions of this book that I saw. The writing is lush and creepy and atmospheric, the story is grisly and haunting. It was so strange, and it will definitely haunt me, but it was so so good too.

The Salt Grows Heavy is an exercise in contrasts: poetic yet brutal, melodic but razor-sharp. Bone, teeth, and cartilage headline this story that isn't afraid to go to the gruesome side. An interesting read, but not for the faint of heart.

I really, really enjoyed this one. I suppose I’ve been on a fantasy-retelling-but-make-it-gory kick, and this one was wild. The sheer… verboseness? verbosity?? was a little overwhelming; I found I had to stop and parse a sentence out every once in a while because there were like six $10 words in a row, but that might just be because I’m stupid. I was mesmerized the descriptions and I’m kind of in awe of the juxtaposition of the depiction of deep, deep love set in some truly gross scenes—not to mention how Khaw managed it all in a novella. It pushed all the right buttons for me.

This is the second time I have tried the author’s work and, unfortunately, the writing voice just doesn’t do it for me. I’m not sure if this is due to it being an unfinished copy, but the flow of prose just feels messy and meandering.

Loved the world she created. It’s unique and horrifying. I liked this one a lot more than her debut, which I thought was amazing too.

My biggest problem was that it wasn’t easy to read. There was a lot of over describing to the point where it was distracting from the story. The writing was very confusing and didn’t make sense most of the time. I had to reread paragraphs to try to understand the story.

This isn’t a story you can read while your husband is watching a show. It will take all of your concentration.

Otherwise, it’s a really well done horror novella!

Thank you to the publisher and NETGALLEY for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.


I was super drawn into this book for a few reasons: 1. Loved the author’s previous work, 2. Have you seen the uk cover?! 3. Mermaids? Sign me up.

While the horror aspect and writing was incredible and very on par for the Kaw’s last novel, I found this too short! I was also most intrigued by the mermaid aspect, knowing more about the lore and why the protagonist fled her home but I didn’t get any of that. It’s almost like I need a prequel to this book to satisfy my craving for the proper story. I found the mermaid tagline quite misleading honestly. Apart from a few pages explaining minor details, the protagonist could have been easily passed off as a human or any other mythological creature.

It was good! The author has ways of writing body horror that makes me squirm which is always impressive and the ultimate goal of a horror author but don’t go into this book for the mermaid aspect alone or you’ll be unimpressed!

I really enjoyed this. The length is good for this book. It's a very good, gory novella that definitely doesn't shy away from the traditional fairy tales and mythology surrounding mermaids and other creatures. The mermaid and the plague doctor are an unlikely duo; however, I am here for it. My jaw dropped several times. Like horror novellas? You should read this.

4.5/5

I really liked the concept of this book. I thought the idea was really interesting-- it felt like a melding of tropes at certain points that turned all of them on their heads and turned them into something new. I just wish it was longer. I felt like the action happened all at once and then it was done, so I found myself wanting parts to be dragged out further.

This was a romance I didn’t know I needed. The I enjoyed this haunting, grotesque novella so much! It was wild and horrific and THE PLAGUE DOCTOR was so lovely. I loved the vicious and creepy tone and the lore. It was wonderfully disgusting with gore. It was as if neverland and the lost boys met Frankenstein in a gory nightmare as our main character and her companion couldn’t escape it.

I teared up at the end, with all the trauma and eviscerated bodies and souls, the love and romance WAS SO TENDER.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

Love this book. Beautiful and terrifying! Will definitely be having my library purchase this book.

Dark and twisty and violent, this was an absolutely luxurious read that i just wanted to roll around in, teeth and all. Not for everyone, but definitely for me.

A hungry mermaid and a plague doctor traveling through the dangerous wilderness.

A trio of horrifying saints.

Rough Justice.

Another shivery novella to unsettle and delight.

Every once in a while, you come across a book that leaves you lost in thought even days later. The Salt Grows Heavy is a one-of-a-kind adventure that is both beautifully poetic in its writing, but also horrifying in its imagery. I was instantly pulled into the very essence of this story. While it is a short story it definitely left a lasting impression on me. I found the characters to actually be enduring in their own ways. I thought that the bond between the two MC was actually quite lovely and was moved at the level of loyalty that the Mermaid had for the Plague Doctor was touching.