Because I can’t help myself, I requested this under the impression that it was an anthology of sea-inspired fairy tale retellings. And although it turned out to not be the case, I’m happy to report that it didn’t disappoint.

Saltwater Sorrows is a quality collection of original short stories that, as I had suspected, do have a connection to the sea, some with magic and some without, some with supernatural elements and some very realistic. Rhonda Parrish is one of the best anthology editors out there, in my opinion, her eye for choosing stories is enviable. The ones she chose for this anthology all had something sorrowful and tense to offer, some very grief-ladden and others with an understated kind of pain that prickles rather than punches you in the gut. Just in case, I do advise to read the trigger warning listing by the end of the book first, especially if you’ve undergone the trauma of losing a loved one recently; you’ll understand why as you read, but please don’t skip the trigger warnings!

I don’t often say this, much less about anthologies, but there wasn’t a story I didn’t like here, they all had something to offer to me, even those that weren’t the greatest in terms of storytelling or too short to really deliver the full force of the emotional punch. Of course, length varied, and with eighteen stories quality did vary as well, though not as vastly from one story to the next. I had my favourites, which were these three:

SALT IN OUR BLOOD, SALT IN OUR TEARS by Laura VanArendonk Baugh
5 stars
My absolute favourite! It doesn’t have any magic or mermaids or seafolk at all, but the sea is still one of the two main protagonists. It’s about a girl from a family of whalemen in an unnamed location that suffers greatly seeing the men be taken by the sea as some sort of tribute throughout the years, which makes her concoct an agreement with the sea to protect her men. Are they, though? I was inclined to think that all that happens as a result of the pact is in her head, but the ending made me reconsider things. That was so quite surprising! This is perhaps the most anxiety-inducing of the stories here, but so well-crafted too.

RAGE AGAINST THE SEA by Adria Laycraft
4.5 stars
About Emmy, a girl who is deeply frustrated at the circumstances she has to live in, so constrained and claustrophobic, and that leave her no other option than to work for a living at a house by the cliffs where she can hear the haunting sounds of the sea and also be haunted by the former inhabitants of the place. There’s a curse in this, written so subtly that I at first didn’t realise there was one. I liked how the sea is used as a sort of background music setting to provide a great atmosphere to Emmy’s emotional struggles as a teacher at the house.

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE by V. F. Lesann
4 stars
About a girl who’s talked by her boyfriend into faking being a mermaid so he can sell tickets to watch her perform. Sort of a Nessie scheme but with mermaids meets Barnum’s circus story. The boyfriend turns out to be the usual selfish prat that doesn’t notice or care that she’s starting to suffer from the cold conditions as winter comes nearer, but a mysterious yet kind lady does and offers to care for her, eventually becoming the catalyst for the faux mermaid to dump this deceiving “work” that is no good for her. I have to say that I wasn't convinced by the eleventh-hour “romance” twist by the end, as there was no chemistry of a romantic nature nor any sort of buildup towards that. Why couldn’t the kind lady have cared for her out of pure kindness? It’d still have been good, but that non-organically developed twist ruined the ending didn't ring genuine for me.

Overall, the collection gets 4.5 stars. Worth reading, but don't forget that it's a mood-influencing read and to check the triggers first.

Saltwater Sorrows is an anthology of short stories centered around saltwater. Each main character interacts with seawater in a significant way. Some will find release in saltwater and others will find pain. In some of the stories, the story will end in a cliffhanger that leaves the fate of the main character to the reader. Each story is well written and are woven together with the continuous seawater thread. A quick and interesting read.

Oveall I really enjoyed this anthology. Each story was well written and interesting, and even though they were all on the shorter side they manged to tell a full story. They each fit the sea theme beautifully. I particularly liked the last two stories: Glass, Paper, Salt and The Oyster Widow. The stories told in both of these really stuck out to me. The sea is both terrifying and intriguing and all of the stories within Saltwater Sorrows really captured that.