The Salt Grows Heavy

"Khaw's poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem." --The New York Times

From Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth, comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairy tale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself.

A Best Horror Book of 2023 (The New York Times, Library Journal) - A Best Book of 2023 (NPR) - A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award Nominee! - An Indie Next Pick

You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.

On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them.

The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

"This brilliant novella is not to be missed." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"With this brilliantly constructed tale...Khaw cements their status as a must-read author." --Library Journal, STARRED review

Also by Cassandra Khaw:
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

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112 pages

Average rating: 6.39

51 RATINGS

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5 REVIEWS

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Community Reviews

Codeliusthe2nd
Sep 04, 2024
8/10 stars
This was such a unique story, told from a very unique perspective. I would have loved for this to be a little longer, to offer a bit more backstory to these two very interesting characters. I don’t dip my toes into fantasy that often, so this was a bit of a different read for me, which was pretty refreshing. My only real qualm with this story was the fact that there were phrases constantly used throughout that felt a bit redundant. We can only hear about “sinew” a couple of times before getting tired of hearing about it. That being said, the rest of the story was compelling and I’m so glad that I gave this story a chance.
Shigarachki
Jun 27, 2024
3/10 stars
awful. just awful. for a horror/creepy book there is literally no horror. it’s hard to follow the story since she uses ridiculously fancy words for five minutes straight to describe a single event. the event is a character laughing and you get “my lungs filled with air to exhale a sound like screeching resembling the joy of a child on a sunny day in the park” .. obviously a joke but what is the significance of doing this. honestly could’ve been a great story but the writing style lost me, glad I bought it as an audio book and not the actual book.
ElleBelle
Feb 01, 2024
10/10 stars
Amazing. Messed up and in prose but amazing
Anonymous
Oct 30, 2023
10/10 stars
This story was beautiful. I enjoyed that one of the main characters was a mermaid and that they weren't Disney-fied. There where a lot of words used that aren't normally used unless you read a lot, so I can see that being off-putting to a lot of folks. Otherwise the story was well told. I must say if I had read this book I would have given it 4 stars, but that Susan Dallian narrated this story made a difference.

I do wonder what it is to find someone to love like that. I both hate & love that this book made me cry, as I normally don't have the ability to cry over such things as love stories.
Renzmo
Sep 10, 2023
7/10 stars
Dark merwoman and Frankenstein fight cannibalistic regenerators and children of the corn

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