The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

I am going to buy a permanent copy of this book for my collection. I loved this. I don’t even know what else to say. You want a horror filled The Little Mermaid with a plague doctor? Well this is your book. I loved the first half that shows the aftermath of what was done to the kingdom that captured a mermaid and then the beginning of how the mermaid and the doctor first met and began to feel…well something. I don’t have anything to say except the writing was lyrical. I also found myself looking up a lot of works that I honestly didn’t know such as autosarcophagy (eating oneself); parturition (giving birth); and taiga (boreal forest). The development of the characters, the setting, the ending, and then the beginning of the story of the mermaid and the plague doctor all just flowed together wonderfully.

The Salt Grows Heavy as we follow a mermaid (and former princess) and a plague doctor walking away from what was once a kingdom. Instead, nothing but death is left. The mermaid does not know what they will do next, but when the plague doctor offers to walk alongside her she agrees. And then they come to a forest where death lives. They find children and something that are called ‘the saints’ and it seems as if they have walked into another horror story that they may not escape.

I thought that the slow reveal of the mermaid and how her story differs mightily from any fairy tales was well done. I loved it. And then we get the reveal of the plague doctor too. I thought that Khaw did a great job of showing differences between the children as well. The flow from the beginning to the first and third night of the mermaid and doctor was great.

The setting of this entire book seems to be a collection of horror fairy tales.

I won’t lie though. I read this while eating and quickly lost my appetite. I suggest you skip food unless you have a strong stomach.

The ending was so good and so many lines that I loved.