The Salt Grows Heavy

by

128 pages

English language

Published Jan. 23, 2023 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
9781250830913

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (1 review)

After murdering her husband and burning his kingdom to cinders, a mermaid joins a strange doctor on a journey through the eerie taiga. Deep in the woods, the pair stumble upon a village, full of seemingly ageless children and the three surgeons who oversee them―called only “the saints.”

After discovering the villagers’ taste for a sinister blood sport, the mermaid and her companion must embrace the darkest parts of their true nature, if they hope to survive.

4 editions

reviewed The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

A beautiful and horrific love story

5 stars

I loved this and I needed to sit with it a while after I finished, before starting my next book. It's a body-horror/fairytale/love story between a 'mermaid' on land and her (plague) doctor, as they intervene in a morbid cult run by three false saints. It's like nothing I've read before (okay, maybe it's a bit T. Kingfisher-y - a good thing) and it's really beautifully written.