What To Expect - - 'The Salt Grows Heavy' is a dark fairytale novella with complex prose and uncommon language.

My Feelings - - I ate this up. The rich prose became one of my favourite parts of this reading experience and I loved the themes that this book explored. The descriptions were stunning and grotesque and the characters compelling because of the darkness they had within them.

I adored the undercurrent in this story of being seen and known, even your darkest parts, and admired anyway.

The ending disappointed me, but I am still glad I read this - I also think I will get even more out of it with a reread. I will 100% be picking up other stories by this author.

Recommendation - - If you love dark stories, complex and descriptive prose, exploring themes that aren't handed to you on a silver platter, and unique fairytales - this story is for you.

4 ⭐️ = great story, this will stick in my mind

A lover of MCR starts working on his Halloween decorations way too early

(I've been sitting on this review because I wasn't quite sure where I stood by the end, but I'm going to take a stab at this now.)

The Salt Grows Heavy is a story of identity, changing stories (both positive and negative), fighting greed, trauma, and taking back power. The themes are explored early on in the story as we meet the two main characters: the mermaid and the plague doctor. The writing is quite dense and lyrical, with archaic words that not only add to the dark and fairytail-esque tone of the story but also to the characterization of the mermaid. It might be divisive for readers (especially for those who may find the writing style highfalutin), but I think it fits into the context of the world and the background of the character. For those who do like rich and very descriptive prose, this book is definitely for you.

What gives me pause in giving a higher rating for his book is the way that the themes are handled by the end. Throughout the story, the readers are told about how the mermaid's stories were taken and changed to tame them, using things like love, hope, and purity. I felt that the ending reverted the story to the problem it sought to dismantle at the very start. Other themes like trauma and identity were also not handled well, in my opinion. I thought at first that the root of this issue was the ending, but after sitting on it, I think that there was a lack of buildup that majorly impacted my experience of the ending. The book wasn't able to neatly tie together all of the themes in a way that made the ending cohesive to the whole story or even believable.

Tl;dr: it was a nice story. I would recommend it for specific people who'd like lyrical prose and a dark, fairytail-esque story with two unconventional characters working together. I wish there was a better setup for the ending to tie everything together neatly.

This book is not easy to read, it has a lot of unconventional words, which made me almost DNF, but the forum saved my reading experience. But I don't think this takes away from the story, it's the opposite: it elevates it. The prose immerses you in this world and builds upon the dark themes of the story.

There are so many layers to the story that it can get complicated at times to follow, especially if you have to look up words every other sentence. But if you take the time to savour the book, you'll be rewarded with a book full of social commentary.

The story suffers from being a short book. A lot of the layers and topics the book seemed to want to discuss don't get fully fleshed out, so the ending feels rushed and not true to the characters or essence of the book.

Is still a great book to discuss, a quick read, and a pretty good retelling of the mermaid fairytale considering how awful men are.