Thank you, Tor Publishing Group, for allowing me to read The Salt Grows Heavy early.

I really wanted to love The Salt Grows Heavy but somehow I couldn't get into the story. I liked the writing but it just wasn't enough for me to engage with the story as much as I wanted to. I hop other readers will love this book more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Salt Grows Heavy.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the premise other than I found it creepy so, of course, I had to request it.

This is a dark, other worldly tale of a mermaid and a plaque doctor traveling together through an unforgiving landscape.

The sort of BFFs stumble upon a village of young children and three surgeons called 'the saints.' You know this isn't going to end well.

When the mermaid and her companion discover the saints aren't who they claim to be, they realize that in order to survive they must reveal their true natures. And the aftermath isn't going to be pretty.

The Salt Grows Heavy introduced me to a lot of new words including taiga and bezoar. I'm all up for Googling words I don't know to learn and add to my vocabulary but when I find myself doing it more than 3x, something's got to give.

The narrative is short, but wordy, the prose almost purple-y. Flowery, three to four syllable words and four to five sentences to describe emotions and feelings and how frigid the winter is can get repetitive. And fast.

The paragraphs are laden with these types of bloated descriptions and emotions, offering vague exposition to the mermaid and plague doctor's background.

I would have loved to know more about the mermaid and the plaque doctor's history. When the story begins, it feels like we're starting from the middle and all that came before it doesn't matter, which is not true.

The past is just as meaningful as the present.

When the main characters arrive at the village, almost immediately, the cruelty and bizarre nature of the saints and the children they rule over is stark, macabre, almost obscene.

If you're the faint of heart, turn away from The Salt Grows Heavy.

The descriptions of gore, violence, and bloodshed can be triggering and traumatizing if you're sensitive to such subjects.

I'm not, but I'm not like everyone else. I'm also not a mermaid or a plaque doctor, though their uniqueness is something I can relate to.

You'll find common themes touched upon in this novella; subjugation of women, patriarchal society and manipulating beliefs to suit the agenda of a society ruled by men to crush the weak and the voiceless.

Despite the violence and the horrors the main characters endure, the author reiterates that survival is dependent not just on hope but hope and loyalty to each other, that friendship matters, that when you find your tribe, you can survive just about anything, no matter how strange and unique you are. And that is a mantra I do believe in.

I wanted to LOVE this but the prose reminded me way too much of my teenage tumblr rp years where one description needed to be ten words long for no reason other than it made me feel smart.

"How do you kill any religion? You convince its flock that their shepherds are wolves."

A murderess Mermaid and a non-binary plague doctor go off on an adventure after leaving the Mermaid's slaughtered kingdom behind. They quickly stumble into a youthful cult led by sycophantic self-proclaimed saints that are obsessed with reaching immortality through the butchery and resurrection of children. The Salt Grows Heavy is a story of monsters trying to stop monsters in a horrific world.

What a gruesomely morbid novella. I went into this expecting the story to be dark but I wasn't prepared for the level of vividly described gore that was liberally rendered. While I didn't mind it, not everyone is going to be appreciative of this peculiar carnage and should take that into consideration before choosing this story.

The Salt Grows Heavy is rich in mythology, I'd be interested in reading more stories set in this virulent world. The prose was heavily laden with similes, metaphors, and uncommon words. I often found myself thankful for having the e-book version so I could quickly look up definitions every few pages. If you prefer more straightforward writing this may hinder your enjoyment of the novella.

Overall, I found myself disturbed but enthralled by The Salt Grows Heavy. Dark, riveting, and quickly consumed, I'd recommend it to those who are fascinated by the unusual and have a stomach for the gore.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for giving me an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. All quotes come from an arc and may change.