House of Salt and Sorrows

Collected Image

Author: Erin A. Craig
Rating: A solid 5.0!
Recommend: This novel is every fantasy lover's dream come true. It has the raw power needed to shove you out of your mundane life on Earth, and place you on the rocky salt shores of a time-old fairy tale - with some sinister twists that is. I loved every single word. Highly recommended.

Annaleigh Thaumas is fourth among the twelve beautiful sisters living in the majestic manor of Highmoor (sound like any fairy tales you know?). Growing up surrounded by the salty sea waves and sharp craggy cliffs of their village, Annaleigh and her family are the People of the Salt - from the Salt they are born, and to the Salt they return. 

A gorgeous depiction of Highmoor at the very top

Everything at Highmoor was fine... until the mangled corpses of the Thaumas sisters started turning up all over the estate. After the death of Eulalie, the fourth among a series of gruesome accidents, the villagers are sure that the family is cursed. 

But, are they really? And were all the deaths truly mere accidents... 

I am a sucker for retellings. And when they're done like this, in an alluring tone that enchants you to read and keep reading until you can see the small rays of dawn peeking in through the window... dear god, then that book is good. Erin A. Craig executed her novel perfectly. 

She added just the right amounts of magic and horror to make it an exhilarating read, the end result of which is a brand new story in its own right.

I absolutely loved the spooky elements in the story - from ghosts to insidious cackles, it was entirely refreshing. And it was A LOT of fun trying to figure who the real culprit was; a lot more so when my suspicions turned out to be right :v 

The biggest reward however, in reading this tale was that the author avoided cliches. There was a point when I was terribly afraid that the tale would turn out to have the same old villain. Fortunately, this was not the case and I can promise that there are abundant twists and turns capable of keeping even the most cynical readers interested.

And then of course there's the love interest...

Ah, Cassius 

It's safe to say that whatever Erin A. Craig plans to write next, I will definitely be the first in line to sign up for the ARC. Personally, I really hope she continues the trope of retelling the classics - I mean come on, she pulled off something like the House of Salt and Sorrows with the story of the twelve dancing princesses! I shudder in ghoulish delight to think what she could spin with the likes of Hansel and Gretel and Snow White. 

You can build an entire new world Erin. If you're reading this, please never ever forget that there is at least one reader out there who a hundred percent believes in you.

Perfection.