Hey there everyone! I apparently can’t stay healthy this year so I’ve been quiet around substack BUT I was still reading away from my phone and computer whose screens made my head pound. This past week I read a couple of my wonderful paper books instead. My favorite read from last week was a fantastic and harrowing novel called The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. I haven’t read anything else by them, but after reading this novella I am so ready to. I don’t want to spoil literally anything about this story so I’ll give you the basics:
We open on the mermaid and the plague doctor preparing to embark on a journey across a cold taiga. Their experiences will be visceral, personal, and horrifying. The descriptions are unsettling, the words jump from the page and into the senses. There were times I swore I could smell the beautiful descriptions only to find I was sensing something horrible. Khaw mentions at the end of their acknowledgements what this story is about and I don’t want to share this and take away from the power of realization I had at the end of the book. I will say that it makes the situations our two main characters find themselves in all the more beautiful, shining through the terrors that greet our protagonists. If you’ve got a spare hour or two, I cannot recommend this book enough. I also discovered that has their own substack, which I subscribed to immediately after reading so that’s pretty great too!
Anyway, yes, do check out The Salt Grows Heavy! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it if you’re into some intense, unsettling horror.
Thank you as always to the rest of the Macabre Monday crew. Be sure to keep an eye out for their fantastic stories and posts. And if you’ve read this far, you should totally read my new short story Canary. It’s what my good friend has begun calling ‘Fever Dream Horror’ which is just what I wanted. Anyways, on to the rest of the MM contributors…
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