House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)

by Erin A. Craig

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Get swept away by this “haunting” (Bustle) novel about twelve beautiful sisters living on an isolated island estate who begin to mysteriously die one by one.

"Step inside a fairy tale." —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last--the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge--and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister's deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who--or what--are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family--before it claims her next. House of Salt and Sorrows is a spellbinding novel filled with magic and the rustle of gossamer skirts down long, dark hallways. Be careful who you dance with...

And don't miss Erin A. Craig's newest novel, The Thirteenth Child, a haunting and romantic novel about the impossible choices we make in the name of love.

• ISBN10: 198483195X
• ISBN13: 9781984831958
• Publish Date: 4 August 2020 (first published 6 August 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ember
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781984831958

Reviews

[Berls]

I should preface this review by saying I, generally speaking, do not enjoy horror and only picked this book up because it was our October 2021 COYER YA Book Club pick. So the fact that I'm giving it 3 stars - meaning I actually finished it AND found parts of it enjoyable - says a lot. If you like horror, I expect you'd enjoy it a lot more than I did. In fact, I buddy read parts of it with both Stephanie and Lillian and I know they enjoyed it more.

Let me start with what worked for me:
- The mystery side to the plot was well done. I had lots of guesses and while I circled the right answers, I was kept constantly guessing.
- The characters were well-written and full. I really feel like I grew to know and care about the central characters - and there were quite a few of them! From the many sisters (7 still alive when the book starts, 12 total), the step-mom, the dad, the friend Fisher, and the love interest, I grew to have distinct feelings (not all positive) about all of them. So that was well done.

And what didn't work for me:
- I'll just wrap all the horror into one bullet point. I just don't think I'll ever understand the appeal or the need to get so graphically gross, bloody, and just well, horrific. But if that's your thing this book has it. I will say, it didn't overwhelm the book. There were really decent lengths with no horror, which is why I made it through.
- The setting in terms of time and location was really poorly defined and it really bugged me. It made understanding their world and what could/could not happen really hard to predict. I think that might have been part of the goal, to keep me on my toes, but I don't feel that providing a hard to understand world makes for a good mystery. While I knew we were in a sea-faring island, I couldn't tell what time period we were in and what sort of island it was meant to be for a quite some time It really impacted my reading of the book.

So, I think the best way to sum this book up is, if you like your mystery with a healthy helping of horror, you'll enjoy it quite a bit. I don't, so it was just okay.

Qualifies for COYER Fall Scavenger Hunt item #8 - Book for October COYER Book club.

[bestmessever]

I didn't know anything going into this book. I found the way the 12 dancing princesses fairytale was interwoven rather subtle for the first half of the book and I really loved the way it kinda starts dawning on you as you read. I like the way the narration is done and that for a while you become unsure if you trust what you are being told as fact or fiction. The bonds between the sisters are fun to watch unfold and to understand their past as our main character is also finding out more about stuff. I also really liked the way that this book didn't shy away from the grief that strangles our main character even as she is trying to begin living again. It allows itself to be really sad in a way that a book with this much death needs to be.

I really didn't like the very very end just because I think it cheapened all the characters went through.

[alisoninbookland]

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I need more retellings like this ASAP. I’m an absolute sucker for fairy tale retellings. 'House of Salt and Sorrows' uses the original inspiration for the story. Yep, this isn’t your Disney retelling. This is the Grimm Brothers retelling. Original fairy tales can be pretty grim (sorry, not sorry). HoSaS fully embraces that horror.

I didn’t fully find the story scary but the horror and repulsion was there. As the story continued I was filled with unease. I love being able to feel the atmosphere though.

I loved the added bonus of unreliability. Nothing can be taken at face value. Who exactly is wrong and misremembering?

The story was absolutely unpredictable. I had no idea what to expect.

The book has a great atmosphere. You feel the salt. You feel the sea.

Perfect for someone looking for a spooky read but something that isn’t outright horror.

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

House of Salt and Sorrows is a dark fairy tale retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses that started out with such promise; it was hauntingly atmospheric and delightfully macabre. But all of that was ultimately spoiled for me in last third of the book, where poor plotting, lackluster characterization, and a cringe-worthy romance managed to wrestle away the spotlight.

WHAT I LIKED:

👑 It's a Twelve Dancing Princess Retelling! It's not a secret that I'm complete and utter trash for fairy tale retellings, especially lesser known ones such as The Twelve Dancing Princesses. So when I saw that House of Salt and Sorrows was exactly that... welp, I couldn't reserve a copy at my library fast enough.

👻 The Creepy Atmosphere! The Brothers Grimm were the ones who originally collected and recorded The Twelve Dancing Princesses tale, and let me tell you, Erin Craig takes that GRIM part very seriously. This book was a chilling read that combined both Gothic horror and Fairy Tale magic in a uniquely thrilling way. There were mysterious murders, haunting hallucinations, and gruesome ghosts (have you had enough of my appalling alliterations yet? Haha). And all of this was perfectly amplified by the atmospheric setting: a creepy Victorian-style manor situated high on the salty crags of an isolated island. Truly, the beginning half of this novel held such promise.

WHAT I LIKED...LESS:

💛 The Romance! That being said, House of Salt and Sorrows was a disjointed blend of the macabre and the maudlin. One minute, there were walking corpses with broken necks and festering skin. The next, sweet (and eye-rollingly cringy) embraces between the heroine and her insipid love interest. The tone switched so often, it was like watching an Olympic Ping-Pong match. Not only that, but there was a pointless, half-heartedly fleshed out love triangle (UGH) and a romance that smelled far too much like insta-love for my liking (BLEH).

👥 The Bland Characters! In Erin Craig's defense, she was at a bit of a disadvantage the instant she chose to write a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling. The reason? She has to somehow squeeze a whole twelve sisters into her story. With that many girls all jammed in there, it's easy to simply cut and paste personalities. And in House of Salt and Sorrows, that's exactly what happened. Craig resorted to grouping together many of the sisters and constantly referred to them as "The Triplets" or "The Graces." This allowed them to degenerate into one giant mass of indistinguishable identities.

And our heroine – Annaleigh – isn't much better. I found her to be as inspiring as a wet sandwich, with her characterization never evolving beyond the love she has for her sisters. But the Grand Prize Winner of the "I Have No Personality" Award must go to Cassius, the "mysterious" love interest whose entire drab existence revolves around wooing said wet sandwich. All in all, the author gave it a valiant effort, but the characters just didn't work for me.

🏁 The Ending! Although I loved the creepy, atmospheric nature of the story's setting, the fantasy elements were far less enthralling. The vague, fleeting mentions of gods and goddesses, tricksters and harbingers, felt largely unimportant to the narrative. Until they weren't. The climax of the story and the mystery's ultimate resolution felt rushed and undeveloped because of this weak worldbuilding. I wish that these fantasy elements would've been introduced to us sooner and in more detail, if they were going to end up being so vital to the plot. And don't even get me started on the contrived nature of Cassius's backstory. All that star mumbo-jumbo was just one big MEH for me.

[whisperingchapters]

3.5
What the F, yes, with a capital F, did I just listened?

[HekArtemis]

So good. I had pretty high hopes for this one, it's been hyped up and the premise sounded amazing - fairytale retelling, murder mystery, horror, supernatural elements, curses, and set on/by the ocean. It sounded perfect to me, and it was. It was fantastic! I even liked the romance, or at least didn't dislike it. Some of the turns it took I ended up expecting - but it is a fairytale retelling, and while I am not overly familiar with 12 dancing princesses, there are certain tropes in almost all fairytales, so certain things are to be expected of their retellings. That makes it easy to predict what might happen. On the other hand, it also took some turns I was not at all expecting - and I really love the lore in this story, what we get of it anyway. The Weeping Lady (I read this in audio so I am not even going to attempt to type her name out) reminded me a bit of the Yarnsworld novel Those Brave and Foolish Souls from the City of Swords by Benedict Patrick which includes a nasty character that has a similar physical trait. I loved that trait, it's so dark and creepy and twisted, and this similar trait was cool in this book too. In case you're wondering - the Weeping Lady weeps black blood, in Yarnsworld I can't remember her name either, but she weeps ashes. Something about creepy dark women weeping creepy dark things is awesome to me.

I listened to this on audio, first fiction book I have been able to get all the way through in audio. The narrator, Emily Lawrence, is great, imo, I really love her voice.

[Brittany]

This is more like a 3.5-3.8 for me. The book was good it was just slow for a majority of the book. I did enjoy it but I don’t think I’d ever pick it up for a reread, it needed more action like the last 15 percent of the book had throughout the first 85%.

I listened to the audiobook and I loved it. This book had such a spooky vibe that I couldn't get enough of and I was pleasantly surprised with the plot twists at the end. It also had a romance that was not too overwhelming and actually really nice to read about.

The only reason why I did not give it five stars is because of the ending. I don't like the resurrection trope. Especially not that late into the book.

[writehollydavis]

This debut was incredible! Kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was enraptured by the worldbuilding, easy yet refined prose, and became so invested in Annaleigh's character. I was left guessing until the very end the mystery behind her sisters' deaths. I can't wait to read more by this talented author!

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars

Wow. I feel like this book was, was... so much more than I expected; I can’t even formulate the correct words to express how I feel yet. I’m not even sure I know, completely, how I feel, yet. haha. I just know that this was so incredibly gothically romantic, so haunting, so much MORE than I ever expected. I didn’t even realize that I was picking up a book that wasn’t just some simple retelling... but definitely YA horror/ gothic romance, and it was so... intense! In every single way.
It went so much deeper than I ever imagined. Fantastic.
What a truly spooky, fantastical, dark, whimsical, edge of your seat, up all night, swoon-worthy, lyrically told Fairy Tale. Lost for words atm.
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