NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Get swept away by this “haunting” (Bustle) YA novel about twelve beautiful sisters living on an isolated island estate who begin to mysteriously die one by one. This dark and atmospheric fairy tale inspired story is perfect for fans of Yellowjackets.
"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 Craig's Small Favors, a mesmerizing and chilling novel about dark wishes and even darker dreams.
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.
