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.