The House Of Salt And Sorrows is a book I anticipated with a high level of thrill. It is based on the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, originally told by the Grimm Brothers, an old favourite of mine, which I was desperate to see written with a new slant. In that sense, I was not disappointed.
My other half warned me that I was unlikely to get what I desired from an adult retelling of my favourite fairytale – he outright stated that fairytales are often sweetened for children, and that this version of it was probably much darker and sadder than the stories we tell children.
Reader, I completely ignored him.
Somehow I managed to be surprised that it was a bit on the creepy side, yet it was engaging and atmospheric. I enjoyed the imagery and the fantasy of the balls, though I wish they had been introduced sooner. They, and the dramatic coastal setting provided much of the fantastical thrill I had hoped to find, and provided the perfect setting for a creepy fantasy with a murder mystery at its core.
Anna-leigh, our main character, is less enthralled by the mysterious balls that they find through the magical door of the gods each night, being consumed by her quest to find out what happened to her sisters. She is a likeable character, though could have been developed more between the immediate plot of grief and psychological twists. I would have liked to have seen more of her caring side, particularly the skills and experience that casue her family to turn to her whenever there are complications in the pregnancy of her step-mother. Given how the plot develops, I would have been interested to know more about this aspect of her character.
I love a story where I didn’t predict the ending, and this was one of those. The twists were original and subtle in their lead up, which I value highly in a book. I suppose that I should have suspected a supernatural source of the mystery given the talk of curses and ghosts, but for some reason I still looked for a human source – I can be comforted that our main character made the same mistake.
I absolutely recommend this book to lovers of fairytale retellings and fantasy.
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