Cassandra Khaw

From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes “The Salt Grows Heavy”, a dark and deliciously twisted mermaid tale.

After murdering her husband and burning his kingdom to cinders, a mermaid joins a strange doctor on a journey through the eerie taiga. Deep in the woods, the pair stumble upon a village, full of seemingly ageless children and the three surgeons who oversee them—called only “the saints.”

After discovering the villagers’ taste for a sinister blood sport, the mermaid and her companion must embrace the darkest parts of their true nature, if they hope to survive.

The Salt Grows Heavy

Apiecalypse Jen

Certain stories are recounted so many times that they become parched of meaning, stories like those concerning the girl and her wolf in the woods, the cinder-smudged princess, the monstrous beauty who vomits pearls with every sob.

Others, however, are kept from taverns and wine-warmed conversations, catalogued but rarely recited. Complicated stories with no easy ending, stories that remind us karmic debt is a contrivance of despair, that there is nothing fair or sweet about this world.

And you shall know her by the trail of dead.

Ryn Johnstone

Karter

They nuzzle their jaw into my hands, allow my fingers to cinch about their skull. I could snap their neck, dislocate the vertebrae stacked upon each other, sever the blood flow. They know this. I do too. Nonetheless, they place their faith and their breakable flesh in my fingers, eyes closed.

 It was rumored that she had no heart and thus had to steal the king's Own organ, that she was a bone-wight, cruel, a lie accoutred in stolen flesh, that she was hungry, bitter, resentful of her spouse's sweet son. It is always interesting to see how often women are described as ravenous when it is the men who, without exception, take without thought of compensation.

sami

They kiss me then. Through the hair they matted to my brow, their mouth wet with warmth. They kiss me and my heart seizes with grief. "Bury me, my love, and take a lock of my hair with you. Carry me through the centuries. I think I'd like to share, just a little, in what immortality is like."

Stas

It is always interesting to see how often women are described as ravenous when it is the men who, without exception, take without thought of compensation.

Amelia

"There is nothing wrong with being a monster." Their mouth bends. "You always know the right things to say."

The Salt Grows Heavy quotes

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