Review: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

“House of Salt and Sorrows” by Erin A. Craig is a grim retelling of a Grimm fairy tale, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Set in the fictional coastal estate of Highmoor, tragedy befalls the Thaumas family when the mother and four of twelve daughters (Elizabeth, Ava, Eulalie and Octavia) die in quick succession. With a bleak mourning period ahead of them, Annaleigh, one of the remaining eight daughters, tries to investigate her sisters’ deaths as murders. But something haunts the remaining sisters’ dreams, and the youngest, Verity, begins to see visions.

If it weren’t for my intense curiosity for so many other genres and my new and persistent comic book habit, I’d read fairy tale retellings all day, every day. It’s probably a guilty pleasure at this point, since this book is clearly for people half my age. My favorites, and probably the most common, are retellings of "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast." This retelling, shaped from a lesser-known fairy tale, is so unique in its execution, so haunting and emotional, that I couldn’t help but love it.

Authors can’t go wrong with a good fairy tale, especially in the Young Adult genre. I have a theory about why this is, so bear with me: Fairy tales normally target young children. Young Adult literature targets teens, usually with a focus on highly emotional content to help teens deal with all their own heady emotions. A fairy tale retelling bridges the gap between the books we reach for as children and the themes we want in our books as teenagers and adults. It’s why they work so well, I think, and partially why I reach for them so often. I always like to see what various authors do with the stories everyone knows.

“House of Salt and Sorrows” has a hefty helping of death and grief, and all the things people do to cope with it. After the sisters’ mother dies, their father remarries a mysterious woman named Morella who just seems to want to belong to the family. The book addresses Annaleigh’s feelings toward Morella, which are mostly civil-to-welcoming, but it also validates Camille’s emotions, which focus on hostility and the feeling of being replaced.

Whenever I read a book, I feel like a sommelier tasting wine: I caught hints of :: sip :: The Twelve Dancing Princesses, of course, but that was overshadowed by :: SLORP :: Jessica Cluess’ “Kingdom on Fire” trilogy, which I did not like at all and :: slurp :: a Goodreads reviewer said Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” and I have to agree and :: sip :: possibly the parts of “A Song of Ice and Fire” that deal with what happens on Pyke, but not a lot, just the smallest hint. This book has an element of true horror, with enough decay and scary childbirth and bodies falling from vast heights to go around.

I was intrigued to see “House of Salt and Sorrows” was a standalone novel. It would be interesting to see other obscure Grimm fairy tales told in the same universe, especially since the author makes it clear there are other parts of the world to entertain, as well as a rich pantheon of supernatural beings to consider.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. “House of Salt and Sorrows” will be released in August.

Other fairy tales, retold 

One of my favorite retellings is the OG, “Ella Enchanted” by Gail Carson Levine.

I’ve enjoyed working my way through Marissa Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles,” which include “Cinder,” “Scarlet,” “Cress,” and “Winter” in a sci-fi quasi-dystopian war between earth and the moon. It’s SO cool.

In January, I read “The Beast’s Heart” by Leif Shallcross.

I’ve heard good things about Anna-Marie McLemore’s “Blanca & Roja.”