House of Salt and Sorrows

I completely and utterly fell head-over-heels in love with this book. This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint. It was absolutely everything I was hoping for and so much more. This might not be a completely perfect novel for everyone—or just in general, as literature is such an objective thing—but it was perfect for me. A dark retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, this novel had everything I love; suspense, intrigue, suspicious deaths, ghosts, curses, dark magic, all told in a beautifully eerie and captivating way. I was hooked from page one.In this novel, we are transported to a manor by the sea called Highmoor where we follow a girl named Annaleigh. She was once one of twelve sisters, but death befalls sister after sister, placing the Thaumus family into a constant state of mourning. This unbelievable string of bad luck has caused the residents of their town to begin whispering about the family being cursed by the gods and they keep away from the sisters in fear.When Annaleigh starts to experience vivid, ghostly visions of her sisters, she comes to realize that the deaths that have been written off as tragic accidents may not be accidents at all. On top of this, her sisters have been running off to go dancing at lavish balls each night, returning at dawn with their shoes completely worn through. But where are her sisters going? And who are they dancing with? Annaleigh must work to discover what is plaguing her family before more harm can come to them.This is a hauntingly beautiful tale of a family under attack by an unknown force and the lengths Annaleigh will go to in order to protect the ones she loves. It is fast-paced and absorbing and I could not put this book down—it captivated me more than any book has in a while and it was wonderful. I am a massive lover of dark retellings that are both unique as well as faithful to the original story, and Craig completely nails this.There is so much mystery and creepiness on every page of this story—moments that will make your heart pound and keep you riveted to each word. It is a complex and carefully woven tale filled with intriguing mystery, dark and frightening ghostly visions, and unexpected twists that constantly had me on the edge of my seat. I became so wrapped up in this story and these characters and I never wanted it to end.All of the characters in this novel are created extremely well. Annaleigh is a very strong lead character. She’s intelligent, tough, and will do absolutely anything to protect her family no matter how confusing or out of control things appear to be. She maintains her convictions about what is truly going on at Highmoor despite facing disbelief from others. I feel like I connected with her right away—she is portrayed very clearly and is multi-dimensional.Annaleigh’s sisters are also beautifully portrayed. I love that they feel so thoroughly fleshed out and that they are so realistic and three-dimensional. Mercy is my personal favorite! And the relationships between all of them are done to perfection. They are realistic and believable, making it easy to come to care for them and to be eager to see their troubles end. Each sister’s personality is so vividly depicted and I was so glad to see that they played such a big role in the plot. Annaleigh’s love for them is so strong and the driving force of the story and the love they all share for each other is unshakable.I actually ended up really loving the romance in this novel. This is something that I say very rarely, but Craig created such a sweet and lovely relationship that melted my heart. I was a little wary early on as a love triangle is hinted at briefly. However, it never actually happens, which I was very thankful for. There is quite a bit of insta-love here, but that is something I don’t usually mind, especially when the romance is well-constructed. Craig does one of my favorite things when it comes to romances in fantasy novels which is truly keeping it a side plot. Never once does it overpower the main plot and Annaleigh maintains her focus on her family and taking care of them.Though I would have liked to hear more about his storyline and background, I really like Cassius a lot. Cassius is very caring and he and Annaleigh go together really well—you can definitely feel a strong connection between them. I wish he had been in even more of the story. The moments between Annaleigh and Cassius are so sweet and pure that they are a fantastic contrast to the rest of the novel. The progression of their relationship creates small breaks of light happiness among the darkness and sadness in the main storyline and that worked out beautifully. And frankly, it was just plain romantic, adorable, and enjoyable!Now we come to my favorite part of this novel—the writing. Craig’s writing is completely and utterly beautiful. Her style is so lyrical and enchanting, bringing out a strong fairytale feeling in the narrative. At the same time, her words are haunting and emotional, flawlessly bringing out the darkness of the tale. Loss, longing, love, and hope all run throughout each page. It is a style of writing that is incredibly enjoyable to get lost in for hours.The world-building is absolutely fantastic. Craig carefully constructs a detailed and intricate setting. Seamlessly blending the tone of the narration into the environment, she creates a vivid and entrancing experience for her readers. The setting is described so thoroughly it is very easy to place yourself there and feel it come to life around you. The atmosphere is dark and eerie—to the point where it is almost tangible—and fits perfectly with the narrative itself. It is extremely clear that Craig put a huge amount of time and effort into absolutely every aspect of this narrative. Her descriptions are so clear and detailed throughout and the way she constructs the Thaumus family’s life, traditions, and backstory is magnificent.The only minor issue I had was with parts of the ending. Things happen very quickly and I found myself slightly confused at times. Mainly, I wish there had been a little more explanation of the religious/mythological elements—they appear to come somewhat out of the blue. I wish that those aspects of the plot had been developed a bit more and had a bigger part in the story, mainly because I was so intrigued by them. However, the ending, particularly the moments involving the main villain, was properly freaky and intense and it fit the tone of the story perfectly. And that small bit of confusion did not detract at all from my enjoyment of it.As I’m sure you can probably tell by now, this is one of the newest additions to my list of all-time favorite novels. I connected with this story completely—it was right up my alley. The suspense, the intrigue, the characters, the world, everything was perfect. Erin A. Craig’s writing is so enchanting and beautiful and I loved getting wrapped up in it. I absolutely cannot wait to read more from her in the future! I very highly recommend checking this novel out if you haven’t already.

Erin A. Craig’s debut House of Salt and Sorrows is a fairy tale worth waiting for! It’s a retelling of one of my most favorite fairy tales, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It’s not as common as our other princess tales, but I read a kid version of it once and loved it! Erin’s story is quite different from the original tale, though its concepts are similar. I found I was quite enamored with this story and never wanted it to end!Annaleigh and her sisters believe they are under a curse, they were once twelve and in the beginning of the story we learn that they are eight. Tragedy has befallen this family time after time. Their mother died many years ago and their father remarried and then sister after sister has died in some tragically devastating way. The most recent sister died by falling off a cliff, but Annaleigh thinks there is something more to the story than just a simple accident and she decides to investigate.It’s important to know in this world, people believe in a set of entities, I’m not sure if they are considered gods and goddesses, it’s possible, but I was never really clear on that impression. They do pay homage and honor these entities, so I guess that’s considered godlike. Anyway, it’s because of their beliefs that the sisters stumbled upon a doorway for one of them. One that takes them to a magical place where there’s dancing and parties all night long. They continue to visit this magical place night after night, wearing through their shoes in one night’s time, completely baffling their father.Then Annaleigh meets Cassius, a newcomer in town, one is her age and just the overall man of mystery persona. Annaleigh begins to lose sight of her sister’s death as she and her sisters continue their nights of dancing, but she soon finds herself focusing on the mystery once more.This book has left me speechless! I don’t know if there’s ever been a fairy tale retelling that has taken the original fairy tale and turned the story on its head so much as this one! And I mean this in the best possible way! We have the general theme of the story remaining true, but the reasons and the mysteries behind it are so vast compared to what the original story had! Here there is magic, curses, gods, tricksters, and most of all, murder!! This book seriously had it all, all while remaining true to its fairy tale nature!Fairy tales are where I found my love for reading! I always loved reading the magical tales that were so different from the Disney movies (lol)! This one had me feeling every fairy tale vibe that I get when reading the original ones and when an author can do that to you, you know they have real magical talent! This story enchanted me from start to finish and I am only sad that it’s over.This story isn’t without its romance either! Cassius, our man of mystery, is the love interest for Annaleigh and let’s just say there were a few romantic interludes between these two!Erin does a magnificent job of keeping the reader on their toes! I mentioned there’s a great deal of mystery in this one and there were so many instances I found myself falling down rabbit holes thinking one thing, only to have something occur later that shattered my theories. I loved that this one kept me guessing at every turn! It was mind-boggling and yet, I loved that about this story! I loved that I never knew what to believe! I really should remember my rules for fairy tales and never trust anything! The added fallback of knowing the fairy tale tropes helps too. Had I remembered these things, I wouldn’t have been caught off guard! Lol.House of Salt and Sorrows was without a doubt the most magical and magnificent read I’ve read this year! It’s the kind of read fairy tale fans live for and not one of them should pass up on this read! It’s spellbinding and lyrical style will have you mesmerized from the beginning and you will not want to let go! If there’s one fairy tale book you read this year, make it this one!Overall Rating 5/5 stars

It's more of a 4.5 for me, sadly isn't an option.I struggled to put this book down, reading it on my lunch bread and going back to work was honestly a struggle for me. I was hooked, I loved the writing style which is a big bonus for me.Yes it was an easy read, had more details and environment building than other ones that I have read.When she got back to Highmoore after she found out about the trickster and everyone thought she was crazy, I'm sorry what? I loved it. I thought that was the end and she was going to die (morbid I know), then it was Morella the whole time, who she had just started to like and become friends with. Biggest plot twist but how I loved it.Will be buying more from this author

A great book, you'll never guess the ending. An enjoyable read with interesting characters. Definitely recommend.

after reading reviews, i had extremely high hopes for this book and the reviews made it seem like such an underrated book. they were wrong. this book was extremely slow with not enough plot and the ending was rushed and left a lot of aspects out. i wanted to enjoy this story and it had so much potential towards the end with annaleigh and cassius but other than that i’m giving this book a 2/5 at best. don’t waste your money

I want to be coherent about how much I loved this so I'll take a moment to collect myself....So, The Twelve Dancing Princesses has always been a favorite tale of mine and hearing it was going to be done in a Gothic vibe with all the beauty of the original tale? I jumped at the chance and can't say how thankful I am that I was able to read this early.Right from the first page, I realized that I was going to love this book and I was going to reread this, multiple times.Craig keeps up the gothic and creepy vibe the whole time, which is impressive and she doesn't go too over the top or ridiculous with it, which is important for me as a reader.I adored every clothing description in this book and I loved all the sisters, Verity was hard not to love and Cassius is now probably one of my favorite characters. Ever.It's more than just a tale with pretty dresses though, there's so much loss and grief and it feels so raw with our MC and I think that was important to focus on, and it did really keep the best parts of the original tale.This book liked to consistently stomp on my heart and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Over the last few months, I’ve read several brand new, dark YA fantasy novels that I’ve been eagerly awaiting after a lot of Twitter hype. This was probably the one I enjoyed the most. It’s the story of 12 sisters, living together on an island, and dying one by one. It’s gloriously atmospheric and gothic and kept me guessing and turning the pages. There were plenty of twists and turns, some of which I guessed, some of which were an enjoyable surprise. It’s genuinely dark, scary and disturbing in parts, and genuinely delightful in others. I liked its depictions of both the sweetness and the strain of sibling and parent/child relationships and loved the descriptions of feasts, ballgowns and ceremonies.The central romance fell a little flat for me (it almost felt tacked on, as if there had to be one, because that’s considered a basic requirement of YA fantasy) but it wasn’t a huge part of the plot overall, so wasn’t much of a problem. And there were a few plot points that didn’t 100% make logical sense, but I was able to suspend my disbelief.Overall, I’d recommend.