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House of Salt and Sorrows
416 pages
A dark, salt-crusted fairy tale where glittering ballgowns hide a creeping, oceanic dread.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like standing on a cliff edge above a churning, freezing sea while wearing a silk gown that is slowly rotting away. It is a masterclass in gothic atmosphere, wrapping the reader in a thick fog of grief, paranoia, and dark enchantment. The narrative moves at a steady, deliberate pace, taking its time to build a claustrophobic dread that contrasts sharply with the intoxicating, fever-dream glamour of midnight dances. The prose is intensely sensory, tasting of brine and smelling of dying flowers, pulling you deeper into a world where reality constantly fractures. It is a perfect fit for anyone who loves their fairy tales laced with genuine horror, where the romance is swoony but the shadows are full of teeth.
- Mood
- eerie
- oceanic
- dread-soaked
- claustrophobic
- glamorous
- Tone
- foreboding
- romantic
- earnest
- suspenseful
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- grief and mourning · the weight of family curses · madness versus reality · sisterhood and loyalty · dangerous temptations
- The writing
- Lush, sensory, and cinematic, dripping with gothic imagery of salt, sea, and rotting glamour.
- The arc
- Begins in a heavy fog of mourning, spirals into intoxicating romance and paranoid terror, and culminates in a desperate fight for survival.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave dark fairy tale retellings that balance glittering ballgowns with creeping, seaside horror.
Content notes
- grief and mourning
- death of siblings
- drowning
- gaslighting
- mild body horror
About the book
In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.
Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last--the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge--and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.
Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister's deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who--or what--are they really dancing with?
When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family--before it claims her next. House of Salt and Sorrows is a spellbinding novel filled with magic and the rustle of gossamer skirts down long, dark hallways. Be careful who you dance with...
Description from Open Library.
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