Tag: fiction

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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Do you have a favorite romance novel trope? Some examples of the most common tropes are friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, forbidden lovers, secret identities, forced proximity, second chance, and fake relationships. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the romance tropes, instead these are ones that have popped up in the romance books I have read in the past couple months. My latest romance read, The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon, featured two of these tropes: enemies to lovers and fake relationship.

Shay Goldstein has been working at a Seattle public radio station for almost a decade. Hired on for an internship when she was 19, Shay has worked her way up to producing her own show. Working at PPR is her dream and she can’t imagine working anywhere else. The one wrinkle: working with Dominic Yun, her newest colleague who just graduated with his masters in journalism and who will not shut up about having his masters. He’s the hot new thing at the station and Shay can’t stand him.

At a pitch meeting for new ideas, Shay proposes a new show where two exes talk about their relationship and deliver relationship advice on air. Their boss decides Shay & Dom should host, despite the fact that they have never dated and frankly can’t stand each other(though the hatred feels more fueled by Shay than Dom). Their new show, The Ex Talk, skyrockets to fame, their popularity soars, and their lie grows bigger and bigger. The more time Shay and Dom spend together, the more they realize they might not actually hate each other. Their deception looms, leaving the two knowing that if the truth comes out, their careers and budding relationship will end.

This title is loosely related to the book, Business or Pleasure by the same author, which I read last year and LOVED. I have yet to read a title by this author that I haven’t enjoyed.

We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez

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“Because the world doesn’t care how much pain you are in, or what terrible thing has happened to you. It continues. Morning comes, whether you want it to or not.”
― Jenny Torres Sanchez, We Are Not From Here

I haven’t read a quote that epitomizes a book quite as well as the above quote does for Jenny Torres Sanchez’s newest young adult fiction title, We Are Not From Here. Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña don’t have much, but they have each other. The small town where they have grown up isn’t the best town, but they know what they are up against. When danger comes at the three, alone they are lost, but together they realize that the only option they have left is to run. The threats come right to their doors leaving them with no other option: they have to leave their families and their country. In a desperate bid to survive, Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña cross from Guatemala through Mexico along the route of La Bestia, surfing atop this deadly freight train that will deliver them to the United States if they are lucky enough to stay alive. All they have are each other, the bags on their backs, and the need to have a better life. Outrunning the darkness chasing them will be the hardest thing these three do in their lives.

This book is a painfully relevant and devastating read. It shook me to the core, yet had me unable to put the book down. Jenny Torres Sanchez discusses the lives of migrants at the United States southern border with vivid realism, not shying away from the devastating and deadly realities that many immigrant families face. She is brutally honest while telling this incredibly timely story.

This title is also available as a CD Audiobook and in Spanish.

Want to talk about We Are Not From Here with others? Join See YA! See YA is our adult book club with a teen book twist. See why so many teen books are being turned into movies and are taking over the best seller lists. Registration is not required. Books are available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Eastern Avenue library. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at Eastern at 6:30pm.  Our next four months of books are listed below:

March 6 – We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez

April 3 – The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

May 1 – Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

June 5 – The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

FRIENDLY READS

- Jill Leave a comment

The human experience of friendship is universal. While the nature of those friendships can change over the course of a lifetime, most people of all cultures and all ages have experienced at least one friendship during their life. Friendships in our early years are typically based on play and companionship. But, when we mature into adults, friendships tend to become more intimate as we share our struggles and successes in a trusting relationship.

There are certainly many benefits of having a friend. The risks or cost of not having a friend (or having difficulties with friendships) are also universal to all cultures. And, there are different kinds of friendship, including: same gender friendships, opposite or mixed gender friendships, group friendships, and friendships that lead to romance, among many. Check out some of these books where the story focuses on a particular friendship. See how the friendships influence the plot and how the events affect those friendships. During the month of February, look for the “Friendly Reads” book displays at Fairmount and Main for a wide selection. Below are a few titles to get you started. (Descriptions below from the publisher)

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie

“Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future.  Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences—and find out whether their friendship can survive. Thought-provoking, compassionate, and full of unexpected turns, Best of Friends offers a riveting take on an age-old question: Does principle or loyalty make for the better friend?”

 

You Can’t Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin

“Just days after her young, handsome husband dies in a car accident, Ellie Huang discovers that he had a mistress—one of her own colleagues at a prestigious San Francisco law firm. Acting on impulse—or is it grief? rage? Probably all three—Ellie cashes in Ian’s life insurance policy for an extended stay at the luxurious Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France. Accompanying her is her free-spirited best friend, Mable Chou. Ellie hopes that the five-star resort on the French Riviera, with its stunning clientele and floral-scented cocktails, will be a heady escape from the real world. And at first it is. She and Mable meet an intriguing couple, Fauna and Robbie, and as their poolside chats roll into wine-soaked dinners, the four become increasingly intimate. But the sunlit getaway soon turns into a reckoning for Ellie, as long-simmering tensions and uncomfortable truths swirl to the surface. Taking the reader from San Francisco to the gilded luxury of the south of France, You Can’t Stay Here Forever is a sharply funny and exciting debut that explores the slippery nature of marriage, the push and pull between friends, and the interplay of race and privilege, seen through the eyes of a young Asian American woman.”

 

The Caretaker by Ron Rash

“It’s 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.  Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke is an outcast in Blowing Rock, an outsider, poor and uneducated, who works as a seasonal maid in the town’s most elegant hotel. When Naomi eloped with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalized the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherited him. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer and closer until a shattering development derails numerous lives. A tender examination of male friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting, page-turning novel of familial devotion, The Caretaker brilliantly depicts the human capacity for delusion and destruction all too often justified as acts of love.”

 

Online Reading Challenge – January Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1800s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge.

Libertie follows the life of Libertie Sampson from the time she was a young child to when she is a grown woman. Libertie’s mother is Dr. Sampson, a woman raising her daughter by herself in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn. Dr. Sampson is a practicing physician and has visions of the two working together in the future. She plans for Libertie to go to medical school and then practicing together in their small community. As Libertie grows older however, she strains at the expectations her mother has placed on her. Libertie would rather do something with music over science, but still yearns to live an independent life like her mother. One major issue is Libertie is much darker than her light-skinned mother, who occasionally passes as white. Her future changes when she accepts a young man from Haiti’s marriage proposal. He promises that she will be his equal, but after the two arrive in Cuba, she discovers that is not the case. Libertie has to decide what she is willing to give up and what freedom really means to her.

The imagery in this book was gorgeous. I found myself wishing to transport myself to Haiti with Libertie and to visit Reconstruction-era Brooklyn with her mother. The descriptions of the scenery, the people, and the struggle for freedom pulled at my heart strings as readers watch lives change throughout the course of the novel.

This book is inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the state of New York, Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, and her daughter. Dr. McKinney-Steward was the third African American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. As I was reading, I found myself wishing that this book focused less on Libertie and more on her mother. I wanted to love this title more than I actually did. The premise lured me in, but instead of focusing on Dr. Sampson, we instead focused on Libertie, who, in my mind, had few redeeming qualities.

I hope you enjoyed traveling to the 1800s with me! Next month, we are heading to the 1900s & 1910s.

Want more dragon books?

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Over the last couple of months, I have noticed an increase in fiction books about dragons at the library. The increase in interest for dragon books is prevalent at book stores and on social media as well. While some of this can be attributed to the release of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros in May 2023 (book one in the Empyrean series), this interest in dragons has been around for decades. Below I have gathered a list of fiction books about dragons for adults and young adults that I hope you will enjoy!

This is by no means a complete list of dragon books that the Davenport Public Library owns, but none of these titles have been talked about on the blog before. These titles are all first books in the series. All titles are also owned by the Davenport Public Library as of the date of this writing. The descriptions are provided by the publisher or author.

If you have a favorite piece of dragon fiction, let us know in the comments!

Adult Fiction

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam – book one in the Dragon Scales series

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the “gods” remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact’s magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely–body, mind, and soul—and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter. – DAW

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The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey – collects the first three books in The Dragonriders of Pern series (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon)

Finally together in one volume, the first three books in the world’s most beloved science fiction series, The Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey, one of the great science fiction writers of all time: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon. Those who know these extraordinary tales will be able to re-visit with Lessa, F’lar, Ruth, Lord Jaxon, and all the others. And for those just discovering this magical place, there are incomparable tales of danger, deceit, and daring, just waiting to be explored – Ballantine Books

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Ebony Gate by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle – book one in the Phoenix Hoard series

Emiko Soong belongs to one of the eight premier magical families of the world. But Emiko never needed any magic. Because she is the Blade of the Soong Clan. Or was. Until she’s drenched in blood in the middle of a market in China, surrounded by bodies and the scent of blood and human waste as a lethal perfume.

The Butcher of Beijing now lives a quiet life in San Francisco, importing antiques. But when a shinigami, a god of death itself, calls in a family blood debt, Emiko must recover the Ebony Gate that holds back the hungry ghosts of the Yomi underworld. Or forfeit her soul as the anchor.

What’s a retired assassin to do but save the City by the Bay from an army of the dead? – Tor Books

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The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter – book one in the Burning series

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable war for almost two hundred years. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war.

Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance.

Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him. – Orbit

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The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – book one in the Chorus of Dragons series

When destiny calls, there’s no fighting back.

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel’s son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family’s ruthless power plays and political ambitions.

Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised. The storybooks have lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he isn’t the hero after all. For Kihrin is not destined to save the world.

He’s destined to destroy it. – Tor Books

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To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose – book one in the Nampeshiweisit series

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it. – Del Rey

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Young Adult Fiction

Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz – book one in the Blazewrath Games series

Experience the World Cup with dragons in this debut fantasy, set in an alternate contemporary world, in which riders and their steeds compete in an international sports tournament.

Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner―the only player without a dragon steed―is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.

But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire―a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form―the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport. – Amparo Ortiz

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Eragon by Christopher Paolini – book one in the Inheritance Cycle

When fifteen-year-old Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and, gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save—or destroy—the Empire. – Knopf Books for Young Readers

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Fireborne by Rosaria Munda – book one in the Aurelian Cycle

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone–even the lowborn–a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs. – Penguin Books

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Rebelwing by Andrea Tang – book one in the Rebelwing series

Things just got weird for Prudence Wu.

One minute, she’s cashing in on a routine smuggling deal. The next, she’s escaping enforcers on the wings of what very much appears to be a sentient cybernetic dragon.

Pru is used to life throwing her some unpleasant surprises–she goes to prep school, after all, and selling banned media across the border in a country with a ruthless corporate government obviously has its risks. But a cybernetic dragon? That’s new.

She tries to forget about the fact that the only reason she’s not in jail is because some sort of robot saved her, and that she’s going to have to get a new side job now that enforcers are on to her. So she’s not exactly thrilled when Rebelwing shows up again.

Even worse, it’s become increasingly clear that the rogue machine has imprinted on her permanently, which means she’d better figure out this whole piloting-a-dragon thing–fast. Because Rebelwing just happens to be the ridiculously expensive weapon her government needs in a brewing war with its neighbor, and Pru’s the only one who can fly it.

Set in a wonderfully inventive near-future Washington, D.C., this hilarious, defiant debut sparkles with wit and wisdom, deftly exploring media consumption, personal freedoms, and the weight of one life as Pru, rather reluctantly, takes to the skies. – Razorbill

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So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole – book one in the Divine Traitors series

Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world. – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“I do have a super strength and it involves overthinking everything to death.”
― Tessa Bailey, My Killer Vacation

Are you looking for a mix between a cozy mystery and a steamy romance? Try My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey! I have yet to dislike any of Tessa Bailey’s romance novels, so when I stumbled upon My Killer Vacation on the shelves at the library, I knew I needed to read this cozy mystery romance. (Content warning: this book was much spicier than I thought it was going to be. The romance/sex scenes definitely do not take place off page. Go forth and read if you will.)

Perky and energetic elementary school teacher Taylor is on vacation with her heartbroken brother on Cape Cod, a vacation she’s been saving for for years. Minutes after arriving, Taylor finds peepholes in her bedroom, and upon further inspection finds a DEAD BODY downstairs. Taylor is a true crime enthusiast, so of course she decides to do a little investigating herself.

The sister of the murder victim doesn’t agree with the police’s handling of the case, so she reaches out to bounty hunter, Myles, to figure out what really happened to her brother. Myles is a grouchy motorcycle riding bounty hunter with relationship issues (you can see where this is heading, right?). As soon as Taylor and Myles meet, sparks erupt. Much to Myles’ dismay, Taylor won’t stop poking around in the case, so the two work together despite the sexual tension bubbling away between them. Whatever their relationship is is not enough to stop the two from investigating.

“Terrible things happen sometimes, but you can’t avoid the high of happiness or joy, because you’re too afraid of falling from a great height.”
― Tessa Bailey, My Killer Vacation

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Do you ever read the BookPage magazines that are available for free at all three Davenport Public Library locations? As a selector, I always do! Each month, BookPage puts out a magazine as a discovery tool for readers to find their next great book. My latest read was featured on the front cover of the November 2023 issue. The related article was fascinating and pulled me to find the book immediately.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due honors the ghosts of her family’s painful past. In 2012, Due learned that her mother’s uncle, Robert Stephens, had most likely been buried on the grounds of the Dozier School for Boys, a now infamous reform school in Florida that was the site of monstrous abuse. As a result of this phone call, Due traveled to Florida to witness her great-uncle’s remains being unearthed. She also attended a meeting of Dozer survivors that cemented her desire to write something about the boys at Dozier. Due decided to write a novel, as she felt too removed from the situation to write a piece of non-fiction.

Her determination eventually led to The Reformatory, a horror novel that tells the fictionalized story of twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr. who was sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, the reformatory where horrific abuse took place for decades. Robbie’s crime: kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. When Robbie arrived at the reformatory, his talent for seeing ghosts, also known as haints, quickly became a burden. This gift used to comfort him after he lost his mother, but the ghosts he sees at the reformatory highlight the horrifying truth of what really happens at the school. Boys have been going missing there for years, but the haints he sees keep whispering to him that even worse things are happening to these boys. Robbie turns to other boys to learn how to survive, but his best efforts may not be enough to save them all in the end.

On the outside, Gloria is determined to get Robbie back home as quickly as possible. Her father is rather notorious in the community, so she knows that local officials will be less likely to help her. She rallies her network of friends and family, as well as various other Florida connections to hopefully get Robbie out of the Reformatory before he becomes yet another statistic. While this is a fictionalized account, Due gathered information about her lost relative and the lives of others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys in order to write this twisting novel.

This title is also available in large print and as a Libby eBook.

For more information about the Dozier School for Boys, both nonfiction and fictionalized, check out the following titles:

Burning Down the House: the End of Juvenile Prison by Nell Bernstein

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin H. Kimmerle

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Gaman. The ability to hold your pain and bitterness inside you and not let them destroy you. To make something beautiful through your anger, or with your anger, and neither erase it nor let it define you. To suffer. And to rage. And to persevere.”
― Traci Chee, We Are Not Free

Are you wanting to read something outside your comfort zone? Book clubs are an excellent way to expand your reading palette! Lucky for you, the Davenport Public Library has a wide number of different book clubs for you to join. My latest read, We Are Not Free by Traci Chee, was the January selection for See YA, an adult book club that reads young adult titles.

We Are Not Free tells the stories of fourteen teens. These young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, grew up together in Japantown, San Francisco. Their lives were torn apart after Pearl Harbor. They were attacked, abused, and treated horrifically with no way to seek justice. At least they had each other to rely on. Their sense of home and security is ripped away when the United States government begins their mass removal and forced evacuation to relocation centers. Over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were eventually removed from their homes and forced into these camps for just over four years. This novel follows the lives of these fourteen teens and how they respond when the world tries to break them apart.

This book tore me up. The audiobook is told by a wide cast of narrators, making it easier for me to keep each teen separate. Every character has a separate story, yet as I was reading, I knew that even though there were fourteen different perspectives represented, this was only a small look at the multitude of situations that happened during World War II to Japanese Americans. If you’re looking for an introduction to this topic that isn’t overly heavy or violent, I recommend We Are Not Free by Traci Chee.

If you’re interested in joining See YA, we will be meeting Wednesday, February 7th at 6:30pm at the Davenport Public Library | Eastern Avenue Branch to discuss You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.

“History is not dead. We have not moved on. Like Minnow and many of my other characters, I love this country because it is my home, and my parents’ home, and my grandparents’ home, and because I was raised to believe in the opportunity and equality America promises, but this does not prevent me from seeing its problems, seeing all the ways it has failed its people again and again.”
― Traci Chee, We Are Not Free

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

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“For the falling star and the rising ape to meet, the former must first be debased. No myth can remain terrifying when you’ve seen it broken and beaten, rendered as toothless as an old crone.” – The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw

In an attempt to read more broadly, I picked up The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, a 2023 horror novella. This novella is a somewhat sequel to Khaw’s short story, And In Our Daughters, We Find a Voice, which can be found printed at the end of this novella and also online. While it isn’t necessary to read the short story first, it did provide background to one of the main characters in the novella that I appreciated.

Let’s get into The Salt Grows Heavy!

While I wouldn’t typically reach for horror, the first paragraph on the inside cover pulled me in: “You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the price. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.” I grew up adoring The Little Mermaid, but as an adult, looking into the classic tales and different myths surrounding mermaids has consumed my interest. Seeing this novella as a twisted version of The Little Mermaid, I decided to give it a read.

The Salt Grows Heavy is dark and twisted, full of bloodshed and gore. At the core of this novella lives a mermaid and a plague doctor. The mermaid’s children are cannibals – the story begins with her daughters having massacred the entire kingdom, hungering for more. Amidst the carnage lies their father, the prince. The mermaid isn’t sad, as he was incredibly cruel to her, keeping her locked away and denying her true nature. In the aftermath of the massacre, the mermaid teams up with the plague doctor, a nonbinary, mysterious, and gender-free calming influence. The two leave the ravaged kingdom behind, searching for something unsure. On the run, they stumble upon a mysterious village deep in the snowy forest full of ageless children and the ‘saints’ who control them.

I don’t know what I was expecting in this novella, but it far exceeded whatever I was. The language is flowery, the words chosen are long (and sometimes required me to look up the definition of), and the fairytale is messy and twisted. Unexpectedly, this novella also sports romance! The mermaid and plague doctor are loyal to each other, willing to die if needed. I was a tad confused why the mermaid cared so much as her entire character rebels against such close bonds. Seeing their relationship change from beginning to end was intriguing nevertheless. The plague doctor was compelling, sympathetic, and blessedly nonbinary. Given this was also a short novella, I enjoyed how quickly the read went. Add in the bonus of a twisted fairy tale and I’m certainly on the hunt for other similar titles!

Online Reading Challenge – January

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Welcome Readers!

It’s time for a new Online Reading Challenge! In 2024, we will be heading to different decades every month. This month the Online Reading Challenge travels to the 1800s. Our Main title for January is Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

The critically acclaimed and Whiting Award–winning author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman returns with Libertie, an unforgettable story about one young Black girl’s attempt to find a place where she can be fully, and only, herself.

Coming of age in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else—is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her light-skinned mother, Libertie will not be able to pass for white. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it—for herself and for generations to come.

Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s new and immersive novel will resonate with readers eager to understand our present through a deep, moving, and lyrical dive into our past.

This title is also available in large print and as a Libby eBook.

Looking for some other books set in the 1800s? Try any of the following.

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