The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, 106 pages.
After her daughters devour the kingdom where she was once held captive, a monstrous mermaid goes on a journey with a mysterious plague doctor to anywhere but there. They soon come upon a small village full of children with monsters of their own, monsters who are very important to our plague doctor.
This dark fairytale is mostly a play on the little mermaid story, but it definitely plays with other elements as well. I was really excited to get my hands on it, because that cover is gorgeous and everything about the (admittedly vague) premise appealed to me. Unfortunately, it didn't feel like this story had any idea what it wanted to say or do. There was a lot of very graphic gore and violence that didn't really feel like it was there for any particular reason, and the tone was confused. I was tragically very disappointed in this novella, which made it's scant 100 pages feel too long.
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