Donald Maass Literary Agency

Locus: Cassandra Khaw has cemented their status as horror royalty, once and for all, with their latest novella, The Salt Grows Heavy. All hail and long live! Here’s the thing, though: I’m not even sure how or where to start telling you about The Salt Grows Heavy. Nothing I say can quite capture the creeping body horror, the marvelous disorientation, or the toothy, sumptuous, and marvelously off-putting prose of the thing. Fans of Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth will be happy to see that Khaw’s vision and aesthetic remain as dark as ever, and relish that—in my opinion—they have managed to push further into the weird and the unsettling….for those of us who find darkness irresistible, especially when beautifully presented, The Salt Grows Heavy is a grotesquely perfect feast.

Booklist: Fetter is enmeshed in a cycle of violence as his mother severs his shadow from him at birth and forges him into a weapon to murder his messianic father and dismantle his religion. As an adult, Fetter rejects her indoctrination. He physically and ideologically distances himself from both parents by settling in Luriat, the urban antithesis to his rural hometown, and recalibrating his raison d’être to peace: he assists fellow refugees, heals his trauma through therapy, cultivates intimate relationships, and investigates Luriat’s mysterious, unopenable, brightly painted doors. Nonetheless, Fetter is reeled back into his family’s conflict and becomes entangled in discord arising from government-endorsed systematic oppression, causing him to lose his place in society and calling into question his life’s purpose. The story line unravels in the final arc, paralleling Fetter’s unmoored state… However, the lyrical, precise prose, the original, organic nature of the world building, and the complex themes of purpose, identity, and the biased, often violent, incomplete nature of history-telling will engage readers long after finishing.