Review ✎ House of Salt and Sorrows

House of Salt and Sorrows is a gothic mystery-horror-fantasy novel written by Erin A. Craig and published in 2019. That was a mouthful, but I thought it was important that all three be stated!

I found the book originally while perusing online at Barnes & Noble. Elegantly intriguing cover designs always draw me in, so as soon as it came up while I scrolled, I clicked on it. I had not heard of the book prior to that moment, and as soon as I read the summary, the mystery surrounding the Annaleigh’s family sucked me right in.

If you like the suspense of a good murder mystery, want a taste of wondrous chaos, and desire to be whisked off your feet with stellar world and culture development, this is perfect for you.

Note: Because I am unfamiliar with reading horror or murder mysteries as of writing this, I worry about my tolerance for gore and horror leaving me to find this book tame, so I bumped my rating up to a three. Craig goes into detail about death, gruesome states of being, and gets into the brain to make the reader uncomfortable with eerie ease. It was not the most unsettling piece of literature I’ve ever read, but those who are sensitive may have a hard time.

I read House of Salt and Sorrows over the course of five days. It felt a lot longer to me as my schedule required my attention be prioritized, but I made short work of this book. At one point, I blinked and found myself 100 pages further into the book than I remembered being.

The suspense was magnificent. There were no obvious answers to the mystery unfolding, and I loved it. Some YA mysteries can be easy to see through as an adult, but not this one. So many expertly crafted twists and turns had me doubting everything I knew.

I found two typos in the copy I purchased, which made me sad since I wanted to say this book was absolutely perfect! They were momentary distractions, but they solidified why I decided to go into proofreading.

After reading House of Salt and Sorrows, I became a changed person. I can only read it for the first time once, but I hope to reread it one day in the future when I’ve read an abundance of other novels. It will be the closest I get to that experience, and I gladly await it.

♕ This book earned its crown and placement as one of my favorite reads of 2023.