Audiobook Review – The House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, Narrated by Emily Lawrence (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 12 hours and 50 minutes (416 pages)
Publisher: Listening Library
Release Date: August 6, 2019
ASIN: B07TLZCJHW
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were 12, 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.”

This was a retelling of the “Twelve Dancing Princesses”, which was my favorite fairy tale growing up. I was very excited to read this and it ended up being…okay. I normally love fairy tale retellings but this one was very slow, you could have had this book be quite a bit shorter and the story would have been just as good. Most of the action and excitement takes place in the last few chapters of the book.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life as the daughter of a Duke on a small island. However, her peaceful life has been shattered by the intermittent accidental deaths of her sisters. When she starts having ghostly visions and a mysterious door to another realm is found, Annaleigh begins to wonder if her sisters’ deaths were really accidents at all.

So, first…other things I didn’t like (aside from the poor pacing). I had trouble engaging with the main protagonist, Annaleigh, she was just so serious and so good. In fact that’s another issue I had with this book; it felt like it took itself way too seriously and was just way too dramatic. No humor or fun dialogue here.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration might have been part of my issue with this. The narrator does an excellent job with most character voices but Annaleigh’s voice sounds breathy and dreamy, almost overdone.

There were some things I liked about this book as well. The description in this book is pretty amazing, I never had trouble picturing characters or settings. There are strong horror elements throughout, enough that the story is very creepy and at points the description is a bit naseauting. I liked how this horror was woven into a classic fairy tale. I also liked that this blended elements of madness and almost Lovecraft/Cthulhu-like themes into the fairy tale as well.

Regarding the horror elements…I would only recommend this book to older young adults. This book includes a lot of very descriptive and gory horror elements. There are also a lot of other mental health things going on here like suicide, madness, and self-harm. Just a heads up to anyone sensitive to those topics.

Overall, although the ending was interesting and I liked how the fairy tale was blended with themes of horror and madness, this is a book I would have been fine with skipping. Personally I wouldn’t recommend, there are better fairy tale retellings out there. However, if a horror and fantasy themed retelling of the twelve dancing princesses intrigues (and you don’t mind a deliberately paced story) you might really enjoy this one.