The Salt Grows Heavy

“Khaw’s poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem.” —The New York Times

From Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth, comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairy tale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself.

A Best Horror Book of 2023 (The New York Times, Library Journal) �� A Best Book of 2023 (NPR) • A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award Nominee! • An Indie Next Pick

You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.

On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them.

The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

“This brilliant novella is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“With this brilliantly constructed tale...Khaw cements their status as a must-read author.” —Library Journal, STARRED review

Also by Cassandra Khaw:
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
A Song for Quiet
Hammers on Bone
The Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genre: Horror

"A brutal and deadly romp whose language is as sharp and glittery as a scalpel made of ice. Strange and compelling, The Salt Grows Heavy is unlike anything else out there, a dark spell with needle-like teeth." - Brian Evenson

"Cassandra Khaw's writing is never more lyrical than when they're describing the knife in your heart. The bones of a fairy tale sunk deep in a charnel house of descriptive prose, an elegant confection with a blood-soaked core. I devoured it in one sitting." - T Kingfisher

"Cassandra Khaw's steely prose is matched only by the inventiveness of their imagination. The Salt Grows Heavy demonstrates their continuing mastery of the novella form with a story Angela Carter would be jealous to have written." - John Langan

"A feverishly gory, grotesquely beautiful and baroque fairy-tale-meets-love-sonnet. Cassandra Khaw's imagination is limitless." - Paul Tremblay

"Khaw uses poetically beautiful words to tear open your chest and gnaw on your ribs in this needle-sharp novella." - Kaaron Warren