House of Salt & Sorrows by Erin Craig is kind of like a re-telling of one of my favorite Barbie movies as a child, Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, but with a dark twist. House of Salt & Sorrows is a mystery and suspense story about the sudden deaths of Annaleigh’s sisters. Annaleigh is the main character of the story, and she has 12 sisters, who’ve been mysteriously dying, which left their family with 7 siblings, and before any more deaths occur, she’s determined to find out who murdered Eulalie (the latest sibling who died). Her sisters believed they were cursed, and that is why even if they belonged to a very prominent and respected family, no noble man ever wanted to marry one of them, especially for Camille, the eldest, who would soon take her father’s place as Duchess, and inherit everything, down to the last pebble of their estate. Soon, they grew tired of mourning, as it was what they did every year, after a sibling has died, yet again. The sisters, specifically Camille, wanted to step out of their black clothes and ensembles to finally move on and find the perfect match for the heiress. So they manage to convince their father to throw a ball for the triplets’ birthday, in time also for their debut as young ladies of Highmoor. As for Annaleigh, her murder investigation leads her to discover more than she expects to find, and she struggles to believe anything she knows. In the end, it becomes a battle between her own thoughts against the reality of the people she loves.
The story and the plot were very well written; it was enticing and kept me hooked. There were seriously creepy parts that actually made me put the book down while I was reading in the darkness of my room, save for the fairy lights I had on. It was definitely a re-telling of Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, because in the story, Annaleigh and her sisters loved to dance and had worn out their fairy shoes made extravagant by the cobbler, in just one night of dancing. Even the cobbler in the story, despite his brief appearance, reminded me of the royal cobbler in the Barbie movie. My favorite character is of course, the main character, Annaleigh, because of her courage and determination to find out what’s really going on. She had two men vying for her love, and at first, I shipped her and the childhood friend. The other guy was kind of suspicious and the writer didn’t really reveal much of his background, which later on I understood the suspense of it all, because apparently, he was a demi-God. The demi-God was alluring, and handsome, according to the author’s descriptions. Eventually, I shipped them too. My second favorite character is Grace, the youngest of the remaining siblings, she was the most mysterious because she was quiet and always seemed to be bothered by things only she can see. She draws horrible sketches of her sisters at the time they were found dead (twisted bodies, endless depths of eyes not shut, and the like). It is creepy because Grace has never seen any of her sisters when their bodies were found, and worse, she wasn’t even born yet when her two eldest sisters died, but somehow, she knew how they looked like so that only meant she was actually seeing them. Later on, in the story, the antagonist was introduced in the form of Annaleigh’s childhood friend, whom she’s had a crush on before the demi-God arrived. He was sort of copied; they found out he’d been dead all along. The story’s really twisted and dark, but it was still able to convey the lightness of a fairy tale. I didn’t like Annaleigh’s elder sister, Camille, that much. She was the heir to Highmoor, and she seemed selfish; always thinking about her own destiny. As the remaining eldest, she should’ve been the one who strongly manned the investigation of her sisters’ murders but all she thought about was attending all the different balls and dancing with dashing men, all potential candidates for her to marry. Annaleigh carried all the weight of grief and strength to solve the mysterious curse running in their family.
Another noteworthy plot in the story, is how it adapted the “secret gateway” of Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, which led to their mother’s golden dance pavilion. In the story, the secret gateway was inside a cave, and can be opened by turning around Poseidon’s trident. If in the Barbie movie, the gateway lead to the same place, the story had a twist. It is never the same place as the one before as soon as you enter the passage. It always takes you somewhere new.
To conclude, I would highly recommend this book to my fellow bookworms. To my friends who don’t read, I would still recommend this book to them. It is something I would want them to experience the first time they read, because for sure, it is something that will stick with them and might be the reason that they would love reading, especially YA Fantasy Novels.
5/5 stars.
whispersbetweenpagesblog.wordpress.com 