House of Salt and Sorrows | A YA Book Review

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

My rating: 4/5

Wow. This was so much better than I expected it to be. This book is a blend of magic, mystery, fairy tale, retelling, and I'd even say horror (at least that's how my mind played it out like a movie in my head). At first I thought the magic was kind of dropped in (à la Narnia but not quite the same), but then I became okay with it as the story progressed and it just became part of the mystery. Considering there were so many characters (12 Dancing Princesses after all), Craig does a great job of making them unique enough to keep straight or at least grouped into a small cluster (The Graces, the triplets) that helps the reader. There are a lot of red herrings and twists and turns in this book. A lot of my first inclinations turned out to be right, even if I was led astray along the way. My favorite characters were Cassius and Annaleigh. The book is very atmospheric and creepy. If you like The Wicked Deep and/or Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw, I'm fairly certain you'd enjoy this one as well. Overall, a good mystery and unexpectedly creepy (I may have had a couple nightmares on this one), but still comes with a happy (as happy given the events) ending.