Publication Date: August 6, 2019

Tags: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings

Publisher: Delacorte Publishing

Pages: 416

★★★
In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, 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 the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters 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?

🌊 a horror retelling: this story is pitched as retelling on the 12 Dancing Princess with a bit of scary thrown in. I haven't actually read a lot of retellings following this story, so I was definitely interested in how the author was going to deliver her rendition. The world has so much to offer and the author does a really great job in introducing the People of the Salt as well as their neighboring cities. The original story was used as a foundation for the plot but there was a lot of creative freedom that was taken to make the novel unique.

🌊 vivid descriptions: imagery was definitely the highlight of this novel. The word choices made from describing the beautiful balls to the horrific visions were all so vividly portrayed. The amount of detail that is used to describe the dresses and the fairy shoes take an entirely different turn when describing the ghosts and monsters - but it had the same powerful impact of evoking very clear imagery while reading. 
🌊 pacing is a bit lulling: this point was probably one of the biggest “eh” factors that made this story…less enjoyable. The pacing of this story goes from very slow to a sudden rollercoaster of events. I’ll admit, I definitely skimmed a good chunk of pages because I was getting bored and then all of a sudden had to stop and go back because out of nowhere, ten different plot twists were happening. It makes the flow of the story feel jarring with less of a flow. 

🌊 relationship settings: I really loved the portrayal of sisterhood and family within the story. We start with Eulalie’s funeral and the entire family in mourning - right from the start there is deep connection between the sisters that help them get through all the ups and downs of the story. They do have their disagreements and disillusionments, but they ultimately are rooted in their love for each other. The romantic relationships on the other hand…left me conflicted. We are technically introduced to two love interests for our MC: Fisher the childhood friend and Cassius the mysterious stranger. I’ll be honest, I didn’t trust Cassius but Fisher didn’t really stand a chance. Because of those conclusions, Fisher’s interest in Annaleigh felt redundant (though he did handle her “rejection” well) and I never quite got on board the CassiusxAnnaleigh ship. There just wasn’t enough in their relationship to really ground me - I ended up skimming past their conversations and it all boiled down to just a common interest in the other and a realization that something was wrong and this stranger person could help. I don’t know, maybe it’ll grow on me.

have you read House of Salt and Sorrows? check out my spoiler thoughts:

  🌊 Morella: I honestly did not even suspect her which caught me by surprise. I was definitely too busy pitting Cassius and Fisher against each other and trying to figure out who I “preferred” with Annaleigh that the possibility of any shady business on the stepmother’s part was forgotten. The scheming stepmother is such a common trope but the author addresses it in a way that doesn’t jump out at you till the end - making the reveal more impactful.

o However, Morella does have some redeeming factor. Seeing how Annaleigh’s father reacts while drunk, it’s not a surprise that he slept around with the help so Morella actually believing his “love” makes sense. The murdering of her predecessor is obviously unforgivable as Camille reacts, but she does love her husband (in a weird way) and feels enough remorse to pay for her actions. I don’t know, but I definitely feel sorry for her.

🌊 Verity: She was such a creepy child but in the best way possible. I’m heartbroken that she was the target for Kosamaras’ nightmarish vision but going back to the vivid descriptions, I could see the horrific artwork and it was oddly beautiful (scary still.) The scene where Annaleigh wakes up and finds Verity waltzing with her black eyes - that was terrifying.

🌊 Visions: On the topic of Kosamaras, the sheer strength of her power is terrifying. She manages to weave an alternate reality where the characters are essentially her puppets to guide all because a higher deity has asked her to carry out a bargain. By the description of her status, I would say she’s probably on the middle of the power spectrum but it’s still scary to imagine what Pontus’ power would be, or Viscardi as we only really saw a smidge of his power. Also if Viscardi is so powerful shouldn’t Vestia have been able to save her son - I guess it was all for the dramatic factor.

🌊 All the deaths at the end: Lord Thaumas’ death was…unfortunate. I’m not quite sure how I feel about him because he wasn’t the best of people, but at the same time, he truly loved his daughters and his passing left all of them in a lurch. However, I also feel like it’s fitting because his generation severely messed up and now their descendants can literally rebuild their legacy and home. It’s conflicting. And then we have Cassius. His death was sad mostly because Annaleigh had lost everyone already, but then he came back and I’ll admit, I was disappointed. It wasn’t that I didn’t want Annaleigh to be happy, but there was just a bit too much of mush and gush of “I love you much I wished for your return” that killed the ending a bit for me.

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Does House of Sorrows sound like something you'd pick up when it comes out? 

A quick thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC for review. :)