Cassandra Khaw’s The Salt Grows Heavy is a dark fantasy novella following an exploited mermaid and an enigmatic plague doctor as they navigate a macabre landscape and its twisted inhabitants, all narrated through prose that is as beautiful as it is disturbing.
The novella begins with destruction. The mermaid’s daughters hatch from their eggs, devouring their abusive father and bringing ruin upon his kingdom. Amidst the rubble and ash, the mermaid is joined by an androgynous plague doctor—one of the survivors of the carnage—as they set out into the wild, snowy taiga in search of new beginnings.
Bewitchingly grotesque
Khaw’s prose is easily the most striking part of the novella. Her descriptions are incredibly vivid, adding a layer of allure and mesmerism to repulsive imagery. Depictions of viscera and grisly injuries are told with a sense of elegance—as if pain, death, and misery were merely ordinary. The result is a style that is both enchanting and unpleasant—repulsive yet difficult to look away from.
Although the novella’s writing can occasionally be dense, Khaw's prose remains compelling throughout the story, leaving the reader feeling disgusted, horrified, and yet utterly charmed.
A distorted fairy-tale world
The world of The Salt Grows Heavy is bleak, completely subverting its conceptual influences into something far more sinister. Drawing from classic tales such as The Little Mermaid, the novella strays from whimsical magic and happily-ever-afters, replacing them with a landscape of drenched blood and misery. From the prince’s ruined kingdom and the frigid wild taiga, to an isolated village inhabited by odd children and their so-called “saints,” every setting carries an unnerving sense of horror and repulsion. Death, pain, and suffering are commonplace, treated as ordinary facets of life.
Even then, love and hope prevail in such a wretched place. For they exist not in the world, but in the tender bond of a monstrous, scarred couple.
The mermaid and the doctor
Central to the tale are the mermaid and the plague doctor: two peculiar traveling companions. Prior to the events of the novella—in a separate short story written by the same author—the mermaid was a captive of a cruel human prince who had her sisters slain and consumed out of greed and a bid for power. After forcing her into marriage, the prince performed a bizarre and bloody ritual that stripped her of the ability to speak, giving him even greater control over her. The mermaid’s only respite lay with the prince’s plague doctor, who did not fear her monstrous nature and instead treated her with gentleness and sympathy. By the start of the novella, the mermaid’s daughters had hatched from their eggs, ravaging the prince, his kingdom, and his people.
The mermaid and the plague doctor’s relationship, which began as defiant intimacy, blossomed into a romantic bond rooted in mutual survival and the fight for bodily autonomy. Bound by their traumatic past, the two fiercely protect one another from the unforgiving and vicious world they inhabit, their love serving as a sanctuary against it all.
Despite its relatively short length, The Salt Grows Heavy tells an unnerving yet endearing story about love and hope in a world that lacks them entirely. Through its gruesome imagery and haunting prose, Khaw reminds us that even in the most wretched of worlds, tenderness still prevails.
The Salt Grows Heavy is available for purchase on Shopee.
