The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
“My prince allowed me nothing sharp, nothing dangerous, nothing that could be used to cut or maim.
Not even my teeth, which he wears on his crown like a warning.”
It is terrifying to imagine the idea of existing outside of where one is meant to be, particularly in the case of a mermaid dragged out of the deep ocean onto land, and thrust into the role of “princess.” It is equally terrifying to think about the harvesting of organs from bodies that are then revivified by a group of surgeon-deities whose captives adore them and think that they do no wrong. In The Salt Grows Heavy, the readers are introduced to the mermaid and to the plague doctor, who walk the ruined kingdom together. They encounter three beings (“saints”) who control and create a village of children whose understanding of life is heavily hinged on the way that the saints revivify the dead through their experiments.
The book ends with a short story — And In Our Daughters We Find A Voice — a prologue of sorts that tells the mermaid’s story of motherhood, speaking to loss, grief, and mourning, and the power and anger propels a victor-less triumph. It is told from the mermaid’s perspective as a not-human being that her husband insisted could be moulded not only into humanity, but into the social and colonial restrictions of royalty. The story is as haunting as it is bloody.
I love The Salt Grows Heavy. There has been a tender spot in my heart for retellings of fairy tales and reimaginings of mythical creatures since I first read Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and Cassandra Khaw’s reimagining of mermaids is so dark and delicious that it made my horror-loving heart sing. I have since picked up Nothing But Blackened Teeth, and it’s next in line on my reading list. This book is definitely one of this year’s favourites, and alongside The Deep by Rivers Solomon, my favourite double feature for the reimagination of the mermaid. Bringing up questions about makers, those who are manufactured, and the relationships between (pseudo)deities and untrammelled power, Khaw takes the reader on a ride where there are no exits. I cannot get enough of her writing.
Dani Magsumbol 