5 SPOOKY, TERRIFYING, OH MY GOD MY HANDS STILL TREMBLING , CONTAINING GOTHIC ELEMENTS, GHOSTS AND CURSES KINDA STORY, PLEASE LEAVE YOUR LIGHTS ON BEFORE GO TO SLEEP AFTER THIS BOOK AND DON’T BE AFRAID OF CREAKING SOUNDS, THEY MIGHT BE ONLY RATS DANCING ON YOUR FLOORS STARS!

You know Brother Grimm’s fairy-tale named “Twelve Dancing Princesses”: Those girls each more beautiful than the last, sleep in twelve beds in the same room. Every night their doors securely locked by their father. But in the morning THEIR DANCE SHOES are found to be WORN THROUGH as they had been DANCING ALL NIGHT! So this book’s quite great, horrific, roller coaster riding version of retelling.

As you consider how Grimm Brothers’ vulgar, harsh tones and merciless writing on those books and depressing, grimacing things happened to their characters, you may understand how this book could give you creeps, stomach churning, eerie sensation. THIS IS REALLY SCARY AND MIND BENDING BOOK! If you’re not ready to read something spooky, twisty, surprising, giving you nightmares, please put the book down and choose something lighter your chic-lits or summer reading you could grab to read at the seaside while you’re sipping your cool drink and totally forget about this dark story forever!

This book might be 12 Dances Princesses’ retelling, a different approach, newer version but it also reminded me the “Inception” with its mind confusing, head hurting, dream into-dream into- dream sequences. You’re really getting lost what’s real or what’s a nightmare. There are some parts of “7 Ravens” which is originally about 7 brothers but we had our heroine Annaleigh ( which is so amazingly melodic and capturing name, if I ever have a child, I named after her without thinking a second) and her 7 sisters! And also we had some glimpses of Little Women in this book as we read the sister’s stories and character analysis. Rosalie reminded me Amy and Verity had a little Beth, a little Amy inside. And Camille, know-it all, pretentious elder sister reminded me a little Meg, at least Annaleigh and her struggles had great resemblances with Meg and Joe’s fighting about their differences.

WHAT I REALLY REALLY REALLY LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK:

BIG FAN OF RETELLINGS AND THIS GREAT DEBUT :
It’s real defying and challenging thing to write again with brand new, fresh, crystal clear, visionary perspective and create a new story based on Brother Grimms’ works. The author chose not one of the famous works of him and she definitely achieved dexterous, adroit, refined job by adding horrific, gothic, mysterious elements and a poignant, lyrical romantic story.


FAST PACING TEMPO, HEART-THROBBING TERRIFYING SCENES:

Verity acts Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment and claims she’s talking with the ghosts of her dead sisters and draws so many scary paintings which contain too many gory and harmful details about the way how her sisters have died. There is no way she can know these facts without being crime scenes (which of course she hasn’t!)
I really jump out of my seat, throw the book away as if my hands were burned, screamed non-stop when I caught a monster looking back at the me(then I realized that’s my morning self in the mirror before I had my morning coffee so I shut my mouth!)

AMAZING LOVE STORY:
We need romance after jumping out of our seats and taking few breathes to ease our heavy heart rates! So this love story was a medicine for the pain this book gave me. I love Annaleigh and Cassius’ slow-burn, passionate, tender, devoted, growing love story.

ENDING:
The part about the villain’s identity was foreseeable but last twists about delusions were clearly mind-bending, brain cell burning, head thudding kind of experiences they had to endure for finishing this book. I enjoyed those twists, mind games that the author professionally played with us. She was my great winner.

SUMMARY:
I want to read more retellings and surprising stories if Erin A. Craig intends to write. This year, I discovered too many new writers and I enjoyed their works so much which gave me hope, we’ll have more amazing literary works in near future. I LOVE THIS BOOK TOO MUCH. If you’re big fans mysterious, horrifying, Grimm Brothers style fairy-tales, that’s definitely a “Yes, this book is truly for you!”

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...and the award for Exceptional New Voice in YA Horror goes to...



ERIN A. CRAIG!!!!

((the crowd goes wild))



I loved House of Salt and Sorrows so, so much. Truthfully, it wasn't at all what I expected, but I am so damned pleased with what it turned out to be.

In one word: EVERYTHING



Annaleigh lives at Highmoor, a remote manor on the sea with her father, stepmother and many sisters. Where once there were twelve sisters, however, only nine remain.

The most recent to die, Eulalie, plunged to her death from a high cliff to the sea. It is rumored she was out to meet a lover on the night she fell and that she was planning to run away.



Tragedy has struck the family so many times, the villagers whisper they are cursed.

While some of her sisters believe in the validity of a family curse, Annaleigh doesn't. She also doesn't believe that Eulalie's death was an accident.

Perhaps her other sister's deaths weren't accidental either?



Teaming up with a handsome and mysterious stranger, Annaleigh begins to investigate what is truly happening at Highmoor.

As many of you may know, House of Salt and Sorrows is a retelling of the classic fairy tale The Shoes That Were Danced To Pieces, or The Twelve Dancing Princesses.



Going into this, I expected a typical YA Fairy Tale Retelling. Fortunately, there was nothing typical about this book.

Truth be told, a lot of this story creeped me the heck out.



There was one night, I was up late, reading this on my kindle with all the lights turned off, I got to a section where there is a particularly lucid scene involving one of Annaleigh's dead sisters and I legit almost put that bitch in the freezer!

I had to switch to something light and fluffy just to be able to go to sleep that night. Now that's a great book.



As someone who is a great fan of the dark and macabre, I must say, I was beyond impressed with Craig's writing.

Her ability to conjure truly terrifying moments and atmosphere is absolutely fantastic.

I am calling this a YA Horror, because even though the story isn't exactly a Horror story, I am calling out Erin A. Craig as a Horror writer!



I really hope she continues more in that vein with her future stories.

There was an ominous feeling surrounding this. The fae- feeling of the portal door bringing the sisters to the balls, it was all incredibly visceral.



I have never read the original source material, so I cannot weigh in on the merits of this as a retelling but I imagine, most folks who have read the original will be impressed.

In my opinion, this book has it all and if you are a fan of gothic stories, you CANNOT miss this one. Pick it up, you won't regret it!



Thank you so much to the publisher, Delacorte Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I cannot wait to see what Craig comes up with next. You better believe I will be buying it as soon as it releases!arcs-read701 s Jesse (JesseTheReader)550 174k Read

well this was trippy, weird, & unexpected! i've never read the story this book is based on so maybe had i read that i wouldn't be as surprised as i am, but here we are. the only downfall for me was the romance... shocker! 749 s chan ?1,149 55.3k

barbie walked so this book could run2019 ya-fantasy2,091 s Hailey (Hailey in Bookland)614 85.7k

4.5* (might be just a 4, have to think on it a bit more!)fantasy owned retellings ...more537 s chai ?343 164k Read

guess who is single and ready to

read this retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and reinject myself in with this fictional world and its characters to avoid engaging with my very real responsibilitiesfiction lost-interest-dnf read-in-2019 ...more509 s zuza_zaksiazkowane439 39.5k

Nie wiem co my?l? o tej ksi??ce. Podoba? mi si? pomys? i to jak mroczna by?a (i zako?czenie by?o niez?e),ale równocze?nie by?a za d?uga, a w?tek romantyczny koszmarny. Wi?c albo 2.7 albo 3, jeszcze nie zdecydowa?am
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