Review: Salt (H. Moskowitz)
This book was good, but also… not really my favorite book ever. The premise was amazing (a huge heck yeah to sea monsters!) but the entire book just felt a little rushed or chaotic. There were so many good ideas and plot points present in this book, but instead of being able to shine on their own they were jam-packed all in one tiny book (280 pages). Honestly had this book been 350-400 pages I think it would have been easily 4 or 5 stars, because there would have been more time to fully develop each individual plot point.
Indi and his siblings have been on their own ever since their parents left for a hunt one day 3 months ago and never returned. While his other siblings seem content to continue the monster-hunting that runs in their family, Indi desires a more settled, stable life, one that doesn’t require keeping his entire lifestyle a secret. But when his family is pulled in two different directions--one towards the monster that his parents were hunting when the disappeared, and one towards the more stable land life--what will Indi choose?
I loved the whole monster plot, especially the fact that it took place at sea. I’m a sucker for anything that takes place on the water (despite the fact that I have a tendency to get seasick), and this book managed to combine two of my favorite things--the sea and monsters. We also had resourceful main characters, not a ton of romance, and a heck of a lot of arrows and hooks and weapons. If I’m being completely honest, there were a couple of parts where I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t care because I was sucked into the story and just wanted to know what happened next. It was also pretty fun to have a male narrator as well, since female narrators tend to be more prevalent in the fantasy-type genre. And I didn’t hate Indi at all, which a) is rare for me and b) make it a lot easier and more enjoyable to read.
The thing that frustrated me the most is that we never got to learn much about the monsters, their history, or anything like that. We just knew that there were monsters, and were expected to go along with that. I also wasn’t a fan of how the huge climax of the book took up a whopping two paragraphs or so. 200+ pages were building up to it, and then it just felt like a big let down. I wanted more, I wanted some huge action scene like you would get in a Marvel movie, and it just… didn’t happen. Honestly, I think all of these problems could have been solved by making the book a little longer, with a little more backstory involved.
Overall it was a really good book, just… too short. I think some additional length would have helped with the rushing issue that was really what irritated me the most.
4/5 Stars
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way altered my feelings towards, review of, or opinions on this book.