![]() It is like a gothic cathedral with the most horrific of gargoyles, sturdy and and awe-inspiring yet ferocious and frightening. Some may call it over-written, and I won’t argue despite loving it, though I’d argue against it being indulgent as it is consistent and grants the story such a darkly ornate and threatening atmosphere essential to the tale. Khaw writes in such an impressive and vast thematic lexicon that feels as otherworldly as it is grotesque. It is a violent story, but the telling of it will grab you by the throat and you’ll dare not look away. Effectively a sequel to her earlier short story And In Our Daughters, We Find a Voice (you can read it here, though it is included at the end of the book), Khaw delivers an excellent frightfest and dynamic world-building in just 100pgs. ![]() This is not a story for the feint of heart and has teeth as sharp as the mermaids within it. ‘ here is nothing fair or sweet about this world.’ Utterly impossible to put down, The Salt Grows Heavy is a ghastly and gruesome tale told in gorgeous, lyrical prose as if from the choirs of hell.įor maximum enjoyment, listen to Mermaids by Florence + the Machine along with the review. From the ashes of a kingdom devoured by the mouths of mermaids born to a king and his living myth turned chattel and status symbol to a mysterious cult deep in the forests of the taiga, Khaw sends us shivering along with our mermaid narrator and her companion, a genderless plague doctor where magic and myth buts against morality. The stories from which nightmares are born. Stories that silence or demonize those who’d dare raise a voice against them, stories that turn heads away from abuse, stories that allow evil to roam and have altars erected in its name. Though in the wake of all the grisly deaths scattering corpses across the narrative, the darkest terrors are those who wield parasitic power over others and retain it through ‘ weaponized stories’. The Salt Grows Heavy, the vicious and bewitching body horror novella by Cassandra Khaw, is full of the stuff of myths from mermaids to necromancy. They pass on lessons, they can be ‘ a means to conquer the terrors of mankind through metaphor,’ as fairy tale expert Jack Zipes wrote, but they can also uphold power and enforce standards. I personally don’t know what’s true and what’s myth, but whether he is a kind man or callous and neglectful, the Plague Doctor and his fearsome alien appearance play a part in the beginning of my story.‘ The powerful have always made meals of the small.’ (My doctor is doing so here.) Other things I read suggested that plague doctors were drawn from the most untalented and untrustworthy members of the medical profession, and that their casualties from the disease were very heavy. Supposedly plague doctors used their staves to prod their patients instead of touching them, and perhaps even beat them or force them off if they threatened to get too close. I took the outfit design from an old engraving, including his curious winged-hourglass staff. The smoke in the background is from the incense burning in an unseen censer he carries on his person as an additional protective measure. The gloves, goggles and hat are further protective measures, basically the man is in a Hazmat suit. His beak is simply the medieval version of a respirator or gas mask, in this case a cone filled with herbs and potpourri that are supposed to protect him from airborne disease and I would imagine from the stench of the mounting population of plague victims. ![]() Back for November NaNoManGo I did 30 concept drawings for this comic, I’ll post them soon.īut to continue, the doctor is covered in voluminous protective robes treated with wax. He’s a character from a comic one-shot I’m working on called The Ocean. Yipes! What have we here? Well, he may look like the Boogeyman, but this is a plague doctor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |