The Enchanting Tale of the House of Salt and Sorrows

You 're probably aware of the trend nowadays where stories are told and retold in new ways; now is the age of story recycling. Look at the super hero films, like Spiderman and Batman. The same thing is happening in the book industry: fairy tales are constantly rewritten from a new perspective, like that of the villain. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig is a fairy tale retelling, but it's one that focuses on a lesser-known tale: Grimm's The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I read this story when I was young; it was part of a book that was paired with a more original telling of Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Mermaid.

The Original Story of The Twelve Princesses

The King of twelve princesses finds that his daughters' shoes are constantly in tatters and they are always tired, yet he knows they do not venture out of the castle. Even when he locks their doors at night, nothing changes, so the King makes a Royal announcement for any man to spend three nights in the company of his daughters to find out where they go. Should they fail to discover the truth, the man will be beheaded. Many fail because they accept food and drink from the princesses, who have drugged the royal wine with a sleeping draught. A soldier ventures into the town, meeting an old woman. He mentions that he's there to take up the King's challenge, and the old woman warns him to not drink of the wine and to take her invisibility cloak, so he may follow the princesses.

Once he has publicly accepted the challenge and spends time with the princesses, they offer him royal wine, which he pretends to drink. He lets them think he is asleep. The princesses don their newest shoes and ball gowns, escaping into a secret passageway into which the soldier follows. He sees that they traverse through a forest of diamond, gold and silver trees to a lake with swan 
boats. 

They are taken to a castle where they dance all night with twelve princes and eat fine food. The soldier leaves ahead of the princesses, so when they arrive back at their castle, they find him still asleep. They do this for the other two nights, and on the last night, the soldier picks up some souvenirs, such as a branch from the enchanted forest and a goblet from the princes' castle. When it's time for him to publicly reveal to the King where his daughters go, the soldier explains everything and shows the King his evidence. The King is happy that the mystery is solved and the soldier may choose to marry any daughter. The soldier marries the eldest and becomes the heir to the kingdom.

While this tale has some issues, (like the princesses being okay with drugging the men even though they are aware that the King will behead them for failing, and we never know who the old woman is), Erin A. Craig does a magnificent job in giving this story new life.

-- Spoilers Below--

What House of Salt and Sorrows Changes in the Beginning 

Craig weaves a tale about twelve princesses who are part of the People of the Salt in a universe named Arcannia that has several islands. There are People of the Bones, People of the Stars, etc. The twelve princesses are given identities with the last name of *Thaumas:

1. Ava 
2. Octavia
3. Elizabeth
4. Eulalie 
5. Camille
6. Annaleigh
7. Rosalie
8. Ligeia
9. Lenore
10. Honor
11. Mercy
12. Verity

*FUN FACT: "Thaumas" is the name of an old sea god.

The book begins with their mother and four sisters already dead, each a year apart: Ava died from an illness; Octavia fell from a library ladder; Elizabeth drowned in the bathtub and Eulalie fell off of a cliff. Because of these deaths and the annual frequency, the rumors of a curse circulate. 

It is only Eulalie's death that makes Annaleigh suspect foul play because she knew her sister and that she didn't like the cliffs, whether in the day or night. From this point, and with Verity's talking of seeing the ghosts of her sisters, Annaleigh promises to find out what happened; however, as an avid reader of mystery novels, she takes a long time in the middle of the book to continue the investigations. At different points, she lets the dancing and the balls distract her. 

This could be explained by the spell Kosamaras has casted. I'm surprised that Craig makes it so that the deaths of Ava, Octavia and Elizabeth are actual accidents. I find that to be too much coincidence, particularly with each dying a year apart. Annaleigh also lists these sisters' deaths at the end of the first chapter, but it's only later in the book that we find out Elizabeth went mad and was hearing things. This is particularly mentioned when Annaleigh seems to be going mad in front of her family near the end of the story. Craig never answers the question about whether or not Elizabeth was a victim of Kosamaras; Kosamaras confesses to killing Edgar, but not Elizabeth. I looked online and I'm not the only one asking this question. 

Getting to Know the Characters

I don't know if it was just me because I've read a lot of mystery novels and fairy tales, but I knew Morella, their stepmother, was the culprit after reading the second chapter. The fact that she so rudely announces her pregnancy at Eulalie's wake and prompts the ending of all mourning in the household was a dead giveaway. Morella demonstrates open selfishness when she states that she believed her son would be the new heir to the Thaumas simply because he is male. I was intrigued by the Pact with a Devil concept and the bonus of a Harbinger of Madness and Nightmares being involved. 

One part of the book that I found didn't match the rest of the story or writing style was her scene of giving birth to the baby dragon. It just seemed like a scene from a B-movie or from Alien, and it was highly disappointing. It felt as if Craig see another way out of the story she had created. Aside from that one scene, I loved the book. 

I loved getting to know the sisters because most fairy tales keep characters nameless and devoid of personality. On the other hand, Craig could have gone further with their personalities. They did have a lot of the same interests and way of thinking, which could be because of their upbringing. However, I was surprised that there wasn't a sister that was more boyish or a Goth or an athlete, but maybe Craig felt that these characters would take away from the fairy tale atmosphere.

  

I like the addition of Cassius and the fact that he was a mysterious character, so readers had to look at him with suspicion; however, I find Craig made Annaleigh suspect him too much. In other words, I found she accused him too many times and wondered about him being the killer too many times, so eventually I stopped suspecting him and knew he was hiding a different secret. Her claims that Cassius knowing her sisters' names meant he was the killer were weak because he worked on Selkirk, one of the other islands, so he could have heard people talking about her family and the curse or asked people about the Thaumas sisters. He could also have spoken to her other sisters. Just because she never told him doesn't mean he couldn't have spoken to someone else.

We also got to see the Duke as a character, but knowing that Morella had him fall in love with her by a spell, we can't know how much him was really him and what was the spell. But, we do see that he had a temper. When Annaleigh disturbs him from his sexual activities with Morella, he complains and berates her for it despite that she doesn't make it a habit of disturbing him and she is clearly frightened by something she saw. I found he was an asshole.

I wasn't sad that their home, Highmoor, burned down or that their father and uncle died in the fire because I saw it more as a cleansing, story-wise. It was a symbol of cleaning the slate, so the family could start anew and live how they wanted without any ties to the past and old mistakes. I appreciate that Craig gave Annaleigh some gumption by running the lighthouse herself. Additionally, I was happy to see that the princesses did not have to rely on men to survive. Cassius was present and helping, but it wasn't portrayed in a way that showed Annaleigh as a woman who couldn't do anything for herself or who always needed saving; I felt they needed each other equally.

Atmosphere

I found the book had a Gothic feel to it that reminded me of Wuthering Heights because of the storms and sea with the murder mystery theme in a mansion. I also loved Annaleigh's madness scene where Cassius is made invisible. It makes even the reader question everything because all we have to rely on for recounting the events is an unreliable narrator. 

Often part of mysteries is what I call "doing a 360," i.e., going back to the beginning and questioning the so-called "facts." In House of Salt and Sorrows, we are shown Fisher returning to Highmoor and reuniting with his childhood friends, the Thaumas sisters, after working at the lighthouse, Old Maude, for several years. But it turns out that he was already dead before he went back and was possessed by Kosamaras. I've always been one who enjoys solving the mystery before the detective or investigating character, but I love the occasional twist that I couldn't have predicted. Although, it depends on how it's presented and if I'm in the mood; other times, I'm upset that the author withheld information, thereby denying the reader the chance to solve it themselves.

I was a bit disappointed that Craig allowed some fantastical elements, like the pantheon of gods and goddesses, to be real, but denied the existence of the secret passage to the balls to really exist. Speaking of the gods and goddesses, I wish Craig had explained Kosamaras' appearance; why did she have oily tears, and why was she always crying?

All in all, I enjoyed this story and felt a lasting impact after I finished it. I had felt myself become easily immersed in it whenever I read it.

Image Sources

The Little Mermaid (includes The Twelve Dancing Princesses), Tormont Publications Inc., 1995. Print.

Hire a Book Reviewer

I have a freelance business where I offer editing, beta reading and ARC reading for mysteries, historical fiction and fantasy stories. Email me about your project at smurphy.writer1@gmail.com. 

Happy reading and writing!