This book was gifted to me, and at the time, I wasn't familiar with it at all. What I discovered inside was a seaside fairy tale based on The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces, aka The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but with a much darker, evil twist that I never saw coming.
“We are born of the Salt, we live by the Salt, and to the Salt we return.”
This is the motto Annaleigh Thaumas and her family live by. On the remote island of Salten, it is believed that Pontus created the island and the people within it, using salt from the ocean. Therefore, when they die, they must be returned to the ocean.
Despite her young age, Annaleigh knows a lot about death. Still grieving the loss of her mother, things are only worsened when her sisters start dying, each more mysteriously than the last.
It started with Ava, killed by a mysterious plague. Next was Octavia, who fell from the tallest ladder in their library. Elizabeth followed shortly after, found floating in a bathtub, and most recently was Eulalie, who was found on the rocks beneath the cliffs of Highmoor, also known as the Thaumas manor.
Where there once were twelve sisters, now only eight remain, with each one wondering who will be next.
The story begins during Eulalie's funeral, where they ceremoniously lower her body into the ocean, returning her to the salt from which she came. The necklace she has on for burial is gaudy, something Eulalie never would have worn. Annaleigh figures their father must have chosen it, as it wasn't one that she recognized.
The girl's father, Ortun, has remarried, and his new wife, Morella, is from the mainland and unfamiliar with the ways of the People of the Salt.
Annaleigh and her sisters aren't the biggest fans of Morella, and their dislike only increases when she announces in the hours after Eulalie's funeral that she is pregnant.
Morella also doesn't wish to cooperate with their mourning traditions: they must wear black for six months, then greys and other dark colors for six months after that.
She decides that instead of mourning, they should throw a ball. Not only to celebrate the birthdays of Annaleigh's younger sisters, but to debut them into high society. Morella insists that the girls should be dancing, socializing, falling in love, getting married, and leaving Highmoor to run their own households, but is horrified to learn that isn't how things work on the island. She does, however, convince Ortun to let them have the ball.
"'So our son would be ninth in line, even though he's a boy? You never mentioned anything about this.' 'I didn't realize I needed to.'”
While all her sisters' deaths were tragic, Annaleigh can't help feeling that Eulalie's death was especially strange. What could she have been doing near the cliffs? Was it a suicide? Did someone push her?
She takes a dinghy to the nearby island of Selkirk, the fishing capitol of the small chain of islands known as Salann, in hopes of finding the fishermen that discovered Eulalie's body. After a bit of asking around, she tracks one of them down. He tells Annaleigh that Eulalie's death was an accident, he doesn't believe she would've jumped after reading what was in her locket.
“I dwelt alone / In a world of moan, / And my soul was a stagnant tide, / Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride.”
Annaleigh knew nothing of this locket, but thinks back to the necklace Eulalie was buried in. Had that been it?
It doesn't make sense, the family had no knowledge of Eulalie even seeing anyone, much less being a bride. If that were true, who was her groom?
The fisherman suddenly grows angry with Annaleigh and tells her to leave. She turns to go, running, quite literally, into Cassius, who asks her for directions to the marketplace. Reluctantly, she helps him navigate through the wharf, despite not knowing her own way around, and tries her best to ignore the whispers.
Her family's many tragedies aren't exactly a secret, and many believe the Thaumas family is cursed. The people begin to fear that she will spread her bad luck onto them, and eventually, she is told that she shouldn't be there.
As Annaleigh rows back to Salten with more questions than answers, she can't seem to get Cassius out of her mind.
She also belive's Eulalie's death was no accident, nor was it the result of a curse. It was murder.
As the ball draws closer, Annaleigh is determined to learn more about this mysterious lover of Eulalie's, and eventually finds him: a young man named Edgar. He claims that he and Eulalie were planning to run away together, and that they planned for him to meet her at the walk under the cliffs. Instead, he saw Eulalie fall to her death, and a shadow looming at the top of the cliffs from where she fell.
Meanwhile, her youngest sister, Verity, claims that she's been seeing Eulalie, Ava, Octavia, and Elizabeth throughout Highmoor.
“I think you get to a certain point in life when ghosts are no longer fun. When the people you love die. Like my father, your mother and sisters, the thought that they could be trapped here…it’s unbearable, isn’t it? I can’t imagine a worse fate.”
On the night of the ball, the Thaumas girls learn the extent of the rumors of their curse. They are horrified by some of the things they overhear, and heartbroken that almost no one will dance with them.
The only good news is Annaleigh's childhood friend, Fisher, came to visit for the occasion, and the girls are thrilled to see him again. Annaleigh and Fisher enjoy catching up, reminiscing, and somehow, the conversation leads to the legend of a mysterious door.
Known as Pontus's Door, it serves as a gateway for the gods to pass into the mortal world. Fisher insists that it's just a story, and Annaleigh agrees. However, she decides to take her sisters and search for it, hoping a little adventure will cheer them up.
Well, imagine her surprise when they actually find it—but where does it lead?
Fisher and a few of Annaleigh's sisters try to go through, much to her dismay. Moments later, they return unscathed, and clutching an invite to a themed ball.
“All the dreamers are castle-bound. At midnight’s stroke, we will unwind, Revealing fantasies soft or unkind. Show me debauched nightmares or sunniest daydreams. Come not as you are but as you wish to be seen.”
The girls and Fisher pass through the door again that evening to attend this mysterious ball, and Annaleigh is thrilled to see Cassius there.
From here, the story turns into a rabbit hole as the girls attend more of these balls, and the line between hallucinations and reality becomes blurred. Where are these mysterious balls being held? Are they real? Does Cassius even exist?
Meanwhile, as Morella's due date draws nearer, we learn her dark intentions, and her link to a creepy figure Annaleigh has been seeing at the balls.
“Nights like this were meant to be shared, remembered, and talked about for years. Skies like this were meant to be kissed under.”
This story was a lot to take in, and it didn't go the direction I expected at all. There are several story lines happening all at once, and honestly, it gets pretty dark towards the end.
Annaleigh and her sisters are likeable, nicely developed, and the author really nailed the sister dynamic.
Cassius was such a cool character, and I don't want to spoil his identity (or possible lack thereof) and backstory, but it was just so well executed and nicely tied into Greek mythology.
If you're looking for a dark fantasy that will keep you guessing until the end, this is a must read. I'd love to know your thoughts on it, and whether you saw any of the twists coming; I definitely didn't!
Be sure to join me on Discord so we can chat, and tell me what I should read and review next.
Also, stay tuned for House of Roots and Ruin, the sequel coming out in July! I can't wait to get my hands on it, and I'll definitely be reviewing that as well.
'•.¸♡ To the Salt! ♡¸.•'