Review: Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett

An intense and sinister tale marked by blood-stained cornfields,
forbidden love and centuries-old secrets that stir to life.
It was wonderfully creepy and gripping from beginning to end.

• Categories: Young Adult | Horror
• Related Posts: See more creeptastic recommendations  | See more YA recommendations
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Synopsis

“When you fall in love, you will carve out your heart and throw it into the deepest ocean. You will be all in—blood and salt.”

These are the last words Ash Larkin hears before her mother returns to the spiritual commune she escaped long ago. But when Ash follows her to Quivira, Kansas, something sinister and ancient waits among the rustling cornstalks of this village lost to time.

Ash is plagued by memories of her ancestor, Katia, which harken back to the town’s history of unrequited love and murder, alchemy and immortality. Charming traditions soon give way to a string of gruesome deaths, and Ash feels drawn to Dane, a forbidden boy with secrets of his own.

As the community prepares for a ceremony five hundred years in the making, Ash must fight not only to save her mother, but herself—and discover the truth about Quivira before it’s too late. Before she’s all in—blood and salt.

My Review

Mysteries abound in Kim Liggett’s Blood and Salt—a plot-driven tale of fate, love, betrayal, blood and immortality.  From the very beginning, goose bumps prickled my skin as Liggett sets up a sinister tone that haunts throughout. From there, a mix of malefic occurrences, unexplained magic and an eerie cult-like setting, kept me enthralled until the surprising end.

Twins Ash and Rhys Larkin grew up hearing of a strange commune called Quivira. Described as a kind of utopia and hidden by miles of Kansas cornstalk, their mom often espouses its powers and virtues. Ash doesn’t know quite what to think, but she feels as if her life is somehow connected to this place, especially with recurring visions of a dead girl and invisible tattoos covering her body for protection. When their mother inexplicably disappears, Ash knows that she and Rhys must go to Quivira to find her.

Once they arrive, they realize Quivira is hardly a utopia. An undercurrent of death and secrets sweep through this place. Moreover, they learn their mother is to be a part of an imminent sacred ritual. Ash too plays an important part, and is immediately thrust into a fate she never imagined.

“It’s good to be afraid… It means you still have something to live for.”

Ash meets the mysterious Dane and feels an urgent, consuming connection with him. It’s clear there are things he hides, however, and his fate seems to be divergent from hers… or so they tell her.

“He was everywhere. His scent. His movement. His breath. I was drawn to him, like a moth to a flame—only in it for the burn.”

Ash is consumed by visions that begin to tell a story of forbidden love and tragic loss, black magic and murder. And the more time she spends in Quivira, the more she falls into the past, enraptured by a tale that began with a girl named Katia.

“Something in me had changed. I could feel my ancestors, their feelings, their memories, swelling up inside me, taking over.”

The story unfurls, one secret at a time, as Ash pieces together the truth. But blood continues to spill and time begins to run out, while past and present dangerously blur. There’s no way out of the corn and the time for reckoning is upon them all… but not before some big surprises shock us in the end.

If you’re a fan of thrillers and mysteries, this is a great book to devour. I loved how the plot stylistically moved forward, with so much mystery and myth surrounding it. It felt sinister and fantastically creepy. Liggett also ends the novel in a way that could extend the story further.

“People don’t speak from beyond the corn.”

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