Shelf Control #112: House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig #YoungAdult #Fantasy #TBR #SpookyReads

Wednesday, the 4th of November (wow, this year has really flown past), and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, and such. If you participate, link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

This week my pick is yet another young adult read (like last week here), and yet another recent addition to my shelf, but this time one that promises to be spooky and scary, and just right for the season (so is last week’s pick but in a different sense): House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig.

This one is a dark retelling of the Grimm’s fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Although I have read quite a few of the Grimms’ fairytales, I don’t think I’ve read this one, but am familiar with the story. Also I used to (still do, really) enjoy playing a few of the RPG games by Amaranth Games including Ahriman’s Prophecy which incorporates this story–the adventurers in that game have to solve various side-quests and one of these was a version of this when the daughters of a vineyard-owner vanish every night and when our characters follow them to find out, it turns out something on these lines but with a nice, dark yet fun twist. Anyway, I realise I’m getting side-tracked too much so lets get back to the book.

In this book, we meet Annaleigh who lives a sheltered life in a manor by the sea. Her family includes her father, stepmother and sisters. But where once they were twelve, now four of her sisters’ lives have been lost, each death being more tragic than the last, for reasons ranging from the plague to a plummeting fall. A series of visions make her suspicious that these deaths were no accidents. Annaleigh’s sisters have been sneaking out at night in the ball gowns and dancing shoes, dancing all night but with whom? And Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to stop them or join them! But she has to act before the darkness claims her as well.

I came across this book entirely by chance watching booktube videos. And when I looked it up on Goodreads, the description sounded interesting and I noticed that quite a few of my friends had enjoyed this one (and also found it creepy) as well. So when there was a book sale a couple of weeks go, I picked up a nice hardback edition with the pretty cover in the picture above. I am looking forward to reading this one really soon for it seems the perfect read for the season (I know Halloween is gone, but still…).

Have you read this book or any other versions of the Twelve Dancing Princesses? Which one/s and any that you’d recommend? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!

Cover image and description are as always from Goodreads: here

Find Lisa’s pick this week, Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers by Sara Ackerman set in Hawaii during the Second World War here

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