12 January 2016

Review #316: Bllod and Salt (Blood and Salt #1) by Kim Liggett



My rating: 3 of 5 stars



“Horror waits in the shadows, even when you are closing your eyes.”

----Melissa D. Ellis


Kim Liggett, an American author, has penned her debut YA horror romance, Blood and Salt which is the first book in the Blood and Salt series, that unwraps the story of a teenager pulled into a cult to find her mom in a strange town with carnivorous corn and a car junkyard along with her own demons of a hanging girl to fight with. This is quite a mystifying tale that is scary enough to give birth to strange nightmares to the readers.





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.


Ash and Rhys, the teenage twin brother and sisters live with their mother in the New York City. Ash is regularly being haunted by the visions of a hanging girl and because of which her mother protected her with signs as invisible tattoos. The whole family is bound by a bloody curse, that is not easy to get rid of. One fine day, Ash's mother disappears from their home, which finally leads the brother-sister duo to travel back to their mother's hometown in Quivira in Kansas filled with corn farms. Soon Ash figures out that the town is dominated by a cult and she gets absorbed into their religion of gaining immortality for the whole town in order to restore the lost love of her ancestor named Katia. In the process, she meets a local yet magical guy named, Dane and soon sparks fly between them almost instantly and not to mention those carnivorous corns which can eat up people with non-magical powers if they ventured out into the farm. Will Ash be able to find her mother thereby restoring the town's immortality?

The story is not that creepy enough to give me goosebumps yet it projected quite an interesting take on acres of corn farms, how they can be twisted into something horrifying. The book opened with a deadly and capturing scene, but then as the story progressed to the core, my grip from the story loosened. Although the story builds up in a slower pace and with complexities that kept me pretty much hooked into the story line.

The writing quality is articulate yet it could have been much more polished since some of the scenes felt a bit predictable. The narrative between each and every character is free flowing and some of the horrifying scenes are portrayed with lots of tiny details that gave me a crystal clear view as if those scenes are unrolling right in front of my eyes. The characters are developed with strong attributes by highlighting both their weakness and flaws.

The love story between Ash and Dane is told be Romeo-Juliet style, although it is not that compassionate enough to make me feel for this young love. Their was a fight for love involved in the story line, which kept me rooting for these two characters till the very end. The love story is bit dramatic, and also a little less emotional.

The whole story is set up in the cares of corn fields of Kansas, everything and anything happens in there and those moments in the corn fields are extremely sinister enough to give nightmares. The climax is definitely the best part of the story line since it ends with a major cliffhanger. In a nutshell, the story is interesting and horror and romance both complemented each other in their own way thus making it an entertaining read for the young readers.

Verdict: If you like mild horror stories, then definitely read this one.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author's publicist for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
At sixteen, Kim Liggett left her rural midwestern town for New York City to pursue a career in both music and acting. While attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kim sang backup for some of the biggest rock bands in the 80′s.
After settling down to have a family, she became an entrepreneur, creating a children’s art education program and a travel company specializing in tours for musicians.
She’s married to jazz musician Ken Peplowski, has two beautiful teens, and a very neurotic dog that drags her through Riverside Park everyday on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Visit her here


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1 comment:

  1. Ooh nice! I still need to read this one but I was intrigued by the mash of love story and horror story. Sad to hear it's not as scary as one could hope for, but still plan to read it eventually! LOL! Great review!

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