House of Salt and Sorrows

“‘We are born of the Salt, we live by the Salt, and to the Salt we return,’ the

High Mariner continued.

‘To the Salt,’ the mourners repeated.”

The world building of House of Salt and Sorrows starts strong, with the early inclusion of a priestly figure, the High Mariner, and the People of the Salt’s framing of the Salann Islands and the Salt (the surrounding sea). These details create a complex, immersive world, in which protagonist Annaleigh Thaumas and her family look to the sea for sustenance—overseen by the god Pontus.

“Once there were twelve of us: the Thaumas Dozen. Now we stood in a small line, my seven sisters and I, and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a ring of truth to the grim speculations. Had we somehow angered the gods? Had a darkness branded itself on our family, taking us out one by one? Or was it simply a series of terrible and unlucky coincidences?”

The novel’s exploration of grief and curses starts with the Thaumas family. This quote establishes the family’s history of tragedies, introducing the question of why they have been so unfortunate.

“The High Mariner says Pontus created our islands and the people on them. He scooped salt from the ocean tides for strength. Into that was mixed the cunning of a bull shark and the beauty of the moon jellyfish. He added the seahorse’s fidelity and the curiosity of a porpoise. When his creation was molded just so—two arms, two legs, a head, and a heart—Pontus breathed some of his own life into it, making the first People of the Salt. So when we die, we can’t be buried in the ground. We slip back into the water and are home.”

The novel uses the Thaumas sisters’ stepmother, Morella, to provide exposition, as she is a mainlander, an outsider to islander culture. Annaleigh’s description of her people’s culture furthers worldbuilding, framing the people themselves as creations of a supernatural being.