Salt by Hannah Moskowitz

 

     I received a copy of Salt from Netgalley and Chronicle Books in exchange for an honest review.

      Salt is about a boy named Indi, who is 17. He and his siblings are orphaned after their parents disappear while hunting a sea creature named El Diamante.The kids live on their boat and continue to try to hunt these sea monsters, hoping for a possibility that they will discover what happened to their parents. 

     I wanted to like this book. The concept of being sics, people who see and hunt sea monsters, was interesting to me. I was hoping that I would hear more about the creatures they would encounter. There was a journal kept by their parents and a promise of treasure. There were aspects of the storyline that I really liked and wish the author had gone further into. There were also a few moments where I thought this book would have some nice family values thrown in.

       What I didn't like about the book is that the kids were involved with a lot of stuff that weren't really necessary. Both the older sister, Beleza and Indi had sexual encounters in the story, and it sounded like this was the norm. They also smoked and drank. There was also a lot of swearing in the book. I mentioned family values. I just felt weird going back and forth between a character expressing admiration about an older sibling and then a 6 year old swearing at her 12 year old brother. Then there were tender spots where a younger character would lovingly place their head on an older sibling's shoulder... and the 12 year old would routinely smack the 6 year old in the head or something. So, I don't know. I will say that I tend to be pretty conservative and that this book is geared to teens/young adults. I also thought about character development. Maybe these kids were the way they were because they've always lived at sea, daringly catching monsters and having to make things work on their own. I thought about whether I would pass this on to my sons to read. Ultimately I decided, I will not pass it on. There's not enough of a story to make the characters worth it to me. I do think that lots of young teens will enjoy the story, but it just wasn't for me.