[Book Review] House of Sage and Salt by Chris Cooper

🔊 Listen to this

House of Sage and Salt by Chris Cooper is an eerie tale about the determination to find an old book before it falls into the wrong hands. But just who would this book actually be safe with and can it be protected before it is too late?

Part haunted house/ghost story and part demonic cultist tale, this book will keep you totally hooked!

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on House of Sage and Salt by Chris Cooper

The prologue is short but holy… what a terrifying first step into this tale! It really kicked things off in a spooky way.  

From there, we take a step back to meet our two main characters; Adam and Emma.

These siblings have been a bit disconnected after a falling out, but when Emma is contact by her brother asking her to join him on a job with the promise of getting five-thousand dollars from the completion of it, she can’t pass it up. She needs the money and she looks forward to spending time with her brother to patch things up.

When they arrive at the house and Emma gets more detail from Adam, she is hesitant. The job? To retrieve a book from an old house. While it sounds simple enough, the more detail she gets the more sketchy it seems but she sticks it out.

As the two get ready to search the old house for this book, they soon realize that they are in way over their heads.

I loved that while this kicked off with a bang, the rest of the set up was a wonderfully slow burn with lots of vivid descriptions of the house and plenty of character building. When things start to go sideway, I was totally invested in the characters and immediately felt anxious for their wellbeing.

By the time I reached the ending, while I was still in a bit of mourning, I wanted to stand up and cheer as well.

This is such a fun and intense read!

My Favorite Passages from House of Sage and Salt

Stress would likely kill her before any hatchet-wielding madman could.

Although life had gifted Adam unearned confidence in most areas, it had forgotten to take away his fear of heights.

She ran her finger along the spine of a tall tome with a cracked leather binding held together by a few twists of thread. When she pulled it loose from the shelf, a layer of sediment came with it, and Emma’s resulting sneeze sent another puff of dust into the atmosphere. The leather crinkled and cracked as she opened the cover. The pages inside were yellowed with age and thicker than normal paper. 

My Final Thoughts on House of Sage and Salt

I cannot recommend this one highly enough. If you enjoy spooky tales with a ghost, a demon, and characters that jump right off the page, you gotta check this one out.

---

Snag a copy through Bookshop to help support local indie bookshops:

Thanks for reading!