Salt

by Rosemary Melchior, LeVar Burton (Narrator)

A teenage girl is exiled to a penal colony on an icy, inhospitable island. But the island contains secrets, and so does the girl.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction

1 pages, Audiobook

First published March 1, 2020

Reviews

[Barb H]

Despite its short length, this tale conveys a sense of "gloom and doom". It is certainly mysterious to discover right at the outset that the sole character, a 16 year old girl, has been exiled to a barren, frigid, inhospitable land. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had learned more of circumstances surrounding these events.

[Claire]

great pacing and lots of well written nuggets worth transcribing, though not terribly remarkable

[Emily]

“Salt” is the first piece by Rosemary Melchior I have read. I read the short story “Salt” via the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. This story reminded me a great deal of a retelling of the Salem witch trials except that it was set on a harsh, cold Icelandic island with few inhabitants instead of taking place in Massachusetts. The heroine of the story gets punished by a man for many of the same reasons as the women accused of witchcraft who were the victims of the Salem witch trials were. In Rosemary Melchior’s story the heroine Sigurd gets punished because the head of the penal colony that she gets sent to fears she is too powerful. I was very relieved that this short story didn’t follow the traditional tiresome trope of the heroine always needing to be “rescued” by a man. Refreshingly Sigurd is able to be her own hero and put her oppressors in their place through her own careful planning and intelligence. This was so fantastic to see a heroine behave this way in a crisis. Most heroines in stories don’t get the chance to be their own hero and if they do it is usually not in a meaningful way in the story. The male love interest is typically provided with a convenient way to save his lover and the woman is usually portrayed as being very grateful over her rescue. So glad that wasn’t the case here. I look forward to reading more works by Melchior. Even though the pacing was a bit slow to get going, once the story built up for a bit the suspense and struggles to deal with the harsh unknowns in a hostile environment were very well done and kept my interest throughout the story.

[Ann]

Since Iceland inspired the setting, I could really feel how uninhabitable it was. Good story with a twist but I don't see the connection to the title. Maybe the bits about the accusations that got her there?

[Katherine]

This was great. Felt like the prologue to a novel, I would love to read it.

[Elizabeth]

I like open-ended stories, but I did really want to know what happened...