Our Cut of Salt - Review
I received an audio copy from Macmillan Audio via NetGalley. All reviews are my own
Our Cut of Salt by Denna Helm was not for me. If you’ve been following my reviews for a bit, you know that isn't a slight. I rarely pick up a book and can’t find a place for myself within the story. As far as I can remember, that’s only happened in two books: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker, and more recently, Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. I was lost in their stories (in a good way) and was a bumbling fool following the story path with a cheap lighter. I know the authors were trying to relay something on a wider scope, but I just couldn’t see past my feet on the dusty road. I needed a megawatt lantern for the journey. We can add Deena Helm’s debut to this list.
In my truest preference, I chose the audio version of this book. Narrated by Victoria Nassif, the audio took 9 hours and 32 minutes. I loved her voice! This was my first time experiencing Nassif, and I’d do it again. She has a smooth, butter-like tone, but she also shifts the quality for each character. My only gripe is the voice she did for Haifa, the mother. She sounded much younger than her own daughter when she portrayed her. If we switched the voice characterization between Haifa and Marina, I’d have no notes.
Let’s get into it. The first thing I want to tackle is the story's structure. When I originally sought out this book, I thought it was going to be a horror-filled book. The synopsis positioned it as a haunting, and yes, there was a haunting, but we don’t really see much of its effects until about halfway through the book. For the first half, the horror centers on an unspoken family canon event that neither Marina nor Haifa knew how to approach. Marina wants to see where her family came from, but she's being dissuaded from looking. Her mother, Haifa, holds on to the same unsaid, unclear warnings her mother, Nuhad, used to tell her when she was growing up. The audience sees the disconnect between the generations, but nobody knows the answer until they go back home to Palestine.
The story unfolds across past and present timelines through four different POVs. The story shifts between Marina, Haifa, Nuhad & her best friend, and the house itself. Through all four POVs, secrets and horrors are unearthed, and we learn the truth about the displacement of Nuhad and the house, the emotional disconnect between Nuhad and Haifa, and the slow cultural reconciliation between Haifa and Marina.
With the world constantly at war, Palestine (Gaza specifically) has been in the news for quite some time now. I won’t pretend to know everything that’s going on, but I do see social media protests raising awareness of what’s happening overseas. When I started reading Our Cut of Salt, I couldn’t help but notice my mind wandering to the timeline of this book’s announcement and the bombings that are happening in Gaza. I’ll be honest: I’d hate for this book to be a money grab; a trigger in marketing to push something Palestine-related out into the world while the term is hot. I want to confidently say that I didn’t get those vibes while reading, but I did. Granted, the past timeline in this book does deal with an actual Palestine historical event, The Nakba War in 1948, that sets everything off in motion, but I’d be lying if I didn’t think the latter. The first half of the book didn't help with my theory and almost resulted in a DNF. The author did leave a note explaining her inspirations for the book, so I’ll leave you with that.
Now don’t get me wrong, Our Cut of Salt is a horror book. It’s not all just about figuring out why there’s a disconnect within the family. It’s also a story of grief that turns into malevolence. I mean, the house is murdering its occupants. But it’s more than just blood-curdling screams, blood running through the cracks in the walls, and unexplained deaths. The horror also deals with real-life events. The emotional war that overtakes the mind. The unfairness of how everything plays out in its aftermath. And the anger that festers from fear.
Overall, I rated this book 3-stars. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but again it was written for me. I was looking for a horror-themed book, and though I got that towards the end, it took too long to get there. It really was an “it’s not you, it’s me” situation, and I’m okay with that aspect. Would I pick this up again? No. But I liked that I tried it out. On a different note, I originally wanted to tour this book for The Read Pages, but things didn’t work out. I would have been very interested to see what the reviews might have been if we had toured it.
Our Cut of Salt debuts September 22, 2026
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