Book Review: Taken with a Grain of Salt
Taken with a Grain of Salt (Salt #2)
Author: Aaron Galvin
Published by: Createspace
Publication Date: 12 November 2014
Page Count: 424
Buy it at Smashwords or Amazon
Source: e-book provided by author
Audience: Young Adult - Urban Fantasy
Taken with a Grain of Salt opens up right after the end of the first book, Salted. Chidi, Racer and a few others have run and Henry is hot on their heels, soon catching up to them. Lenny and the rest of his crew are taking Garrett, Kellen and a few others back to their Cavern home to become the newest Salted slaves. Garret still has no clue that he is to be enslaved, but as he pieces more and more of it together, he is starting to realize it's not safe for him their. Once back, a myriad of events begin happening, strangers visit the cavern, people disappear, chaos breaks out and it shakes everything Lenny has grown up believing in. Garrett and Kellen find themselves on the run with others, desperately trying to flee the death that awaits behind them.
The second book in the Salted series had me in its grip from the first page. It was full of action and had me eagerly turning the page to see what would happen next. I loathed when the book ended, there is so much more to the story and for some of the characters, they were finally seeing a new life before them.
Aaron Galvin has created these entirely new races and cultures of creatures beneath the ocean waves, spectacular each in their own ways. Some deadly and violent, others only wanting peace. They have their own gods, the Ancients, and each race has it's own history. I loved learning about their histories, how they each came to exist today. Salted only skimmed the surface of this fantastical world, whereas Taken with a Grain of Salt delves deeper, shows the reader so much more. Their legends bring to mind the gods of the Native Americans or even the Greek gods of myth.
When the story comes to a head, and the chaos breaks out, we start to see what the intentions of these books are, I believe. Slavery is never an easy topic to discuss or write about, but Galvin takes it on with a vengeance. As the reader you can see that world starting to crumble, the characters and events that will make it so. The wrongness that is slavery is finally being righted, though I doubt we will see the full culmination of it till the last book.
I loved meeting all the new characters in this book, ones that I know will be playing even bigger parts in the following books. The imagination behind them and the creativity is spectacular. We have all seen or read The Little Mermaid, but Galvin has gone ten steps farther to create Nomads and Merrows - half shark or dolphin and half human, Orcinians - people who can change into Killer Whales, Selkies and Silkies, and I'm sure so much more we haven't seen yet. I am so looking forward to the next books in the series, hopefully I won't have too long to wait.
Favorite Thing about this Book: I love this entirely new world of amazing people and creatures. They are fascinating. I love the imagination behind them.
First Line: I weel find you, Chidi. And keel ze ones you run weeth.
Favorite Character: Chidi
Least Favorite Character: Henry
Anyone can be taken - a simple truth for Salt folk, a stark reality for innocent teens Garrett Weaver and Kellen Winstel. Taken by Selkie slave catchers and dragged into the realm beneath the waves, both teens must adapt to their new surroundings if they hope to see the shore again. Yet even if they escape their captors, both will need to embrace their fears. For darker things than Selkies lurk in the Salted depths and not all of them have pure intentions for the innocent ones brought down into their watery world.
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