it only took me about 1.5 hours to read this, and that’s with interruptions, etc. a quick read, but really engaging! khaw’s writing is incredible. despite going into Salt pretty much blindly, i ended up really enjoying it. the mermaid & the plague doctor are really likable characters, and they work well together. however the format is sort of strange? the story happens, followed by acknowledgments by the author, then followed by a sort of prologue to the book. it’s interesting to see the prologue after knowing what happens, but it would have provided context throughout the book and cleared up my confusion at the beginning.