House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Here is a recap with spoilers for House of Salt and Sorrows

Annaleigh has spent her life at Highmoor, a grand yet isolated estate, alongside her twelve sisters, her father—the Duke of Salann—and his new wife, Morella, who is nearly the same age as Annaleigh herself. When we first meet Annaleigh, she is attending yet another funeral, this time for her sister Eulalie, who tragically fell from a cliff. Eulalie is the fourth sister to die—Ava succumbed to a plague, Octavia fell from a ladder, and Elizabeth drowned in the tub. Whispers from the townspeople during the funeral suggest that the family is cursed, making it difficult for the remaining sisters to find suitors.

The solemn event takes an unexpected turn when Morella announces she is pregnant—and she is certain it will be a boy. Annaleigh struggles with this news, as well as with her father’s seeming indifference to their family’s grief. Rather than mourning his lost daughters and late wife, he insists on moving forward. To that end, he arranges a grand ball for his triplet daughters—Rosalie, Ligeia, and Lenore—who are all turning sixteen. But Annaleigh is too preoccupied to celebrate; she is convinced her sisters’ deaths are more than mere accidents. Determined to uncover the truth, she begins her investigation.

Her first stop is the docks, where she questions an old boatman who found Eulalie’s body. He mentions that Eulalie had been wearing a locket containing a note—one that claimed she was secretly married to a mysterious man. As Annaleigh leaves the docks, she bumps into a handsome stranger named Cassius. The two share a fleeting moment of flirtation before parting ways.

Annaleigh continues her search by examining her sisters’ rooms. In Eulalie’s, she finds an old watch that doesn’t belong to her. Before she can think too much about it, her youngest sister, Verity, comes to her with disturbing news—she claims their dead sisters are haunting the house. Annaleigh dismisses this at first, but when Verity shows her drawings of their deceased sisters, Annaleigh is shaken; Verity is too young to have remembered them in such detail. As the days pass, Annaleigh begins experiencing eerie visions herself, including one of Elizabeth’s death. At first, she believes it’s just her imagination—until she sees a bruise left on her own skin, mirroring one from her vision.

The long-awaited ball for the triplets arrives. Fisher, a childhood friend and the son of a maid, makes an appearance, delighting both Annaleigh and Camille, who have harbored crushes on him for years. Despite the festivities, the girls notice that their dance cards are not full—many suitors still believe in the family curse. Morella, however, is less concerned about the sisters’ reputations and more worried about how the rumors might affect her unborn child. Near the end of the night, Annaleigh spots a ghostly figure. Though no one else sees it, she is certain it is Eulalie.

Determined to find more answers, Annaleigh enlists Fisher’s help. The two venture out to search the ocean for clues. As they discuss her ghostly encounters, Fisher vows to continue helping her. When Annaleigh returns home, she learns that Morella is now expecting twins.

Their investigation takes a new turn when Edgar, a familiar young man, visits Highmoor. Annaleigh recognizes him from the market but soon realizes something more—Eulalie’s watch and locket belonged to him. Edgar confirms that he and Eulalie were engaged and reveals that he witnessed her fall. More chillingly, he saw a shadowy figure near the cliff’s edge before she went over.

Now convinced that supernatural forces may be at play, Camille finally joins Annaleigh in her search. The sisters suspect that magic doors may be involved—perhaps something sinister came through and is now wreaking havoc. Fisher joins their efforts, and together they discover a hidden door. The portal transports them to another part of the kingdom, a place where no one knows of their family’s curse. Here, they revel in the joy of dances and freedom. During one of these balls, Annaleigh encounters Cassius again—still as mysterious as before, yet inexplicably magnetic. She also dances with an enigmatic man wearing a dragon mask.

Despite the newfound excitement, Annaleigh remains focused on her investigation. She visits Edgar again, hoping to learn more, but tragedy strikes—just an hour later, Edgar is found dead. Though others claim he jumped, Annaleigh suspects otherwise. Later that night, Verity presents her with another chilling drawing—this time of Edgar’s death. Yet Verity wasn’t there. She claims Eulalie told her what happened.

Annaleigh is shaken to her core. For a fleeting moment, she senses Eulalie’s presence. Desperate for guidance, she turns to her father, only to be met with scorn. He dismisses her fears, demanding that she grow up and stop frightening her sisters.

But Annaleigh knows the truth: something dark is lurking, and it has already taken too much from her family.

As Annaleigh and Camille drift further apart—Camille dismissing Annaleigh’s investigations as nonsense—the family begins preparing for another ball. Annaleigh shoulders most of the work, but the event devolves into an evening of heavy drinking among the men. Her father, in a drunken stupor, rashly declares that he will grant his estate and Camille’s hand in marriage to anyone who can solve the mystery of why his daughters’ shoes wear out so quickly—unaware that they’ve been sneaking off to nightly dances.

Seeking a moment of escape, Annaleigh steps outside and unexpectedly crosses paths with Cassius. Later that night, the two share their first kiss. At another point, she encounters the mysterious man in the dragon mask. So much time has passed since their last meeting that she doesn’t recognize him at first—by the time she remembers, he has vanished once more.

The next morning, Annaleigh is jolted awake by screams—the triplets are missing. A frantic search ensues. Hours later, Annaleigh and Cassius find them deep in the woods, holding hands, long dead. The family buries them together, and Annaleigh, consumed by grief, becomes more determined than ever to uncover the truth.

Fisher presents a theory—he believes Cassius is responsible for the deaths. As Annaleigh reflects on recent events, she begins to notice unsettling signs, leading her to agree. She confronts Cassius, who is heartbroken by her accusation but insists he can prove his innocence. With a flash of magic, he whisks her away to his kingdom, revealing that he is part god—his mother is Versia, Queen of the Night. He has been speaking with Annaleigh’s lost sisters for some time, and to prove himself further, he demonstrates his powers. Convinced, Annaleigh shares another kiss with him.

During their conversation, Annaleigh mentions the balls she and her sisters have attended, including the first one. Cassius freezes—he has never been to a ball, nor has he ever danced with Annaleigh. Alarmed, he insists they attend one that night to uncover the truth. Annaleigh and Camille prepare, and all the sisters go together. As the evening progresses, Annaleigh is swept into dance, but Cassius never appears. A growing unease settles over her when the dragon-masked man arrives once more. Caught in the hypnotic revelry, Annaleigh gradually forgets why she is there—until the illusion shatters. The feast before her transforms into a blood-soaked massacre. Realizing she has been drinking blood, she recoils in horror, but none of the other dancers seem aware. The dragon-masked man steps toward her, and she faints.

When Annaleigh awakens, Cassius is at her side, and the memories come crashing back. She tries to explain what happened, but Cassius insists she never left the house that night. To prove his point, he takes her to check on her sisters. In Camille’s room, they find her dancing—though she appears to be moving with an invisible partner. The other sisters are doing the same, lost in a trance, dancing with ghosts. Before they can intervene, a messenger arrives with dire news: a ship is sinking due to the lighthouse’s failure.

Cassius and Annaleigh rush to the lighthouse, where they make a gruesome discovery—the lighthouse keeper’s lifeless body, along with Fisher’s. Then, Kosamara, the half-goddess sister of Versia, appears. As the Goddess of Madness and Nightmares, she reveals a horrifying truth: someone made a bargain with Viscardi to ensure all twelve sisters would die. Kosamara admits she has been carrying out this deadly pact and warns Annaleigh that she is nearing death herself. She taunts Annaleigh, declaring that her experiences over the past few months were meant to break her grip on reality. Before vanishing, she delivers one final, chilling promise—Verity will be the next to die.

Due to the storm, Annaleigh and Cassius cannot return home that night. By morning, when they finally arrive, Verity is missing. Annaleigh urgently shares her suspicions with her sisters—she believes their uncle is behind the killings and reveals that Fisher is dead. But their reactions stun her. "Who is ‘they’?" they ask. "And why are you upset about Fisher now? He has been dead for weeks."

A dreadful realization washes over Annaleigh. She turns to Cassius—but he is gone. None of her sisters even know who he is. Panic sets in as her family looks at her with growing concern, convinced she has lost her mind.

Before they can act, Morella screams—she is in labor. Annaleigh and Camille rush to help as Morella gives birth prematurely. The baby boy is stillborn. As the sisters attempt to comfort Morella, Annaleigh makes a terrifying connection—Morella is the one who made the bargain with Viscardi, sacrificing the sisters to fulfill her selfish desires. Morella confesses, explaining how their father shamed her in her hometown. Desperate for revenge and a son, she struck a deal with Viscardi.

But her deception runs deeper still—she claims the children she carries are not the Duke’s but Viscardi’s. As she speaks, the second baby is born—a monstrous creature. At that moment, Viscardi himself appears, declaring that he has fulfilled their bargain—Morella bore a son, though she never specified it had to be alive. He then offers the sisters a chilling proposition: he can return their lost siblings to them—all they have to do is call for him. With that, he vanishes, taking Morella and the monstrous infant with him.

As chaos unfolds, fire engulfs Highmoor. Camille and Annaleigh attempt to rally their family, but the others demand answers—where is Fisher? Annaleigh realizes, with dawning horror, that part of her experiences had been illusions. She alone knows Fisher is truly dead.

As their home burns, they receive another devastating blow—their father went back inside to rescue the children but never returned. Desperate, Annaleigh searches for survivors and stumbles upon two figures—Verity and Cassius. Verity is alive, but Cassius is gravely injured. Moments later, he dies in her arms. When she turns away in grief and looks back—his body is gone.

Seven months later, the remnants of the family are healing, finding peace at last. On the Night of Wishes and Dreams, Annaleigh releases her wish into the sky. Moments later, she sees something—or rather, someone—she never thought she’d see again.

Cassius.