Book Review: Salt - Danielle Ellison

Title: Salt
Author: Danielle Ellison
Pub Date: January 7th, 2014
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Page Count: 266

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.

Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own.

Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her.

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My Thoughts

 I was initially excited to read a book that was thrilling, full of magic and well... fantastic.

This book let me down oh-so far. It was pretty much opposite to what I wanted. Instead of a strong character, I got...Penelope. I wanted an original plot and I got  jumbled amount of cliches in pretty packaging. And instead of getting "magic" I got the witches' version of school with a few demon attacks here and there. Pretty much a letdown.

I was endlessly tired of Penelope making dumb decisions, going "oops! I'm an idiot" and ultimately, having someone save her in the end. It was an unnecessary plot of Pen biting off way more than she can chew and yet, not learning the next time she did it. 

It didn't help that I had trouble believing she could do things for herself in some situations. For example: in one, she had to beat a girl (with muscle) in a fist-fight and the way I imagine Pen, she don't have any muscles. She got lucky with that fight and ended up "winning" but then that kind of situation happened again. Surely, there's a law against having so much serendipity, right? (Probably not, or Bella Swan would already be dead... lulz.)

I also had major issues with the story, as I already mentioned. Penelope is a witch. Her parents were killed while she was young and she's seeking them out. She also doesn't know what her origin is. This sounds like every book I've ever read... (exaggeration, but still.) She is a witch with no magic (and obviously, being MC) has extraordinary circumstances. And then there's this exam thing that took up half the story, but wasn't important enough to be dominant in the synopsis. And then there's this scene where Male Lead: Carter asks her to be his fake girlfriend; Yeah, I've never heard that one before! Real original. Plus, there wasn't any followup on that situation.

The only thing I actually do like about this story was Carter. He's cliche to the max in the beginning, but I grew to love him anyway. He had to drag Pen's butt out of every situation and told her how stupid she was without actually "telling" her. He was also charming as a character, even though he was completely shallow; as all the other characters are.

The other characters? Can we just call "supporting characters" without the s? I didn't know the difference between them at all. It was the Penelope show the whole way through and I didn't care about anyone except for Carter. I had names of supporting characters that were never developed; never introduced in a way where I could connect with them and ugh, I just didn't care.Even her sister and Grandmother were transparent and pissed me off. Either they weren't there or they made me mad; that's how the characters worked for me.

The whole "witch" idea didn't make sense to me. For me, they were more like Shadowhunters, lol. Fighting demons? And Pen couldn't even fight one without Carter holding her hand. If they were witches, they surely didn't demonstrate that.

The whole book wasn't demonstrated. It was Pen's inner monologue the whole way through. Monologue that (again), annoyed me. I didn't get a feel of anything. I just got filler scene upon filler scene and important scenes that felt like a couple of sentences

Pen, take my advice. Just go be a mundane human. All of us are and we're perfectly happy. I could do without your whining attitude when you can't get it and superiority when you think you're all that just cos you turn a demon into salt. Yeah. You aren't that special.

Author Info

Danielle's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Danielle Ellison is from a small town in West Virginia. She spent her childhood pretending to fly and talking to imaginary friends. When she grew up, she finally flew away (in an airplane) and started traveling the world. She hasn’t stopped yet, but someday she may decide to settle in one place. Her real life friends would definitely like that; they would probably also like if she stopped talking to her characters out loud.

SALT comes out in January 2014, and then it's sequel. In October 2014, FOLLOW ME THROUGH DARKNESS (book one of the BOUNDLESS Trilogy) comes out. She's got a busy few years!