Summary

Chapters 1 and 2 of House of Salt and Sorrows, by Erin A. Craig, begin with the funeral of Eulalie Thaumas at the Thaumas family mausoleum. The narrator is Annaleigh, one of Eulalie’s younger sisters. Her father, the Duke of the Salann Islands, is distraught over the death of yet another of his children, since she is the fifth Thaumas family member – after daughters Ava, Octavia, Elizabeth, as well as his wife Cecilia – to pass away unexpectedly. Eulalie’s body is released under the mausoleum into a river which carries all bodies to the ocean, where the family believes it will “return to the Salt” (4).

Annaleigh’s family once had 12 daughters but now has only eight. There are rumors on the Salann Islands that the grand family is cursed to suffer more losses. Their high-ranking status means they are known by the inhabitants of...