Synopsis
It’s been seventeen years since the Internet crashed and left the world broken…
Auli lives on the Bellwether, a floating college safe from the conflict of the mainland, where she studies the Oracle — an uncanny girl who channels dangerous ghosts and provides lost information about the world’s seas.
Her peaceful world is shattered when her beloved mentor, Boudain, is found dead. While most aboard believe it was due to natural causes, Auli discovers hints that suggest he was not the benign leader he seemed — and that his death might be deliberate.
Surrounded by people with their own motives and secrets, Auli doesn’t know who to trust. Worse, the Oracle is attracting dangerous, mutating ghosts that threaten everyone aboard. With the Bellwether fracturing from internal and external pressures, she is forced to wrestle with a life-changing decision: save the Oracle or save the Bellwether — and all the lives that depend on it.
Review
If Guillermo Del Toro adapted Jules Verne like an Agatha Christie mystery, you’d end up with something like The Salt Oracle. It’s oceanic in its scope and beauty, and like the sea, it left me in a state of awe.
It’s no secret that I’m a massive Lorraine Wilson fan. Her previous books have always delivered beautiful prose, emotional resonance, and subtle power. For anybody else who adores Raine’s style of writing, you’re going to be very pleased to hear that The Salt Oracle continues this rich legacy of hers. New readers are going to fall in love with what she can do with a story, but it’s perhaps her most loyal readers that will get the biggest surprise from this book, and it’s all thanks to the pace she’s imbued it with.
When I say pace, you might picture a sprinter. There are thrillers out there that race with such breakneck speed to the finish line, they possess the kind of pace that makes Usain Bolt look like a slowpoke. This is not one of those books. But neither is it a slow meander around luscious landscapes or the gentle burn of an internal quandary. Raine excels at a glacial speed, but with The Salt Oracle, she’s written a story that actually moves. It may not sprint, but it definitely contains a sense of pace that adds an extra dimension to the book, and makes it differ ever so slightly from her other works.
This may be her first novel that prioritises plot, but that doesn’t mean to say that it’s lacking in character development or world building. The balance that’s struck between these elements is perfectly in harmony. It’s like listening to a trio of singers all delivering a complementary melody, heightening the beauty of the song. You’ll fall in love with the characters. Your heart will break and soar. But your mind will not be left behind as you’ll spend the entire book trying to figure out exactly who is responsible for the chaos that ensues, and what’s really going on below the surface.
In terms of Raine’s ability to weave beautiful sentences, every line in The Salt Oracle is a work of art. You won’t read a more lustrous locked room mystery when it comes to prose, or elegant dark academia when it comes to substance. The blend of literary experimentation and genre-conventional aspects are so well balanced that I cannot fault the telling of this tale in any way. It’s just a really beautiful book, okay?
As it’s a standalone sequel, you may be wondering: Do I need to read We Are All Ghosts In The Forest before diving into The Salt Oracle? The answer is no. But will it enhance the book if you do? Absolutely. The world of digitised ghosts where the Internet has bled into reality and is infecting humans is absolutely brilliant. How Raine tackled this in Ghosts blew me away. But the way this world has been expanded upon here left me even more stunned.
As to the mystery at the core of the book — its resolution and the eventual revealing of the true antagonist behind the primary conflict — I was left amazed. This doesn’t just give you a clever plot or a twisty murder to solve, it poses questions to ponder that will stay with you long after the final page.
Salt is a garnish that enhances the flavour of food. The Salt Oracle is aptly titled, because it does the same thing with the world Lorraine Wilson established in We Are All Ghosts In The Forest, deepening the flavour of her writing to absolutely delicious effect. If you’re looking for something dark and juicy to sink your teeth into, sprinkle your TBR with some of this salt.
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