Sisters of the Salt
#5373.92 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Ongoing 2019–present Reading commitment Low Erin A. Craig Last reviewed 2026-08-24
Overview
Sisters of the Salt is a gothic fantasy series loosely inspired by "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," following the twelve Thaumas sisters as they confront a curse tied to the sea and to old family bargains, growing up nearly isolated on a remote island where their father made a fateful pact for wealth and status. Erin A. Craig's House of Salt and Sorrows (2019) follows the sisters after several of them begin dying under mysterious circumstances even as the survivors keep secretly slipping away each night to dance at a hidden, otherworldly ball. A second installment, House of Roots and Ruin (2025), returns to the same family years later with a different sister at its center, expanding the gothic-fairy-tale premise into a loosely connected two-book sequence rather than a single continuous plot. Craig's work sits within a broader 2010s-2020s wave of fairy-tale-adjacent YA gothic fantasy.
Dark fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Sisters of the Salt Erin A. Craig
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | House of Salt and Sorrows | 2019 | core | 3.89 (116,219 ratings) |
 | House of Roots and Ruin | 2025 | core | 4.09 (17,240 ratings) |
A gothic-horror-tinged fantasy series loosely inspired by 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses', following the twelve Thaumas sisters.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Sisters of the Salt? Sisters of the Salt's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for Sisters of the Salt? Publication order, starting with House of Salt and Sorrows. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Sisters of the Salt finished? Ongoing (2019–present).
- How much reading does Sisters of the Salt take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books · ~947 pages).
- How is Sisters of the Salt ranked? #537 in this site's official ranking, based on 133,459 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #537?
Ranked #537 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.92 across 2 core books.
- Backed by 133k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #536, Diana Tregarde (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 2 books · Ongoing · 133k ratings · Ranks #537 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- House of Salt and Sorrows (2019)
- House of Roots and Ruin (2025)
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Sisters of the Salt and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- The Grey Land Dark fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.80
- Monster Blood Tattoo Dark fantasy / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.07
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.92 across 133,459 ratings on 2 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Sisters of the Salt admitted as a new universe accepted 2026-08-24
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Penguin Random House product page: House of Salt and Sorrows Tier 1
- Series bibliography listing: Sisters of the Salt Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-08-24
Rule: Core Canon = both published novels, House of Salt and Sorrows (2019) and House of Roots and Ruin (2025).