Juniper & Thorn

I have no idea what I just read. It was good but also ... Not so good. Whatever you think this book is about, it isn't. It isn't for the faint of heart and could use a good trigger warning for sexual abuse and general sexual themes.

The constant sexualisation of the characters, both in the narration and the roles in the story bothered me a lot. I do not like reading constantly about nipples and puckering lips and all that shit. I also disliked all the characters, they all had descriptions that did not match up with the way they were written. We are constantly reminded that Marlinchen is dumb and Rose and Undine are so fucking smart. I have not seen them do a single smart thing until the last 30 pages. 

I didn't like the ending either. It felt like nothing happened until the last couple of pages. It was no plot but also not really good character arcs or anything. It felt a little like an empty shell. It really threw me into a reading slump. 

I’ve heard a lot about Reid, which makes sense: I’m the target audience, genre-wise. I think she writes well and her stories, at least from what I can tell here, contain all the darkness I love in fantasy. I was a tidbit uncomfortable with some of the content in this book, which doesn’t necessarily turn me off from the author, but turns me off from the broader story. When I think “dark,” I think more in line with dystopian or horror themes: not necessarily abuse, over-sexualization, and so on. Those things aren’t inherently wrong, and I’m not one to shy away from a story with those factors in it, but the way they played out here within the context of abuse didn’t quite sit with me. I’m as a result undecided on this one. Will I read more Reid? Heck yeah. I like to think of myself as a reader who returns once I’ve read an author I’m anywhere from lukewarm to avid fan of. I’m on the lukewarm side with Reid right now, but this is one book, and I’m curious to see how her others line up.

This book is a bit strange. The writing would've been great were it not for the excessive, sometimes even irrelevant and unnecessary, use of comparative descriptions; not everything feels like something else. Odd story elements but not entirely unwarranted working in the genre of fairy tales and fables.

There's clear nods to fairytales and Juniper Tree specifically, but the closest thing that makes this a “retelling” is the horrors of domestic abuse and that the characters feel a little flat in spite of everything they've gone through. (The author seems to think that is essentially unavoidable in fairy tale retellings, based on an AMA. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/w2xmnh/im_ava_reid_the_author_of_the_wolf_and_the/) 
Marlinchen especially has tried to focus so much on appeasing her father to not suffer even more, but she's not more sympathetic than the sisters. The characters didn't compel me, the horror details were bad and somewhat shocking, but low stakes because the characters didn't feel more real. (At one point I was thinking “why is the child sexual abuse warning so frequent on this?” and was distracted by checking Marlinchen's age when she meets Sevas, in case that was the reason - and then shortly after, I got to the reason that warning exists.)

3.5!

This book was just so alive, so bustling with magic. The writing was so beautiful, I loved it

Overall, I think this book was just not for me.

It was a very well-written book, don't get me wrong. The writing itself was beautiful and the plot drew you in intensely and the imagery was, while horrific pretty much all of the time, compelling enough that you could picture everything clearly whether you wanted to or not.

All that aside, really the only thing I liked about this book was Marlinchen and Sevas's relationship. They were very sweet with each other while also not being ignorant as to the truth of each other and what they were capable of. I'm happy with where they ended up.

The rest of the book, the plot and the characters and where things ended up, I'm just not really a fan of. I think this book might've just been too dark for me and I didn't really like how everything wrapped up.

This review is completely subjective so don't take it as a view on the book's quality, I just truly think this book wasn't written for me.

That said if you do decide to read this: LOOK UP THE CONTENT WARNINGS. THERE ARE A LOT AND THEY ARE ALL VERY GRAPHIC.

Rating: 2.88 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 3/5-Story: 2.5/5-Writing: 5/5Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Gothic, Retelling, Romance-Horror: 0/5-Fantasy: 4/5-Gothic: 2.5/5-Romance: 3/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: EhHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedLook at a beige wall, now look at this book. You will find there is nothing different between the two. I was waiting and waiting for something to happen and when it did I was just like, “okay.” Disappointment can't even describe how I feel. And don't even get me started on that ending.

I really enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it if you're interested. 

I felt that the characters were well-developed: each had their own unique characters and the decisions they made were sensible for their context. The world itself was also quite vidid in detail. The central story is satisfying and unique, and an accurate portrayal of the feelings, thoughts and emotions that victims of abuse experience (e.g. shame, guilt, love, remorse, hatred, anger, etc.), and the complex interplay between each.

The kinda novel that grows you as a person. Well worth the time. 

My only gripe was I felt that the author was building towards the main character having found new magical powers, but instead it was all explained that her father was orchestrating her memory loss and her new “powers” were, in fact, all explainable because of this. I guess it's not that kind of book though where there is an escalation in power and a final epic confrontation.

———
4/5 for writing, 4/5 for story and 4/5 for impact. 

It was fine, I enjoyed it. But it's not my kind of book. I was very engaged at the beginning, but it reached to a point where I already wanted the book to end

It was fine, I enjoyed it. But it's not my kind of book. I was very engaged at the beginning, but it reached to a point where I already wanted the book to end

This book was a very disconcerting experience. This is entirely on myself and my experiences in life however. If you are a victim of sexual assault, be careful going into this book, it was a struggle to turn the page sometimes. Despite all this I believe the book to be rather good. I did, after all push myself through to the end.

“My eldest sister was right; I would smile blithely if someone tried to saw off my leg. But no one ever told me I was allowed to scream”

This book was so dark and twisted but surprisingly addictive. The prose emanates pure beauty and I immensely enjoyed this gothic, atmospheric fairytale. If you love unique retellings, horror, and witchy themes then you'll enjoy this. However, I can't stress enough how dark this book was, not your standard NA fantasy.

I picked this one up because I saw a lot of BookTokkers talking about how disturbing and scary it was. I didn't find it either of those things, but I still really liked it. The writing was beautiful.

this is it – this is THE gothic fantasy novel

as a past avid fan of gothics, i was immediately pulled into this story. it had all the classic elements of a gothic novel paired with beautiful prose and storytelling that ava reid simply excels at. and it also has this whole gorgeous “just two kids healing from trauma” part to it that makes this gothic story stand out amongst the rest

additionally, while i predicted the plot twist, i did not completely predict the whole story and that was extremely pleasing, especially as the last 50 pages of the book unfolded. extremely satisfying ending that sweeps up every little crumb left throughout the book well

... now how long do i have to wait until the next ava reid book?

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I didn't really like it. Even though it's only 368 pages, it still felt way too long. I think I would've enjoyed it more as a novella.

I enjoyed the folklore and that's about it. I didn't care about the characters. I was just bored.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In this retelling of The Juniper Tree, we follow the youngest of three sister. Their father is a wizard who has had a curse put on him. He has an insatiable hunger and can't feel love for his three daughters. Each of the daughters has their own magical power which he exploits to bring in money for their family. When the youngest daughter, Marlinchen, goes to the city and meets a dancer, a romance ensues.

This book is very dark and graphic. It is definitely a horror story. I want to preface this whole review by saying there should've been trigger warnings provided by NetGalley and the publisher. There are a lot of graphic scenes in this book. I will list trigger warnings below.

I really liked the fantastical story telling devices used in this book. I've always liked a dark fairy tale, and this fit the bill. It was so atmospheric and scary. However, I really feel like the entire story was over-sexualized. There was so much emphasis on nipples and boobs, like constantly. A lot of it was really hard to read. I think that that was probably the author's intent, but it was still tough. I felt like we could've cut back on some of the sexualization and the story would've still be successful.

This story definitely isn't for the faint of heart. I really did enjoy the story and the ending, but please go into this with caution.

TW: gore, body horror, child sexual abuse, incest, cannibalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, scientific racism, physical and psychological abuse by family members, gaslighting, self-harm and suicidal ideation, bulimia, graphic descriptions of vomiting, animal death

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

WARNING: This is not a light-hearted fairy tale. This is the old, gruesome type of story. There is cannibalism. Kind of a lot of cannibalism, actually. There are mentions of rape and sexual assault. There is body horror. If any of these bother you, then do not read this book.

I'm not sure what I thought Juniper & Thorn was going to be about, but it isn't what I read, that's for sure. If I remember right, when I originally requested this ARC, maybe an adventure or possibly a strict retelling of a piece of folklore. It is a retelling, but damn it's dark. To be fair, the original story that Juniper & Thorn is borrowing from is pretty dang dark, too.

Juniper & Thorn is about three witch-daughters of a great wizard. The eldest daughter is cruel, mean, and beautiful. The middle daughter is clever, and beautiful. The youngest daughter is plain, and meek. The wizard is (you guessed it) cruel and mean to his daughters, but powerful enough that they fear disobeying him. Each daughter has their own power that their father sells to the local townspeople so they can have money to eat. The father was cursed long ago to never be satisfied by anything – no food will fill his belly, no sleep will get him rested, and his daughters will never be good enough, etc, etc.

They live just on the outskirts of town, and are not allowed to leave the grounds of their estate. Of course, the very first thing they do in the novel is...leave the estate to go to town to see a ballet. This kicks off everything that happens — the youngest daughter is finally exposed to the real world, and falls in love with the main ballet dancer. While there, the three daughters overhear a conversation about men being found dead with their eyes, liver, and heart missing. This is important later. They return home, are eventually found out, and...well. The rest of the story happens, obviously.

I'm not entirely sure I enjoyed this book. The ending was extremely satisfying — it ends happily, surprisingly enough. It is written phenomenally, the story is told well, I just think the subject matter is not one that really vibes with me. Cannibalism is one of my extreme yucks, and there was... a lot of it in this book. However, if you're into dark, gruesome fairy tales, I can quite easily recommend this book.