Good God, this made me sick to my stomach at times and anxious from start to finish.

In an overwhelmingly dark, gothic fantasy with a very clear connection to Grimm fairytales, we follow Marlinchen and how she lives with her lifetime of abuse.

We watch as this abuse extends to the hands of her sisters and the men her father allows to hurt her. We watch her inner narration come across intrusive thoughts that make even us uncomfortable with being with Marlinchen. We watch the story progress with blocks of memory missing as a mysterious monster continues to rack up its kill count in her town.

The story is painful, gross, and so well done in featuring a morally gray heroine coming into her own and knowing to rely on herself for the strength those around her try to steal from her.

Watching Marlinchen grow in her power and desire for freedom was quite a sight to see. I think she’s an excellent example of how healing from trauma isn’t this simple, straight line. She stumbles often and is incredibly destructive in her desperate attempts to regain control over her life (which we see manifest in her very prevalent eating disorder).

The book is, overall, very bleak and raw while simultaneously being beautifully written and deeply compelling.

Ava Reid is an insta-buy author through and through.

I hope there’s a trigger/content warning page printed at the beginning of the book when it’s officially published. It definitely needs one and is not for everyone.

Let me say that I had intended to take my time with this book. Instead, much like the protagonist's father, I hungrily devoured the story and read it twice as I was swaddled in layers of blankets to keep off the cold.

Much time has passed since The Wolf and the Woodsman, and like stories, the cities have grown and taken on their monsters. Oblya used to have them until the miners came, and mortal man created electricity and the disbanding of the Wizard Council. Marlinchen and her sisters are some of the last remains of magic in their growing city, trapped inside a cluttered house with their wizard father ailing from a curse. But when Marlinchen sees a forbidden ballet and falls in love with the lead dancer, all of the secrets that have been kept moldering inside the house find a way to break free.

Much like Ava Reid's debut, Juniper and Thorn is thick with atmosphere and bloody references to fairytales. Throughout the story, the Juniper Tree's roots are found, watered with blood and old warnings. She carefully inserts references to Hansel and Gretel, classical ballet, and even the mythology from The Wolf and the Woodsman, crafting a claustrophobic nightmare about power. Marlinchen is the kind of protagonist that claws under your skin, part Final Girl and fairytale heroine. Her unreliable narration caused me to reread several passages in horror, unsure of what her fate would be in the end. Was she a monster or a victim? Merricat Blackwood or Gretel? Reid breaks down this dichotomy and draws on this aspect with care, acknowledging the trauma fed to Marlinchen by her father and sisters, like poisonous berries.

My only minor complaint would be to (probably) not eat vareniki as you read.

I did, but, uh, my love for dumplings is greater than the horror of what's in the filling.

Wonderfully dark and gothic with a bloody center, Reid's sophomore novel is a delight for fans of Shirley Jackson, Melissa Albert, and Catherynne M. Valente.

All opinions are my own. A copy was provided to me by Netgalley and Harper Voyager.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for sending me an early copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Juniper and Thorn is the dark fairytale that I didn’t know I needed, Reid’s prose drew me in from the first page and kept me enchanted until the very last page. This story does come with trigger warnings that did make some parts hard for me to read but overall I did enjoy my time in this world and highly reccomend it as a great winter read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for my DRC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Man, where do I start with this one….I feel awful for giving this a negative review but it can’t be helped. The premise sounded really interesting (like Reid’s other book “The Wolf and the Woodsman” which unfortunately I DNF’d) and I was intrigued by it being a Grimm retelling. I’ve seen a lot of people say that you need a strong stomach to read this, if you like horror that you’ll love this one, etc. but I honestly found this to be so sterile, boring, and colorless despite all of the work Reid is doing to maintain attention and keep attention away from the lack of compelling storytelling and believable characters.

I just found this to be such a strange book. Reid’s handle on prose is evident and her writing is beautiful but the actual handling on the story and character work felt practically nonexistent to me. I could not stand Marlinchen at all and her romance didn’t evoke anything from me except that they were clearly virgins before meeting eachother and now associate sex with the other.

On top of that, I found a lot of the gore in this to be comparable to a Rob Zombie movie; it was just blatant gore and sexual imagery porn. It didn’t serve the narrative like at all other than to seemingly say to the reader “See???? This is an adult Grimm retelling! THIS IS EDGY. LIKE ME.” And if I’m being honest, this retelling is just not remarkable or memorable. I could barely see it as being a Juniper Tree retelling.

In general, I did not have fun reading this and while Reid writes nicely, it is not nicely enough to save the book from its pointless depravity and two-dimensional characters.

Give us more stories about characters like Marlinchen!! This story absolutely enchanted me, I was at the edge of my seat with every page. This is not only a dark fairy tale love story, but also a completely spine tingling horror. Incredible!!!

5 thought-provoking stars. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC of JUNIPER & THORN, the gothic horror and sophomore novel from Ava Reid.

CW: body horror/gore, abuse (including childhood SA and parental gaslighting), disordered eating. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to DM me.

Let’s make this clear: horrible things happen to characters in this book. But remember - horrible things happen to people in real life, and often we don’t have the language to explain our emotions or our trauma in the aftermath of unspeakable things. What Ava has done in Juniper & Thorn gives language to those gut-twisting feelings, emotions, and trauma responses.

So the next time you might leap to conclude that something is included “for shock value” remember readers like me, who could never articulate the self-destructive things that go through my mind on a daily basis. It isn’t gratuitous. It’s my own mind reinforcing deeply rooted lies about my identity or worth, just like Marlinchen.

I didn’t exactly enjoy the first book so I’m not entirely surprise that this one was a flop for me too. I think I’ll have to quit on this series as it’s not for me. Though it’s probably just me as many people seem to love it!

I really liked this! It reminded me a lot of Naomi Novak's stuff but darker. I loved the Wolf and the Woodsman so I wasn't surprised to like this as well. The world was interesting and I loved the characters as well. Marlinchen was such an interesting, unique narrator. The only real criticism I had was that the relationship between Marlinchen and Sevas seemed rushed and I wanted more interactions from them.

Juniper & Thorn is as rich and dark as an old fairy tale, and it is absolutely addictive. I loved The Wolf and the Woodsman, but I think I loved this even more. Each character is distinct, and every little description and detail matters to the story, and the plot and magic of this book are equal parts gruesome and enchanting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for providing me with an arc.

A gothic horror about a main character who maneuvers around a sadistic patriarchal system. Be sure to check out the content warnings for this book on the author's website, there's quite a lot! It was a bit too gratuitous at times for my personal tastes, but I'm sure others will like it more than me. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I haven’t had a five star read in almost six months and THE DROUGHT IS OFFICIALLY OVER. FIVE [VERY WEIRD] STARS.

Reading Juniper & Thorn is like reading a very dark old Eastern European fairytale in the best possible way. The writing in this book is what made me rate it 5 stars because...oh my god. It's haunting and poetic and beautiful and dark and it just sucks you right in and doesn't let go. Ava Reid's prose is incredible.
(It has just now come to my attention that this is a retelling of the Grimm fairytale The Juniper Tree, so the whole "reads like a fairytale" thing makes a lot of sense now.)

I don't even know how to rate or review the story (I'm terrible at reviewing books I loved, I just love them). I have quite literally had this unfinished review sitting open in a tab in Chrome for 3 days while I try to figure out what to say.
Juniper & Thorn is the story of a young witch whose life is confined to a family that mistreats her and a father who terrifies her in a rapidly changing world where her family's brand of magic is little more than a tourist trap of the Old Ways. It is about isolation and the desire to be free warring with the fear of the unknown. It's about all the ways an abuser exerts control over their victims in an effort to feel fulfilled in a way that will ultimately never be enough. It's about love and the escape it can bring.

This book is a difficult read at times. It is gruesome and devastating; both hard to watch and hard to look away. I've never read anything quite like it.

CWs:
- Gore/Body Horror
- Childhood SA
- Disordered Eating

Last year, I checked out Ava Reid’s debut from the library and unexpectedly could not put it down. The same occurred for this book; I put off reading it just because I’m rarely in the mood for a fantasy now but finished it in a day. Utterly enchanting, Juniper & Thorn tells a haunting story of a witch attempting to make a place for herself outside of her abusive father’s home and discovering new magic and secrets along the way.

Marlinchen has lived a sheltered life with her two older sisters, Undine and Rose, under her xenophobic wizard father’s roof. When the three of them sneak out one night to see a ballet, Marlinchen immediately becomes enamored with one of the dancers, Sevas. This night out offsets a series of events as she begins to dream of a world outside her father’s house. However, as her father becomes more and more violent and a monster ravages the city, she must muster her courage and her magic to figure a way out.

Juniper & Thorn is a horror novel and is definitely not a book for the lighthearted. I say this not to dissuade genuinely interested readers but to make others aware of the heavy topics this book deals with, including but not limited to bulimia, parental emotional abuse, and child sexual abuse. While I enjoyed this book, I do not think it is necessarily one for everyone and encourage you to read the content warnings and possibly other reviews so that you understand the heavy nature of this book.

All this being said, I think it’s a bit difficult to review this book because talking about any of the plot is spoiler-y in a way. I will say the summary is a bit misleading; I thought Marlinchen would be sneaking out often, but that’s not the case. She sneaks out to meet Sevas once before other things occur in the plot that changes the course of the story. This book is a retelling of the fairytale The Juniper Tree, which I previously did not know anything about.

Marlinchen’s character was very intriguing. She’s bulimic, and it’s clear that one factor of this is that her intake of food is the one thing she can control in her life. Otherwise, she’s the docile daughter her father dotes upon. He’s cursed to have an endless hunger and talks often about how much he’s “sacrificed” for his children. Marlinchen always gives in to his emotional manipulation because it’s all she’s really known. Even when she’s aware of how he’s manipulating her and what he allowed to happen to her, she can’t help but love him.

Marlinchen survives in the way she can. I liked seeing how she tries to break out of the image of the obedient daughter she’s always been, especially as she begins to realize that what she’s always thought is true is a lie. There’s a lot of growth in her character development, which I could talk more about but it spoils part of the ending.

The prose is gorgeous and engulfs you in the story. It starts as a fairytale before slowly wrapping you in the horrors that occur, in a way that you don’t realize it at first. It’s a horror novel through and through, shining a light on the dark parts that fairytales don’t touch. I found Marlinchen’s narrative very compelling; I couldn’t put this book down, even when I was disturbed by parts of it.

There was more that I wanted to get into but it’s spoiler-y. Again, if you are going to read this novel, I implore you to read the content warnings. This book details binge-eating, purging, past instances of sexual abuse, among other things.

Juniper & Thorn will haunt me for ages to come. I enjoyed the protagonist’s character development and found the prose to be mystical. I’m not much of a horror-genre reader, yet I flew through this book in a couple of sittings. I recommend Juniper & Thorn for those who enjoy horror in fairytales or if you enjoyed the author’s debut.

Readers be warned: this isn't your usual dark fairy tale. Ava Reid comes out swinging with teeth, claws, and fangs in Juniper & Thorn (a loose retelling of the Juniper Tree) with heavy themes of sexual assault/abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, and body horror.

Despite its heavy themes, Juniper & Thorn is decadent in Reid's signature delicious metaphors and horror-like atmosphere. Tension builds with every page, and the reader is constantly missing the right pieces to understand why — which makes it easy to get lost in the story for hours, unsure of when the next obstacle (or horror) will arise.

At times, this book did have some purple prose, and I wish the dialogue between characters could have been cleaner. Reid's adherence to older vernacular is wonderful for atmosphere, but unfortunately difficult to parse as a reader. Also, I wish the relationships with "secondary" characters were more fleshed out (specifically her sisters, who tend to fall into fairytale tropes). But these are small things compared to the meat of story, which kept me pickup and putting down my book because I was so nervous to learn what happened next, but too curious to stop.

This book needs big content warnings across it's few front pages, but for readers who are able to read these themes, this is a story you won't want to miss.

I mean, it’s a Gothic Horror retelling of Grimm’s The Juniper Tree. If that doesn’t convince you to pick this up, then I don’t know what will. An immersive creepy house in a European setting, a family of witches, cursed wizards, sexy ballet dancers, serial murders, and magic on magic. The writing in this is phenomenal! Reid did a great job sucking me in with intricate prose and vivid imagery and it read every bit as the dark fairy tale it is. The woman has a way with words. The pain these characters endured was seriously leaping off the pages. Trauma is the predominant theme in this book, not only the experience but how the aftermath shapes us. Marlinchen’s and Sevas’ growth was well executed and I loved the relationship they shared as they worked to escape the bonds that tie them.

This was also quite meta with the main character constantly referencing fairy tale tropes. If you’re not familiar with The Juniper Tree, definitely check out the trigger warnings. Even the original tale is incredibly morbid and this book even more so, touching on some very difficult subject matter.

Why do I have the strongest urge to write a 10 page paper on this? There’s just so much to dissect here. I really can’t get over how good the writing is.

An engrossing story full of visceral, bruising prose that hooks its claws into you and doesn't let go until the last heart stopping sentence. The best books transport you, and this one felt like living inside a beautiful nightmare.

This is my first Ava Reid novel, though I've had her previous book on my TBR for some time. I can absolutely say I am now a reader for life though.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harpers Collins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Juniper & Thorn is both dark and brilliant. It reaches deep down into your soul and grabs anything it can and just pulls. The book goes into deep dark places covered in thorns and cobwebs. It's about a curse, love, betrayal, but more than that it's about trauma. This book isn't for everyone but the ones that it is for, its beautiful.

I didn’t know what to expect from Ava Reid’s newest release, as I had never read the The Juniper Tree on which it is based, but I was blown away. This story is thick with magic and horror and brutality. At times, it’s incredibly gruesome and vivid in its horror, both physical and psychological, but still making room for sweetness and hope. It’s the best, truest sort of fairytale, I could not put it down.

There are quite a few trigger warnings to go along with this story so treat yourself kindly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

*2.75ish stars rounded up.
I always get guilty with negative (ish) reviews so I’m just going to have to throw myself in.
I went into this book knowing literally nothing. I knew it was fantasy, I knew the author had written another book I was interested in, so I went for it. I can say I thought some aspects of this book were well-done, but I can’t really say that I enjoyed it at all.
First of all, characters! This was the bright spot for me. I thought all of the characters were really dimensional and made a lot of progress over the text. I’ve seen a lot of people praising how trauma is depicted in the book, and while I can’t speak to any sort of accuracy, I did think it was done well. The roles of the characters were all clear, they were compelling, and that’s that.
In terms of plot, I guess it was simple? I didn’t have a hard time understanding much, but it was also because there wasn’t much to understand. I found this book both painfully boring and really confusing in a lot of ways. A lot of elements were really predictable, but the amount of plot devices that only appeared before 10% and after 60% was too much for me. Again, I knew nothing about the plot before going in, but the general synopsis would’ve drawn me in anyways. I don’t even know how I’d go about describing it to someone else, though.
I guess my biggest issue here was a personal one: the amount of imagery and what it was describing was way too much for me. There were a lot of things that Marlinchen said that I found really disturbing, and while I sort of get what she was trying to say (and it's a dark fantasy horror), it drew me away from the story. I think this is the book Ava Reid wanted to write and the one many others wanted to read, but not what I was expecting or even what I’d associate with the summary.
Overall, I did think the quality of the book wasn’t terribly lacking in some areas, and it was certainly like a dark fairytale, but I can’t really rate this more than three stars. It’s a horror-fantasy, but given how little I’ve seen people say that, I think I was led astray, although the horror aspects weren’t really what made me dislike it besides some out-of-the-blue ideation that was recurring and uncomfortable.

Juniper & Thorn, Ava Reid's sophomore novel, is set in the same world as their first, The Wolf and the Woodsman, though in a different time and place in that world. As with The Wolf and the Woodsman, Juniper & Thorn is a dark, fantastical, and lovingly grisly story - and, also like The Wolf and the Woodsman, I sank down into Juniper & Thorn and barely came up for breath until I'd finished reading it.

This retelling of the Grimm fairy tale The Juniper Tree is certainly not for the faint of heart (as is indeed true of the original fairy tale), with lush, mesmerizingly written descriptions of horrific things, but it's a darkness that demands attention, and earns it. The protagonist, Marlinchen, youngest of three witch sisters (and well aware of what it means to be the youngest of three sisters in a story), lives caught between the insatiable appetite of her monstrous wizard father and her own unexplored hungers. She and her love interest, a ballet dancer likewise struggling against others' devouring appetites, are sharply drawn characters with a complex and beautifully rendered relationship, playing out alongside not only their own personal journeys, but against a backdrop of a city in transformation, caught between magic and industrialism.

It's beautiful, grotesque, shattering, like biting into an overripe plum and letting the juice ooze down your chin, and I absolutely could not look away for a moment.



TWs (via the author):
Gore and body horror
Child sexual abuse; incest
Cannibalism
Antisemitism, xenophobia, and scientific racism
Physical and psychological abuse by family members; gaslighting
Self-harm and suicidal ideation
Bulimia; graphic descriptions of vomiting
Animal death

(I would also add TW for alcohol abuse.)


Thank you to Harper Voyager for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

5/5 stars

Marlinchen is a witch, youngest of three daughters to a cursed wizard, living out her days in a city transforming from one of magic to industry. Last of the true witches in all of Oblya, she and her sisters cling to their gifts, which are little more than entertainment to the general populace and an asset to their father. Sequestered within the walls of their home, Marlinchen spends much of her free time placating the unending appetites of their authoritative father and utilizing her gifts to discern the truth from her clientele. The evening brings escape, as Marlinchen and her sisters creep into the city to partake in its revels and observe the captivating ballet theatre. These nighttime escapades offer salvation, but when Marlinchen captures the attention of a ballet dancer just as lost and isolated, her visits to the outside world become less uncommon. Entangled between the rage and hunger of her father, and her own desires, Marlinchen is caught in a snare, and the cost of freedom may be far more monstrous than she ever imagined.

When I heard that Ava Reid had written a gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, there was nothing I wouldn't do to read it at the soonest possible chance. Having absolutely worshiped her adult debut, The Wolf and the Woodsman, this novel promised to ruin me without remorse as much as its precursor. True to the fact, Juniper & Thorn is utterly gruesome, vividly capturing a darkness and horror that lingers down dark halls and underneath floorboards waiting for the prime moment to sink in its teeth. Reid is masterful at their craft, seamlessly blending horror and fantasy together in a story completely grotesque and illustrative of a blooming rose clouded among thorny brambles. Every sentence in this novel is striking, with imagery and prose that threatened to devour me whole. In time with the story, lore and fairytales play an important part in the main narrative, intersecting the vein of Marlinchen’s character development and the understanding of her own situation. These sporadic fairytales were definitely some of my favorite parts of the whole book, getting after the core themes and relationships between the main characters. At this point, Reid's capability for writing complex relationships is unquestionable, particularly ones that are nuanced and not simply good or bad, yet those you cannot help but love all the more. Three characters that come to mind are Marlinchen and her sisters Undine and Rose, as they endured years of abuse at the hands of their father, and impacted one another in continuously damaging ways. In turn, Marlinchen’s love interest Sevas was entirely endearing and latched on to my heart as the two attempted to escape their situations. A captivating gothic horror with a brutal design, Juniper & Thorn is imbued with memory, an examination of abuse, and survivor hood in all forms.

Trigger warnings: violence, emotional abuse, gore, blood, death, murder, body horror, cannibalism, eating disorder (bulimia), vomiting (graphic), sexual assault, antisemitism, xenophobia, drug use