I LOVED the Wolf and the Woodsman, which was why I was so excited to read Juniper and Thorn. Not to mention it was also comped to Catherynne Valente, an author I love.

I'm so glad it delivered! Equal parts f*cked up and fascinating, J&T is a perfect example of how to handle seriously disturbing things and actions while being able to keep your readers engaged.

In this gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, Marlinchen is the youngest of three daughters of the last true wizard of Oblya. She and her sisters have become nothing more than a novelty in the industrial town, but when people start turning up dead, can Marlinchen discover what is really happening before it is too late?

This was a lot darker than Ava Reid’s previous work, and though I knew that going in, I don’t think I was really prepared for how dark it really was. Please check the trigger warnings before venturing into this.

That being said, this was a beautiful tale. I love the lore and the magic that Reid puts into all of her works. It is very atmospheric and dark, almost unsettling at times, but with the content that is described, it is supposed to be unsettling. The subject matter is still handled with the utmost care and compassion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ava Reid, and Avon and Harper Voyager/Harper Voyager for the e-arc of Juniper and Thorn in exchange for an honest review

Oh, how I wish I enjoyed this one as much as Reid's debut The Wolf and the Woodsman. I don't know if it was the timing or my mood or the book itself, but friends - I struggled.

This is a retelling of The Juniper Tree by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the vibes very much remind me of Erin A. Craig's retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses by the Brothers Grimm, but this book can not exist on atmosphere and vibes alone.

"I checked under my bed, but the monster was gone. It had been gone since morning, when the pink fingers of dawn flushed back to its favorite hiding place in Rose's garden, spiny tail banded around the trunk of the juniper tree."

It's hard to even review this book because my reading experience of it was uneven: I adored the opening and the prose was even more magical to read than Reid's debut. The prose is lush and ethereal but the pace is meandering, which is typical of the Gothic horror genre. I think where this fell short for me was with the characters themselves, their relationships and motivations were not really believable. Gothic fiction needs to make me feel something for the characters, but I found myself not caring and that made it difficult for me to want to read the book. This book is glacially paced and mostly Vibes; its prose and atmosphere shine but unfortunately it falls short with the characters. While this didn't work for me, I do look forward to Reid's next book!

eARC provided by the publisher for my honest review. This does not impact my opinions of the book or the contents of my review. Quotations are from an unfinished proof and subject to change upon final publication.

Juniper & Thorn fell a little flat. The tidbits of the magic and monsters were interesting, but because the main character we follow is boring, I found myself struggling to finish the book.

Once the plot finally picks up, you find yourself left at how quickly it all ends.

Since I have not read the original fairy tale, I'm not sure how big the dark/horror elements are in it. For someone that enjoys horror, I think they wouldn't mind reading this book, since I do think those moments were done well but, again, are not the focus of the book. The same goes for people who enjoy instant love romances.

For anyone else? It's an interesting book, but if you find yourself unable to keep reading because of the main character, I do think you should put the book down since she doesn't get any better.

Again, if you are sensitive to any of the topics as mentioned below or by any other reviewers, I would definitely pass on it.

Reid’s beautiful writing style contrasted with the dark subject matter, making for an interesting reading experience. It was dark, horrifying, and shocking, but I felt like I was holding on to every word. Throw in a little romance on top and I couldn’t put this one down!

I did think it was interesting that Reid brought this story to life in the world she created within THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN. I thought it was a great tie to her debut novel and made the story more intriguing for me.

There were certainly difficult parts to read, and a number of trigger warnings that readers should be aware of going in, but I thought Reid did a wonderful job of touching on difficult topics such as abuse, sexual assault, and eating disorders. While a fantasy novel, these are all very real topics that many of us deal with and I truly appreciated Reid’s execution with incorporating them in her book.

Overall I thought this book was amazing, shocking, and truly brilliant. While I enjoyed Reid’s debut, JUNIPER AND THORN really highlighted Reid’s incredible story telling abilities and has set the bar very high for other retellings. I can’t wait to see what we get in the future from this amazing author!

Every so often, you happen upon an author that fits into no category you typically read. Ava Reid is my favorite surprise author, telling stories that feel as if they’ve always been sitting on a shelf, waiting for you to discover them.

Her new book, OUT 6/21, retells the classic gothic tale of “The Juniper Tree”, in which a young witch named Marlinchen escapes her home that her father keeps her and her two sisters trapped inside and discovers the excitement and draw of the outside world, especially a ballet dancer named Sevas. Her father’s discovery of this horrible development enrages him and causes him to weave a spell that makes it nearly impossible for the girls to leave. But Marlinchen has had a taste of freedom and love, and she will do whatever it takes to break free, but it comes with a cost.

Friends, go into this story without expectations. Ava’s master storytelling built on haunting landscapes, gothic characters, and poetic writing will bend your mind and heart to their own devices! After reading “The Wolf and the Woodsman” and this book, I’m fully convinced that she tells stories that will be around for a long time. Go pick up both of these books and settle in for a dark adventure you couldn’t have dreamed of yourself!

Thank you so much to Ava Reid & HarperCollins for gifting me this ARC 🖤

I had heard so many amazing things about this book and then I saw it being compared to Catherynne Valente and I had to request it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to it in time so I listened to the audio and the audio was fantastic.

Now, I don't know anything about the original story but based on things I have read this is a loose retelling. It is considered one of the darkest Grimm fairytales.

And surprisingly this one isn't about an evil mother or stepmother it is about an abusive father. He keeps his three daughters locked in the house and makes them use their magic to help earn money because they are the last of the witches.

The father also has an insatiable appetite—I won't say why so you can find out— but it causes him to turn to some strange things for food when they run out of money.

I thought this was really good. And kept me entertained. There are a lot of triggers so please check those out on StoryGraph.

This is my 3rd arc that I have read this month with the #arcaugust22

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

what a delightfully fucked up book that doesn't flinch away from the most bizarre and upsetting of fairy tales. It has that sort of fairy tale logic and style that carries through in a really nice way, with some added complexities here and there. I'm not easily shocked as a reader, and I usually assume the worst when it comes to mystery dumpling fillings in the icebox, but I was surprised by most of the twists in the story. I especially appreciated how all are made complicit and monstrous, and how even the sisters are part of this awful household.

Thank you so much Harper Collins for gifting me a copy of Juniper & Thorn and to Net Galley for a digital eARC!

This book has been beloved by many on TIK TOK and rightfully so. My experience with this book centered in the fact that reading it was stepping out of my comfort zone. This year I really wanted to challenge myself and read more genres that I have been hesitant (or scared-looking at you horror) to pick up. Juniper & Thorn taught me a lot about myself as a reader. This is the first horror novel I have ever successfully finished and it was the beautiful prose and the drops of romance that pushed me through to the end (two things I always love and gravitate towards when reading). The horror elements taught me that there are some things I don't enjoy in horrors and moving forward I can check CW for those things. But it also taught me that there were things I loved. In Juniper & Thorn's case it was the wicked and disturbing metaphors Reid crafted. Some were so well thought out that my body felt what the character was feeling. The craft that went into this book was phenomenal and so well thought out.

The pacing of the story was one I was not expecting for a horror novel. The story felt like that final long draw of a violin string. Waiting for the snap or the quiet. For me the pacing of the book never felt quite right at times and what was a 300 page book felt like a 900 page book at times. The chapters were so long that and ended nicely that it was easy for me to put the book down and not have the urge to pick it up and know what's going to happen next. I will always love a cliffhanger ending to a chapter.

Overall this book is wickedly enchanting and as a wannabe fan of Grim Fairytales I had a lot of fun reading this. It is a haunting gothic fairytale. Since reading Jane Eyre in January, I have wanted to dive into even more Gothic stories and Juniper & Thorn solidified my love for the genre. I cannot wait to pick up The Wolf and The Woodsman and read A Study In Drowning next year. This book pushed me out of my comfort zone in a delicate way and although its not my preferred genre it solidified Ava Reid as an author I want to read more from.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with an eARC of the book for my honest review!

Juniper & Thorn is about a young witch, Marlinchen, who is trapped in life, and physically, at home, due to her wizard father and older sisters. Her family is abusive and oppressive, so naturally, Marlinchen wishes to be free. Along the way, Marlinchen meets her love interest Sevas, and together they start to uncover grisly secrets about her family.

This was my first Ava Reid experience and wow! What a ride. Juniper & Thorn did not disappoint. This was a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale The Juniper Tree, which I have never read or heard of, so my first exposure was through this book and I'm not mad about it. Ava Reid's writing is so beautiful and haunting, and at times, a bit dark and grotesque but that's what makes it great. Ava Reid's capability for writing complex relationships is remarkable, complex, and obviously nuanced. You can't help but feel for the characters and fall in love with them--good or bad.

Juniper & Thorn is and adult gothic horror that explores dark themes. Some of the scenes were unsettling, and I was left feeling a little bewildered throughout the book.

Please look over the trigger warnings before reading!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions contained within are my own.

I’m sitting here, staring at my computer screen, because I’m finding it hard to put into words what I felt about this book. A gothic horror tale that leans hard into the horrific, I found myself both intrigued and grossed out through most of this book! But there was also a good chunk where I was bored out of my mind. So let me try to transfer those very conflicting feelings into a coherent review!

Juniper & Thorn follows three witches and their wizard father who live in a world that is swiftly leaving magic behind. Marlinchen is the youngest of the sisters, a plain-faced witch who doesn’t know much of the world outside her family’s garden. One night, when she sneaks out with her sisters to watch the local ballet perform, she meets a dancer and her world turns completely upside down. Secrets upon secrets, lies upon lies, and it all may soon come crashing down on Marlinchen and her family.

First and foremost, I have to say that Ava Reid can freakin’ write. The writing in this is absolutely superb! I loved the flow of it, the intensely gothic feel, and how it was so evocative that it was like watching a movie as I turned the pages. She did a fantastic job of establishing the world and bringing in a supremely chilling atmosphere that was probably my favorite aspect of this book. If you’re looking for great, gothic vibes, this book has that in spades.

The author also did an incredible job writing an entire cast of compelling characters. Marlinchen is our main character, and she certainly comes to life on the pages. The secondary characters, however, don’t fall flat simply because we aren’t getting the story from their POV. They are as vibrant and captivating as Marlinchen, which I always appreciate in a book. There’s also a lot of trauma, both present and past, that they are all dealing with throughout this story, so maybe prepare yourself for that. I think it was all handled in a great, if sad and dark, way so that it didn’t read like it was added simply for shock value. And I absolutely loved watching Marlinchen come into her own as the story progressed.

All that being said, the plot left a little something to be desired. I enjoyed the story and where it went, but it felt like such a slog to get there at times. I have a hard time pinpointing why exactly I was getting so bored. Perhaps it is the repetitive nature of Marlinchen’s daily life, that we got to see repeatedly in the story. And it was often written in the exact same way. For example, Marlinchen cooks for her father every day. And, every day, Marlinchen remarks that she cooks varkenyky with filling she doesn’t remember making. Every. Single. Day. I might be exaggerating a bit but it felt like I read that same scene over and over again. There was a lot of repetition in this book and, though I feel it was intentional to convey the monotony of Marlinchen’s life, it lead to me getting bored.

Marlinchen also thinks/talks about breasts… A LOT. Like… I almost started keeping a tally of how many times the word “breast” or “breasts” was mentioned in the text because it felt like it was… excessive. You might want to avoid this if you’re at all sensitive to reading about vomiting, as well, because, oof, does Ava Reid go into detail about that.

Overall, the writing, the character work, and the world-building all made up for the kind of lackluster plot. I enjoyed this one and I’m definitely interested in checking out more books by this author. It wasn’t precisely my cup of tea, but it was a good read.

(4.5 rounded up to a 5)

Juniper & Thorn is a gothic horror fantasy with folklore elements by Ava Reid. The ebook version is 303 pages. We follow our main character with a first-person point-of-view.

Marlinchen is the youngest of three sisters who are the last of the true witches in the country of Oblya. They live under the thumb of their abusive and xenophobic wizard father, Zmiy Vashchenko. Though they all have different powers, the girls feel as if they are little more than a tourist trap. At night, the girls sneak out to enjoy the amenities of the city and to eke a bit of happiness out of their existence.

When Marlinchen finally joins her sisters for a jaunt to the city, she meets a dancer at the recently established ballet theater who steals her heart. At the same time, there seems to be a monster loose in the city that has an unquenchable appetite.

This story is set in the same universe as the author's The Wolf and the Woodsman, though in a different time and place. It is a gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, one of the grimmest tales of The Brothers Grimm. There are a ton of content warnings, so please check those out before you pick up this book.

I really liked this! It was very dark, though, so I had to read it in bits and pieces. I stayed up really late to finish the last few chapters because I really needed to see how it ended! Also, this cover is GORGEOUS and after reading the book I can see just how many little details are included from the story itself.

This book really showcases how powerless some young women feel in society, and how sometimes it feels like our bodies are not our own.

Tropes in this book include: folklore, retelling (The Juniper Tree)

CW: gore, body horror, child sexual abuse, incest, cannibalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, scientific racism, physical and psychological abuse, gaslighting, self-harm, suicidal ideation, bulimia (graphic descriptions), animal death

Special thanks to Avon, Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for providing an eGalley of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Juniper & Thorn is a horror fantasy from author Ava Reid.

Marlinchen's father was intensely terrifying, and the absolute hold he had over his daughters was hard to read. The love and trust between sisters really held the story together for me, but parts were hard to get through.

Overall this was a very dark horror.

My first read by this author and I was not disappointed at all. I do not often read young adult but when I do I seem to love what I read. This had great writing and I really enjoyed my time with it.

This book was absolutely stunning in every way and my only regret is that I didn't read it earlier (but i had to have a signed edition).

Opening line: “I checked under my bed, but the monster was gone.”

Book thoughts: Gothic horror fairytale. A love story with gruesome obstacles to overcome. It is a story of survival during and after abuse, a finding of self and love. This was not an easy book to read and I was grateful that I went into it fully warned. Please be sure to look at the trigger warnings below, especially if food is one of your triggers. I was truly absorbed reading this and was happy with the way the story ended. For covering such difficult topics, the writing is very well done.

The #FantasyFrenemies will be discussing this one soon and I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks. We all loved Ava’s The Wolf and the Woodsman.
Thank you to #NetGalley and @harpervoyagerus for the advanced reader copy!

TW: death of a parent, controlling parent, eating disorders - binging & bulimia, molestation, child sexual & physical abuse, emotional abuse & bullying, body gore, murder, graphic animal/monster death, cannibalism, snakes,

This is the first book I’ve read about this author and it didn’t disappoint. It has such a beautiful writing and the story is very atmospheric. I felt like the topics are very well guided, made me really think about what I was reading while also enjoying it.

Absolutely beautiful writing, but way darker than what I expected. I don’t know if this was horror as much as it was horrific, if that makes sense. I was never scared, but I felt intensely uncomfortable the whole time I read this, in a way that made it difficult to get through many of the scenes in this book. This contains body horror, pedophilia, sexual abuse, self-harm, parental abuse, physical abuse, sexual shame, eating disorders, cannibalism, and so much more. At times the way some of these things were described was gratuitous - I struggled to read lyrical sentences about how badly the MC wanted to purge or how she imagined cutting her nipples off. I ultimately did like the story and will read more from Ava Reid because her writing is truly beautiful, but I felt so unsettled by how such dark topics were handled that I can’t say I enjoyed it more than 3 stars worth.

If you are a fan of Grimm-style fairytales, Juniper & Thorn will be up your alley. In fact, it’s loosely based off one of their darker stories, The Juniper Tree. This is a gruesome story and it’s not the happiest. Marlinchen is treated the worst of her siblings and she waits on her father, who was cursed with never being satisfied. So he eats and eats, and never gets full, but Marlinchen is able to keep his hunger occupied with carefully planned meals. Her father is constantly taking advantage of Marlinchen’s empathetic and caring nature.

This novel is told with a melancholy tone, but Ava Reid’s prose is as beautiful as you could hope for. It’s quite a contrast to the horrifying things that happen in Juniper & Thorn. Reid is able to enchant us with the poetry in her words, fully immersing her readers in this dark tale. Marlinchen takes an awful amount of abuse throughout her whole life, but when she experiences the first inklings of love, it gives her motivation to break through the grasp of her father and escape from under the shadows of her sisters. This is quite a tale of survival, both physically and mentally, from all that she had to endure.

Juniper & Thorn will not be a book for everyone. It’s haunting and sad, but it makes its way towards hopefulness and love. Ava Reid has a talent for telling these woeful tales in a way that encourages you to look beneath the horror to pull out the messages within. In this retelling, Marlinchen is given a voice and dimension, she is somehow untouchably ethereal and vividly realistic at the same time.

There’s quite a few content warnings on Reid’s site that I’d like to share, for anyone who is interested in the novel, but isn’t aware of the triggers that it might incur:

Gore and body horror
Child sexual abuse; incest
Cannibalism
Antisemitism, xenophobia, and scientific racism
Physical and psychological abuse from family members; gaslighting
Self-harm and suicidal ideation
Bulimia; graphic descriptions of vomiting
Animal death

I would like to thank Harper Voyager for a finished copy of Juniper & Thorn for review. It was absolutely my pleasure to read.

Cw: eating disoder child sexual assault rape assault

Juniper and Thorn was an incredibly well written follow up to Ava Reid’s The Wolf and the Woodsman. Taking place in a pre-industrial revolution in the same world as TWATW following a young girl battling against her father, her family, and old magic that’s threatening to break the town apart. The writing is the perfect balance between grotesque and horrific while still feeling beautiful and haunting. The vibes were immaculate while also emotionally heavy.

This is really not a plot heavy book. This is more an examination of relationships, particularly abusive ones. As well as an examination of human behaviors like trauma responses. It was swell done but tread carefully.