Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

8 reviews

vashaava's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, and Death

rilakkumas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Incest, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Cannibalism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Violence, Sexual assault, Blood, Gore, Child abuse, and Death

laurenelisewrites's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Such incredible prose. The descriptions of body horror were simple yet effective. I felt fully immersed in the world, Marlinchen’s head and the fucked nature of her family dynamics. I loved the ending. I’m a sucker for “happy endings”, if one can even call it that. Everything felt resolved in a satisfying, logical and responsible way. I want a movie adaptation of this asap!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Murder, Animal death, Sexism, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Death, and Cursing

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Body horror, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Death, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cursing, Gaslighting, Animal death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Incest

bohboh's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reid handles the delicate topics of abuse and anorexia with careful respect and grace when telling this chilling gothic horror. She capitalizes well on romance and fantasy themes to draw interesting and distinct characters. I could not put this down once I started.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, Misogyny, Colonisation, Cursing, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape and Pedophilia

onthelam's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

ginnymay's review

dark fast-paced

2.0

Major CW missing from this one, please check the warnings before reading this review. 

I love new and original fairy tale retellings, dark fantasy, and gothic horror. By that metric, this should have been my new favorite book. It is decidedly not. 

When we had a monster murderer introduced I was hoping for something like Carnival Row, but this story seems to have lacked an outline or plan of any sort as it forgets about the mysterious murders for large swathes of time to the point where, when a victim is discovered at the theater, I genuinely had the thought “Oh yeah that’s a thing” because I had genuinely forgotten about the MURDER MONSTER.

The bulk of the meandering narration for 75% of the novel can be summarized as: Marlinchen’s sisters are pretty and she’s ugly, her dad is abusive and they hate him, her mother is dead, she makes food, she thinks the dancer is sexy, she is called stupid and mindless, she is depressed and fantasizes about cutting off her nipples. It makes Marlinchen one of the most tedious narrators, as the first new information unveiled in her POV isn’t until after several hundred pages of this when it’s suddenly revealed that she was repeatedly SA’d as a minor by a medical professional while her father watched and was paid for it.

Then Reid tried to tie it all together with an insta-love trauma-bond romance and then reveals an answer to the murders that required some rewriting of history to make it work. 

And all this just left me with more questions than answers. How did Marlinchen never notice that her Father’s powers had waned? How did she not notice for SEVEN years that her sisters were being trafficked? How, if she and her magically imbued sisters all had power and violently hated their father, did they never find a way to overthrow him or at least rebel against him? How did Marlinchen not put together that she was missing huge chunks of time when murders were taking place? How did she not question where the hearts and livers she served to her father came from? How did they have sex on the floor covered in broken glass and not need insane amounts of medical attention? 

All in all, a bewildering, poorly written, deeply upsetting, and just bad book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Body horror, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Sexual violence, Animal death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Vomit, Misogyny, Trafficking, Bullying, Incest, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Xenophobia

tenthousandactualbees's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Gore, Animal death, Vomit, Death of parent, Sexual content, Cursing, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Death, and Body horror