Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

12 reviews

kng_writes's review

2.5

Ehhhh, not for me. Just goes to show that pretty prose and a cool concept does not automatically mean a good writer. I truly did not give a singular fuck about any character in this book, not even Marlinchen. They were all so bland and unseasoned. Certain images were repetitive to the point of redundancy (Rose’s violet eyes, plum pits, plum juice). READ TRIGGERS FOR THIS—I dove in and was shocked at what was in here. And this is coming from someone who loved Andrew Joseph White’s body horror books!! At times, this book truly felt like trauma porn. Bad things happening to everybody, but what was the point other than to make everyone suffer?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gore, Vomit, Animal death, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism and Fatphobia

Minor: Xenophobia

bea_reads_books's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.25

I really loved this book. I will say though, it’s very dark and heavy. I’ve included as many comprehensive warnings as I can, but I’ll say it here too:

Sexual violence, coercive control, and mental illness are really big themes in this book. The main character and her love interest both experienced sexual assault from adults as minors, and the main character describes in detail exactly what her doctor did to her around 50% of the way through the book. There is no penetrative rape, but it is still hard to read. If sexual violence/harassment is a trigger for you, I would advise you to be extremely cautious about this book, and to take care of yourself if you do decide to read it.

Additionally, the main character is mentally ill. She has violent intrusive thoughts about self harm. She has an eating disorder and forces herself to vomit up everything she eats. She also experiences intense anxiety. As someone who also has anxiety and intrusive thoughts, this was hard for me to read, but also nice in a way. It’s good to know I’m not the only person in the world this happens to. 

Aside from the hard parts, this was a well written book in my opinion. The pacing was good, the romance was okay, and the prose and worldbuilding were very compelling. I also liked how the author showed the many ways in which abuse can manifest in someone. The main character, Marlinchen, is one of three sisters. One of them became cruel, taking out her hurt and anger on her sisters because she couldn’t take it out on her father. The other became cunning and level-headed, always making herself seem like the sensible one while working behind her sisters’ backs to gain her father’s favor. And Marlinchen is constantly fielding insults about how she is nothing but a doormat, doing everything her father says without complaint to avoid angering him. 

I think this story is a wonderful commentary on the ways in which an abuser can fully and completely f*ck up the lives of everyone around them, and how hard it is for their victims to heal afterward, all wrapped up in the guise of a fairytale retelling.

I also really liked that two of the three abusers died (painfully) and the third went to prison.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body horror, Death, Animal death, Blood, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

meat_muffin's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Listen, this book was… weird. And not my usual style at all! I’m glad I read it, enjoyed the writing style, but it wrapped up leaving me more confused than anything else and not filling in all of the plot holes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fatphobia, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, and Alcohol

tifftastic87's review

I read the main content warnings and thought I could handle this one. However, I never saw mention of all of intrusive thoughts regarding Marlinchen's body image as well as her eating disorder. Some of her thoughts are really too similar to mine about myself such as

thoughts of cutting off parts of her body that she hates

 
If you plan on reading it, look at the whole list of content warnings not just the top three. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Body horror, Body shaming, Grief, Fatphobia, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Graphic depictions of binging and purging, graphic descriptions of intrusive thoughts of extreme self harm

grace615's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Blood, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, and Sexual assault

ninjatrombonist's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, 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

cmckayo's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

fizzieee's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredible. Beautiful prose, haunting story. I found myself rooting for Marlinchen, Rose, and Sevas over and over again, despite their many flaws. Excellent horror with disgusting visuals - sucked me right into the story and didn’t let me go until the very end. Will re-read in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Sexual content, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Vomit

lindseeclark's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Unbelievably depressing and a difficult read for me, just not a book that I enjoyed. The prose itself was lush and beautiful but I could not root for any characters or plot lines.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Medical trauma, Grief, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Murder, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Self harm, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Physical abuse, Confinement, and Blood