Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

17 reviews

theatrealpaca's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Sexual content

bookleafcrow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

A gothic fantasy revolving around monstrous men, and the monsters they create. 

I went into Juniper and Thorn practically blind, having read Reid’s debut novel “The Wolf and the Woodsman” last year and enjoying it so much that it became one of my top reads of 2022. However, I would not advise picking up this book without knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into. At its core, “Juniper and Thorn” is a story about abuse and striving for freedom against the odds, as well as being a retelling of the German fairy tale “The Juniper Tree”; alongside other trigger warnings listed within this review, it depicts graphic scenes of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse with little to no reprieve until the last third of the book. The main character, Marlinchen, develops at a frustratingly slow pace, and whilst this is understandable given her situation, her back-and-forth uncertainty becomes irritating towards the end. Despite being only ~300 pages, it feels much, much longer. I found myself struggling to pick it back up after reading sessions. That being said, the prose is beautiful. The world-building is claustrophobic and narrow in a way that matches the scope of the narrator, and Reid’s imagery is a vibrant gut-punch for better or worse; Juniper and Thorn’s uncomfortable atmosphere is carefully curated until it blossoms into a closing act with incredible payoff. 

Overall, “Juniper and Thorn” is as charming and alluring as it is repulsing. The characters are slightly weaker than those in Reid’s previous novel, lacking their rate of development, and the romance feels a little superficial until it very suddenly doesn’t, but the conclusion is so much stronger. It has a very satisfying ending that ties up all loose ends brilliantly. I would recommend this book to fans of Reid’s first book, fans of folklore/fairytale retellings, and gothic fantasy enjoyers; whilst I personally wouldn’t describe this book as horror for the most part, it definitely incorporates horrific elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Body horror, Sexual assault, Medical content, Death, Blood, Animal death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Murder, Gaslighting, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Confinement, and Gore

erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Sexual violence, Rape, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, and Cannibalism

macadoo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, Vomit, Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Body horror, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Antisemitism, Gaslighting, and Xenophobia

Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

wonderfulwaytooweird's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.5

Beautiful dark fairy tale like story about trauma and love persevering through it and the damage left over. This gothic romance was raw and hard to swallow but so rich and entrancing. Loved it so much and could not put the book down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Cannibalism, Sexism, Chronic illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Vomit, and Drug use

emmague89's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, and Vomit

booksthatburn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

JUNIPER &THORN is a story built on a complicated tangle of self harm and exploration as Marlinchen, now a young woman, finally starts to defy her controlling father’s dictates. Especially early on, she has a variety of maladaptive behaviors including but not limited to self harm, disordered eating, and intrusive thoughts (ranging from negative self-talk to hypersexual fantasies). These are symptoms of and reactions to the ongoing all-pervasive abusive atmosphere which consumed her childhood and is set to rob her of normal adulthood as well. She and her sisters live in fear of their father, but as he’s made himself the only allowable source of affection in their lives they are desperate to retain his favor. As he’s also a wizard he’s threatened their bodies and lives if they disobey him, and can back up his threats with intimations of what happened to their mother before them. He controls their sexuality through threats and intimidation, as well as by using magical means to check whether they’re still “pure”, something which doesn’t stop Marlinchen from masturbating but makes her worried about how she goes about it.

Marlinchen is gaslit and abused by her father, and has toxic (often abusive) relationships with her sisters. The way that she’s constantly made to question her own perceptions but is also the narrator sometimes makes it hard to tell what things were supposed to be bad, or what things are stressful while not abusive. This had this overall effect that for the first half of the book I felt increasingly unmoored, hoping to find some part of her life that was actually okay and increasingly coming to the conclusion that this is a horror story and there’s not much that’s meant to be going well. 

Marlinchen's relationships with her sisters is contentious. They're all trying to maintain access to the extremely finite resource which is their father's goodwill, but they have different ways of measuring whether they've achieved it. Marlinchen's yardstick seems to be whether his abuse stays verbal instead of escalating, which is a depressingly low baseline. There’s a pivotal scene midway through where the tactics in their father’s abuse have taken a sudden turn, and Marlinchen has a confrontation with Undine where in her exasperation Undine says things that explain her own survival strategy, and the flaw she sees in Marlinchen’s. This prompts Marlinchen to realize that she has options she never considered, and that perhaps her sisters have been employing completely different strategies with very different aims from herself.

Some little linguistic touches place this in the same world as THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN. I'm sure if I go back to re-read the other book I'll notice more things, but I noticed enough to be sure even before looking it up to see that I was correct. Because Marlinchen is only able to visit a few locations, there's a lot of detail about the house but less about other places within the city. This means that most of the information about the city and their place in it is gradually told as it relates to how her father feels about it (generally, how he hates it and why). This makes for a (plot-appropriate) gloomy mood.

The plot is well-constructed and engaging. It created a slowly-building feeling of dread which fit the story and was very stressful. The ending made a bunch of early inconsistencies have an explanation beyond "fairy tale logic", and I'm very satisfied with how things ended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Medical content, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Animal death, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Incest, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism, Racism, Antisemitism, and Drug use