Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

54 reviews

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

frankiecastanea's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

A fantastic retelling to read, but I very much wish there were TWs at the beginning of the book. The fact that it’s loosely based upon the Grimm tale should tell you that it’s going to be dark and intense, but there are definitely things I would have loved to know were included before reading so I could prepare myself, especially TW: 

bestiality and repeated mentions of the MC or other characters having their nipples sliced off, even if it didn’t *actually* happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Child abuse, Misogyny, Body horror, Classism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Cannibalism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Murder

poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

Juniper and Thorn reminded me of a beautiful sweater I have.  It's gorgeous, warm, and looks good on me. But it's also itchy and uncomfortable and I'm always aware I'm wearing it. This story was beautifully told, but it was coarse and unpleasant.  I never lost myself in it.  The hypersexualization of every scenario was distracting and distasteful.   It's clear the sex scenes were not meant to be titillating so I question why the author didn't use a more closed-door approach.  The abuse and eating disorder plot points were too rampant and unnecessarily triggering.   The story was as grim as those of old.  The language and descriptions were precise. The characters were well-developed, even if some of their actions and motivations were questionable.  I didn't enjoy it, but others might.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Body horror, Confinement, Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Self harm, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

sestrout's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

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

meghan's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Blood, Bullying, Pedophilia, and Eating disorder

dixiecarroll's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a highly disturbing classic fairytale retelling and you should not read it if you are easily triggered or grossed out. I loved it - it made me incredibly uncomfortable, but I like it when fairytales are a little awful. It lost a star because I felt like it was missing something - I can’t quite tell what that was yet, but it could be the intentional feeling of blackouts that our narrator felt as well - unsure. Anyway this is great!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

carlymb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I liked how the book slowly unfolded the mystery. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. The protagonist’s self-harm and eating disorder felt out of place in this story, and didn’t make me like the character much, other than illustrating how beat down she was was everyone including herself.  

Look at trigger warnings before reading this book, cause it has a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Adult/minor relationship

readwithria's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Juniper & Thorn is a haunting and deeply disturbing book, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Marlinchen is such a complex character, and I love how she changes throughout the book. Sevas reminds me so much of how dance was both a great love of mine and also how it wrecked my body and my confidence for many years. There was so much truth in this book that really shook me to my core, and I would definitely recommend it.

That said, this book is fantasy horror and has quite a few potential triggers. Ava Reid has a list of content warnings on their Tumblr, and I highly encourage everyone to check them before reading this book. I have included them in the content warning section of this review as well.

Ava Reid has such poetic prose, and I love reading what she writes. I’ll definitely be reading more from them in the future. 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Antisemitism, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Self harm, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, and Animal death

morgangd's review

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.0

An intense tale of trauma in dark fairy tale mode, with every trigger warning under the sun and maybe, just maybe, actually too crass. But it did move me at parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Body shaming, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Rape, Gaslighting, Sexism, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism