Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

90 reviews

its_thekla's review

challenging dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.75

You ever read a book and just can't help but think 'just get to the point!'? That's this book. But the point is boobs. Boobs and body horror. 

Anyway, at best the story was long winded, at worse it was garrulous. It was creepy, I will give them that. But I'd someone were to ask me for a gothic fantasy rec, I can't imagine this making the list. 

Also, please check the trigger warnings! Can't stress that enough here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Body shaming, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Gaslighting

bookishvicky's review

4.75

So wonderfully weird and macabre!!! Literally couldn’t put it down. I love a book that gives me anxiety. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Antisemitism, Body shaming, Rape, and Alcoholism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, and Vomit

costellar's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal death, Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Minor: Body shaming and Bullying

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

bookmark3brodi's review

challenging mysterious fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Rape, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Self harm, Cannibalism, Child death, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Body shaming, Bullying, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism

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

yomireads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

Juniper and Thorn takes a dark magic based world and confronts far darker realities of abuse. The story opens with a catalyst event for our MC, Marlinchen as she and her sisters venture out of their home and she experiences life outside the borders of her home. As the story unfolds from their we glean how Marlinchen has adapted to a hostile environment, and glimpse the ways her sisters have done the same in their own ways. Relationships and the way trauma affects them are shown through her eyes, and observed as she learns more of her sisters, who are often kept at arms length from each other. 

This is a well conceived and deeply disturbing story that's intoxicatingly written. Each plot reveal was loaded with expecting foreshadowing, and by the end I was utterly speechless at the reveals. Well worth the read.

My drawbacks play into my personal tastes and aversions. From the first chapter sex plays a much larger part in the story than I anticipated. And while the story does explore romance to some degree it's done as a means of allowing for character growth and insight to their traumas. Even so I always have a difficult time when a book ventures down this plotline. Additionally, I was expecting something a bit more magic heavy, and was deeply intrigued by the different types of magic each sister possessed. I was disappointed not to get more of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Murder, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, and Bullying

Minor: Death of parent and Pedophilia

natalie1227's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

For my first horror dark book this was a great start. I got very frustrated with the main character and her relationships. The ending was great but it was definitely a slow burn in the beginning. Once Marlinchen started to enter the outside world her character developed and you started to want it to have a good ending. I liked how the author's spicy bits were written in almost a different style when it was with one character vs. a different character .

I wanted to scream when we find out the dad was eating people because no duh he was eating people he is an abusive asshole. It also took the entire book for her to realize her family never loved her and were extremely toxic.

 I loved the narrator's voice and they made it very pleasurable to listen to. I am also reading another book by the same author and I am enjoying it more so I might just not be a horror fan. 
Overall it was an ok experience and will definitely be reading more Ava Reid books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Eating disorder

wizardowl's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Pedophilia, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexism

abception's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Blood, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Vomit, Xenophobia, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Gore, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Body horror, Body shaming, Colonisation, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol and Suicidal thoughts