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grace_ml's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
3.5
affiknittyreads's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
h3ll0k8ie's review
4.25
Those who have enjoyed either The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or Angela Carter’s short stories will find enjoyable similarities in this Grimm retelling by Comyns.
booksinbedinthornhill's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? No
4.0
I finally finished this short book. I delayed finishing it because I knew that when I was done, so was my mother. I know that might sound strange, but I started this book on January 10th. On January 13th my mother (who has been in palliative care since March 2023) took to her bed and was never to leave it alive. My 95-year-old mother passed away peacefully on January 20th, my birthday. I stayed at her house during that last week, reading bits of the book at night, and being surprised by two coincidences between the book and what was happening. 1) The protagonist's name is Bella, my mother's middle name. 2) There is a character in the book whose mother dies in childbirth, so his birthday will always be the day of his mother's death. After my mother passed away, we went through the burial and week-long mourning period and each night I tried to read The Juniper Tree but fell asleep after a page or two. It was as if I didn't want to finish it, because then I would know that my mother was really gone. Well, I just finished it. And she's really gone.
itspeachie's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
amycrea's review against another edition
4.0
It's definitely worthwhile to read the Grimm fairy tale by the same title before reading this book, and be prepared to have to wait a while for the payoff; the middle section is slower than necessary, but I saw it in a different light once I'd gotten to the end.
briancrandall's review
4.0
Although published in 1985, and ostensibly set in late twentieth-century London, Barbara Comyns's novel really takes place in a fantastical landscape, one that is dark, harsh, and dangerous for children and innocents. Among Comyns devotees, The Juniper Tree is divisive. Uncanny yet matter-of-fact, spooky yet gentle, naive and knowing, meticulous and strangely careless, it is considered by some to be among her most endearing works, while others dismiss it as chaotic. To me, it's both—and therein lies its charm. [vii, from Sadie Stein’s introduction]
jesssalexander's review against another edition
1.0
I read the Grimm fairy tale of the same name directly before the book and enjoyed that immensely more.
The whole book is narrated in a flat, emotionless tone. The first 150 pages just build and build to one tiny paragraph: "THE LID CAME DOWN." And then poof, in the last 20 pages the baby is dead, Bella gets her freedom back, no one goes to jail and the spell is broken. It was extremely anticlimactic and I felt cheated out of an actual story. The characters felt underdeveloped, especially Tommy/Marlichine. I did love that her name shifts depending on where she was. That was a really cool manifestation of how the Forbes' life swallowed up Bella's own. But how did Tommy feel about Johnny's death or her mother's time in the asylum? Why is there no exchange between the characters after Bella's reentry into the world. Also Bernard sucks. This was just a crappy sad read.
The whole book is narrated in a flat, emotionless tone. The first 150 pages just build and build to one tiny paragraph: "THE LID CAME DOWN." And then poof, in the last 20 pages the baby is dead, Bella gets her freedom back, no one goes to jail and the spell is broken. It was extremely anticlimactic and I felt cheated out of an actual story. The characters felt underdeveloped, especially Tommy/Marlichine. I did love that her name shifts depending on where she was. That was a really cool manifestation of how the Forbes' life swallowed up Bella's own. But how did Tommy feel about Johnny's death or her mother's time in the asylum? Why is there no exchange between the characters after Bella's reentry into the world. Also Bernard sucks. This was just a crappy sad read.
camilleisreading24's review against another edition
4.0
***4.5./5 stars***
This book is the smoldering embers in the back of the fireplace. There is an omnipresent sense of foreboding and dread throughout this little novel.
Before starting "The Juniper Tree," I went and read through the Grimm fairytale that inspired it. And wow, that is a messed up story. A woman who desperately wants a baby cuts herself while peeling an apple. Nine months later, she gives birth. Upon seeing her new baby, she dies of happiness. Her husband remarries and the boy's stepmother has a daughter called Marlinchen. The stepmother despises the boy and murders him by decapitating him with the lid of an iron trunk. She tries to tie his head back on the body, and places an apple in the boy's lap. She urges Marlinchen to go ask for the apple, and when her stepbrother doesn't reply, Marlinchen hits him and his head falls off. Understandably, Marlinchen is upset. The stepmother cooks the boy into stew and feeds him to his father, while Marlinchen sobs. The girl gathers up her brother's bones and buries them by the juniper tree. The boy is reincarnated as a beautiful bird who sings of his murder to the townspeople. Enchanted by the birdsong, the townspeople give him gold, red shoes, and a millstone. The gold and shoes he bestows on his father and his stepsister, and the millstone he drops on the head of the stepmother, who promptly dies.
Pretty messed up, right?
In Barbara Comyns' novel, this macabre story is distilled into a quieter domestic novel. Set in late 1970s/early 1980s England, the novel feels strangely timeless, in the manner of a fairy tale. Bella Winter is a young single mother who recently broke up with longtime boyfriend Stephen, and whose young daughter, Marline, is mixed race, conceived during a one night stand with a man whose name Bella does not know. Bella has a troubled relationship with her difficult mother, who is initially appalled at the color of Marline's skin, but eventually gets over it. At the start of the novel, Bella obtains an ideal job as shopkeeper in an antiques store. Her new boss allows Bella to run the shop and acquire items, and to live in the rooms above the shop. Bella is enjoying her independence and appreciates that she can provide for her daughter without financial strain.
Adding to this idyllic time is Bella's new friendship with the beautiful German woman, Gertrude, and her husband, Bernard, who live nearby. Gertrude and Bernard are cultured and rich, and they welcome Bella into their world. Bella and Marline are soon spending every weekend at their new friends' large home, and Gertrude confides to Bella that after years of praying for a child, she is finally expecting. Meanwhile, Bernard takes it upon himself to "educate" Bella, introducing her to music, art, and other "high" culture. Like the original tale, however, the story hurtles inexorably towards tragedy and madness...
This book is really a fascinating approach to retelling a fairy tale. The narrator is prosaic and sympathetic, and the novel certainly seems to be a simple tale of a young mother making some rich friends. This makes it all the more uncanny when the story beats from the fairy tale occur-- Gertrude cuts herself while slicing an apple in the snow; Gertrude's tragic death in childbirth; Bella's growing sense of unease when she meets Gertrude and Bernard's child. All of these moments feel queasy and unsettling in contrast to the prosaic scenes of Bella working in the shop, feeding ducks in the park with Marlinchen, and picnicking with Gertrude under the juniper tree. This novel got under my skin and I was shocked when I got to the climactic moment. Strongly recommend picking up this strange and unsettling book.
This book is the smoldering embers in the back of the fireplace. There is an omnipresent sense of foreboding and dread throughout this little novel.
Before starting "The Juniper Tree," I went and read through the Grimm fairytale that inspired it. And wow, that is a messed up story. A woman who desperately wants a baby cuts herself while peeling an apple. Nine months later, she gives birth. Upon seeing her new baby, she dies of happiness. Her husband remarries and the boy's stepmother has a daughter called Marlinchen. The stepmother despises the boy and murders him by decapitating him with the lid of an iron trunk. She tries to tie his head back on the body, and places an apple in the boy's lap. She urges Marlinchen to go ask for the apple, and when her stepbrother doesn't reply, Marlinchen hits him and his head falls off. Understandably, Marlinchen is upset. The stepmother cooks the boy into stew and feeds him to his father, while Marlinchen sobs. The girl gathers up her brother's bones and buries them by the juniper tree. The boy is reincarnated as a beautiful bird who sings of his murder to the townspeople. Enchanted by the birdsong, the townspeople give him gold, red shoes, and a millstone. The gold and shoes he bestows on his father and his stepsister, and the millstone he drops on the head of the stepmother, who promptly dies.
Pretty messed up, right?
In Barbara Comyns' novel, this macabre story is distilled into a quieter domestic novel. Set in late 1970s/early 1980s England, the novel feels strangely timeless, in the manner of a fairy tale. Bella Winter is a young single mother who recently broke up with longtime boyfriend Stephen, and whose young daughter, Marline, is mixed race, conceived during a one night stand with a man whose name Bella does not know. Bella has a troubled relationship with her difficult mother, who is initially appalled at the color of Marline's skin, but eventually gets over it. At the start of the novel, Bella obtains an ideal job as shopkeeper in an antiques store. Her new boss allows Bella to run the shop and acquire items, and to live in the rooms above the shop. Bella is enjoying her independence and appreciates that she can provide for her daughter without financial strain.
Adding to this idyllic time is Bella's new friendship with the beautiful German woman, Gertrude, and her husband, Bernard, who live nearby. Gertrude and Bernard are cultured and rich, and they welcome Bella into their world. Bella and Marline are soon spending every weekend at their new friends' large home, and Gertrude confides to Bella that after years of praying for a child, she is finally expecting. Meanwhile, Bernard takes it upon himself to "educate" Bella, introducing her to music, art, and other "high" culture. Like the original tale, however, the story hurtles inexorably towards tragedy and madness...
This book is really a fascinating approach to retelling a fairy tale. The narrator is prosaic and sympathetic, and the novel certainly seems to be a simple tale of a young mother making some rich friends. This makes it all the more uncanny when the story beats from the fairy tale occur-- Gertrude cuts herself while slicing an apple in the snow; Gertrude's tragic death in childbirth; Bella's growing sense of unease when she meets Gertrude and Bernard's child. All of these moments feel queasy and unsettling in contrast to the prosaic scenes of Bella working in the shop, feeding ducks in the park with Marlinchen, and picnicking with Gertrude under the juniper tree. This novel got under my skin and I was shocked when I got to the climactic moment. Strongly recommend picking up this strange and unsettling book.