Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

72 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

xpelvicstabilityx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

1.0

Truly wish there were more trigger warnings with this book. The folk tale form is compelling but so many of the details are gruesome and disturbing in a way that made my skin crawl and still does when I’m reminded of it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Confinement, and Medical trauma

jg34's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

2.5

An interesting story but so disturbing and not in a good way. Every thing in this book seemed to have a weird sexual undertone that was maybe supposed to be beautiful and thoughtful or something but just severely creeped me out. Maybe even some beastiality in here????? 

Also just really sad! The whole book is the main character being mistreated by everyone around her which was just very depressing to me so maybe only read this if you are ready to be sad 

Probably a book where the intellectuals would accuse me of just not “getting it” which is fair. I went in blind after reading and loving a study in drowning (also a pretty depressing book with a mistreated FMC I am not realizing so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised???)

A weirdly sexy and creepy and depressing book. Definitely a unique read but maybe do NOT go in blind like me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Vomit

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Confinement, Blood, Violence, and Emotional abuse

frankiecastanea's review against another edition

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

nere's review against another edition

dark

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Vomit, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Confinement, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent

emmablue's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, and Vomit

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Animal death

inconsistentfruitcake's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-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

3.5

Very very heavy… A fascinating read, and required quite a lot of mulling over for me. I think it’s good to go into this book without knowing anything of the plot but absolutely necessary to check content warnings. seriously.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Body shaming, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

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

anntharai's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Self harm, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Xenophobia, Vomit, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Death, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, Eating disorder, and Medical trauma