Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Juniper & Thorn

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

228 reviews

cameronreads's review against another edition

4.0

This book was so oddly compelling. The both the writing style and atmosphere were haunting and wonderfully gothic. I outwardly cringed in disgust multiple times. Even the main character, although you’re rooting for her, feels spooky somehow. Her point of view felt almost twisted, as she’s biased by living with her father. I thought it explored its themes so well, especially those of trauma, desire, and story. I felt a little detached from the characters, but I think this is personal preference whether you’d be bothered by this or not (in some ways it adds to the haunting atmosphere). This did extend to the romance as well; there were times when I wasn’t even sure whether we were supposed to be rooting for the couple, but I do like where they ended up. There was also a fair bit of repetition - especially the ‘I’m the third sister and my sisters are beautiful and clever and I’m plain and stupid’, but whilst this was annoying to read it also emphasised just how much Marlinchen’s been brain washed to think this way. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was the creepy, atmospheric almost horror-esque fantasy I was looking for.

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fiagarrod96's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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ferngreen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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vikie_vi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

loved this to pieces!! The perfect read to get into the halloween spirit. Perfectly greusome without being overly scary. The story telling was amazing and the narrator Stina Neilsen did such a fantastic job. I have found 2 new favorites

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arrkon's review against another edition

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challenging

This wasn’t for me. I only felt connected to the main character and I could not understand what she saw in her partner. He wasn’t very developed. I also did not know this was horror when I started. A lot of descriptions are very visceral to evoke dread and horror and I wasn’t prepared for that, but that was my fault. Basically, this was DEFINITELY horror and the main love interest was just sort of there. Which might have been a trope reversal of female characters that exist purely to love heroes.

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nutmegnomegano's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

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ashley_mrose530's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was really surprised by how much I liked this book. I don't usually like horror movies, but I wanted to give this book a try even though it was horror and I really liked it.
The descriptions were so good. They weren't overly gory but weren't completely simple either which I think really helped me, as a newbie to the genre. They were still beautiful in a disgusting sort of way. The prose was poetic and hypnotic, sucking me in right away even before I got a sense of the plot or characters.
I actually really liked the characters in this book too, especially Marlinchen. I related to her social anxiety and loved the way she still found beauty in the world. It made her trust of her family more reasonable even though it was clear that they were all terrible to her.

And the fact that they were calling HER selfish because she wanted to have a relationship with a boy when in fact they were the selfish ones by helping their father use Marlinchen to murder people for their food was so despicable but such good characterization.

I also loved Marlinchen and Sevas's relationship and how he stood by her no matter what

especially when it was revealed that she was the one murdering people.

That whole scene was just beautiful in itself as he showed her what true love feels like like rather than the ruinous fake love she had been used to from her family.
And that really hits true to the theme of this whole book. Learning the difference between abusive "love" and actual love and then learning how to stand up to that abuse. It's just a really good message to send in general and I think Ava Reid did a fantastic job of conveying it.

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